Achievements
The Alger Conservation District honored Northern Michigan University as its Conservation Partner of the Year at ACD’s 55th annual meeting earlier this month. Executive director Teri Grout commended NMU on its cooperative undergraduate intern program and cited the program’s importance in providing real-world training for the conservation professionals of the future. Former intern and graduate student Kayla Knoll received the award on behalf of the University.
Yu Liu (Chemistry) received $55,000 over two years from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for his project titled "Supramolecular Catalyst Assembled through Aromatic Donor-acceptor Interaction and Its Application in Hydrolytic Kinetic Resolution of Epoxides." Chemists try to develop catalytic systems called supramolecular catalysts, which mimic enzyme properties to carry reactions in high efficiency, high selectivity and high controllability. It has been reported that supramolecular catalysts can assemble through different noncovalent interactions including hydrogen bonding, metal-ligand interaction, cation-anion attraction and ion-dipole interaction. Liu’s research focuses on supramolecular catalyst assemblies based on the aromatic donor-acceptor interaction, which has not been explored by others. He and students Matt Woodhouse and Eric Heim successfully constructed the first generation of supramolecular catalyst based on the aromatic donor-acceptor interaction. They presented their work at the AmericanChemical Society National Meeting in San Francisco. Liu’s grant is in the Undergraduate New Investigator category, which provides funds for scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent careers in academia and have limited or no preliminary results for a research project they wish to pursue.
NMU student Cody Norton recently received the Truman Award for best poster presentation at the 23rd International Conference on Bear Research and Management in Thessaloniki, Greece. His poster was titled "Potential Effects of Infanticide Risk on Female American Black Bear Space Use." The conference was attended by people from 42 countries and attendees included many of the most experienced bear specialists in the world.
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