Graduate students receive awards

The Atlanta chapter of the ARCS Foundation Inc. (Achievement Awards for College Scientists) has awarded scholarships to three Emory students. Paige Vinson, a Ph.D. candidate in analytical chemistry, and Daniel Goldberg and M. David Weingarten, both Ph.D. candidates in organic chemistry, received $5,000 grants from the organization.

Vinson, a University of South Alabama graduate with a B.S. in chemistry, plans on continuing her research of applying analytical chemistry methods to neuroscience/biological questions. She also has collaborated on several publications in the field with her adviser, Professor Joseph Justice. The first author on an analytical chemistry paper on one-minute sampling, the state of the art in microbiolysis monitoring, Vinson has several plans for her grant funds: "I just attended a conference sponsored by the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego," she said. "I'm also thinking about buying some computer equipment that I'll need." Vinson estimates that she will complete her graduate work in a year and a half.

A graduate of Skidmore College with a B.A. in chemistry, Goldberg is interested in the use of transition metals in the development of novel synthetic methods. In his first project, he solved a difficult problem in homogenous catalysis and, as a result, collaborated with adviser William Crowe in publishing a paper that was used as a Science/Technology Concentrate in C&E News. "My goal is to become a professor at a liberal arts college," Goldberg said. "I want to do this because I feel my undergraduate education provided me with a good foundation for what I'm doing now." Goldberg will save as much of the grant from ARCS as possible for his postdoctoral work, tentatively planned for the University of Chicago.

Weingarten, who earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of West Florida in 1991, is currently working with adviser Albert Padwa on new approaches to pharmacologically important molecules that have biological activity. In the spring of 1996 he will become a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. "I'm interested in approaching new methods for the synthesis of molecules so other people can use the new methodologies for whatever they want," Weingarten said. He plans to use the grant money to attend conferences pertaining to his field, among other endeavors.

ARCS opened its Atlanta chapter in 1992. The chapter has awarded cumulatively $126,000 to students at Emory, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Morehouse College.

-- Danielle Service