Achievements

Claire Till, Matthew Hurst, Ben Freiberger

Chemistry

Chemistry faculty Claire Till and Matt Hurst, along with alumni Ben Freiberger, led a paper just published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. This paper came from their fieldwork at sea off the coast of California and Oregon, and is compares the chemical reactivity and distribution of the essential nutrient iron with a potential tool to study it: scandium

Till, C.P., Hurst, M.P., Freiberger, R.B., Ohnemus, D.C., Twining, B.S., Marchetti, A., Coale, T.H., Pierce, E. (2025). Contrasting the marine biogeochemical cycles of iron and scandium in the California current system. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 130(4), doi:10.1029/2024JC022087.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/UKXCXGUBBP3U4KJWPE4Q?target=10.1029/2024JC022087

Hanna D. Hobbs, Lowen M. Hobbs, and Robert W. Zoellner

Chemistry

Two former undergraduate research students, now both in the U. S. Coast Guard, Hanna D. Hobbs and Lowen M. Hobbs, have published a peer-reviewed research article with Professor Emeritus Robert W. Zoellner entitled "The limits of copper oxidation states from density functional theory computations:  Fluoro-copper complexes, [CuFn]x+, where n = 1 through 6 and x = 3+ through 5-".  The citation is Hanna D. Hobbs, Lowen M. Hobbs, Robert W. Zoellner, Computational and Theoretical Chemistry 2024, 1242, 114942 (12 pages), to be published in December 2024.

Kjirsten Wayman, Maralyn Renner, Alexander Wright, Aaron Floden, Jayne Lampley, Susan Farmer, Edward Schilling

Chemistry

Kjirsten Wayman (Chemistry Department), Maralyn Renner (M.S. Biology, 1980), Alexander Wright (Washington State U.), Aaron Floden (Missouri Botanical Garden), Jayne Lampley (U. Alabama), Susan Farmer, Edward Schilling (U. Tennessee, Knoxville) published a peer-reviewed article titled “New insights into systematics of the Trillium ovatum complex” in Madroño, a journal focusing on research of the Western American flora.  The article highlights Trillium oettingeri, an endemic plant to the Klamath Mountains and Cascade Range, and can be accessed at the following link: https://doi.org/10.3120/0024-9637-70.3.158

Kjirsten Wayman, Matthew Reilly, Alaina Petlewski

Chemistry

Kjirsten Wayman (Chemistry), Matthew Reilly (USDA Forest Service), and Alaina Petlewski (B.S. Botany, 2017) published a peer-reviewed article in the American Journal of Botany (2023) titled "Taxonomic insights from floral scents of western North American sessile-flowered Trillium".  The article can be found here:  https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16255

William Wood, David Largent

Chemistry

Faculty William Wood, Chemistry, and David Largent, Biological Science

Emeritus Professors William Wood and David Largent recently published an article in the Austrian Academy of Sciences journal Biosystematics and Ecology on the crustacean-like odor of the mushroom Russula xerampelina. This mushroom has a cooked shrimp odor that gives it the common name the “shrimp mushroom.” They and mycologist Darvin DeShazer of the Sonoma County Mycological Association, identified the chemicals that are responsible for this mushroom’s odor.

Contact Information

William.Wood@humboldt.edu

Phone 707 832 2931

Robert W. Zoellner, James M. Moore

Chemistry

Professor Emeritus Robert W. Zoellner and his former student, James M. Moore, have published a peer-reviewed article entitled, “A DFT computational investigation of mono-sila-substituted DNA nucleobases and their hydrogen-bonded Watson-Crick dimers with the parent purines and pyrimidines”:  J. M. Moore, R. W. Zoellner, Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research 2023, 22, 102–110.

William Wood

Chemistry

Emeritus Chemistry Professor William Wood recently published an article in the Austrian Academy of Sciences journal Biosystematics and Ecology on the oyster-like odor of the plant, Mertensia maritima.  This plant has a circumboreal oceanic distribution where it grows just above the high-tide mark, most often on exposed maritime shingle bars. Because of the smell of crushed plant leaves, it is called the oyster plant in Britain and Ireland, and oyster leaf in North America. Wood collected this plant in Homer, Alaska and is the first person to identify the chemical that gives this plant its common names.

Robert W. Zoellner, Tara S. Caso

Chemistry

Professor Emeritus Robert W. Zoellner and his former student, Tara S. Caso, have published their third peer-reviewed article, together, entitled "The DFT computational investigation of the β-sila-α-amino acids and their β-permethylsila-analogs:  Silicon-containing amino acids as a viable foundation for silicon-based life”:  T. S. Caso, R. W. Zoellner, Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research 2023, 22, 47–61.

Albert Ochoa Castillo and Dr. Joshua Smith

Chemistry

Albert Ochoa Castillo and Dr. Joshua Smith published the peer-reviewed paper  “Design of Possible Organic Photovoltaic Compounds and Their Initial Computational Assessment” in the newly released ideaFest Journal. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/ideafest/

Kodiak E. Miller, Caleb J. Strait, Jacob I. Begorre, Brittney L. Mitchell, and Dr. Claire P. Till

Chemistry

Kodiak E. Miller, Caleb J. Strait, Jacob I. Begorre, Brittney L. Mitchell, and Dr. Claire P. Till published the peer-reviewed paper “Concentration of Heavy Metals in Three Distinct Algae Families from Humboldt County, California” in the newly released ideaFest Journal. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/ideafest/