Cheminfo Retrieval First Class FA09

I gave my first lecture yesterday (Sept 24, 2009) for my Chemical Information Retrieval course at Drexel. One of my main objectives for the course is to provide the most current information about how to best find and review chemical information.

To this end, I set up a wiki (http://getcheminfo.wikispaces.com) which should become considerably enriched over the course of the term. I invited students to help contribute useful links to the resource page - and even before I finished giving the first lecture they added several really good ones. I also invite any chemists or librarians to add links to resources we may have missed. Just request to join the wiki to contribute.

The wiki will also be used for students to write a report on a chemical topic making use of cheminfo resources. Right after the lecture I made sure the students joined the wiki and created two pages: one for their report and one for a "research log". The idea is that students will report significant steps in conceptualizing their projects and how they are searching databases. I can then comment directly on their log pages for quick guidance. I suppose anyone with helpful suggestions that I missed could also comment - again just request an account on the wiki.

This class has traditionally required a written report. This term I'm adding a twist: the minimum number of words can be reduced somewhat if students elect to incorporate a multimedia or other creative component. To provide examples of what that might look like I visited Drexel Island on Second Life and demonstrated 3D molecules, interactive NMR spectra and a chemistry museum (from Sandy Adam). There is a lot of chemistry possible on Second Life (see Lang & Bradley) At the end of the tour on the island we visited a wildlife area recently built by Robert Brulle for a project related to environmental science (more on this in a later post). I got a hug from a panda and got sprayed when I tried to pet a skunk - just to give a taste of what kind of fun things can be constructed in a virtual world. Other projects could involve screencasts, Jmol, games, Facebook, etc. As long as it requires students to access chemical information, I am pretty open to ideas. Students will work through their ideas on their log page and the final product will also be available on the wiki. These projects could provide interesting examples for others interested in the topic of chemical information.

At the end of my lecture I provided a brief overview of the NaH oxidation controversy. There really could not be a better example of the importance of staying on top of new communication channels to follow and participate in chemical research. This year the most important of these new tools are probably blogs, wikis and FriendFeed. Next year it might be something else - Google Wave?

C&E News article on ONS and FriendFeed

Carmen Drahl's article following her visit to my lab has just appeared online on Chemical and Engineering News:
(February 9, 2009 Volume 87, Number 06 p. 34).

I think she really captured the essence of our Open Notebook Science solubility project and how to make those results available in an intuitive way via web queries and Second Life tools. Rajarshi Guha and Andrew Lang's work is demonstrated here. The text description is very helpful but it is her video recordings that really stand out. There are two screencasts from Second Life: one from my class where I ran an organic chemistry quiz race and another demonstrating the Ugi solubility explorer.

Carmen also recorded a very good overview of how we use FriendFeed to collaborate with other researchers. The life science and Open Science communities are very strong right now on FriendFeed and hopefully this demonstration will encourage more chemists to participate. To illustrate how easy it is to connect with new people she shows how the "like button" enabled a link to be formed when Egon Willighagen liked one of her posts.

Chemistry Tenure-Track Position at Drexel

The Department of Chemistry at Drexel University is seeking an outstanding candidate for a tenure-track position at the assistant professor level in any area of chemistry. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. degree in chemistry or closely related field, have a strong commitment to teaching, and are expected to establish a vigorous, externally funded research program. Postdoctoral experience is preferred. Teaching responsibilities may include general chemistry as well as undergraduate and graduate courses in your area of specialization. A C.V., publication list, statement of present and future research interests (5-10 pages), statement of teaching philosophy (1-2 pages), and at least three letters of reference should be sent to Dr. Kevin Owens, Search Committee Chair, Department of Chemistry, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. The review process will start on October 1, 2008 and continue until the position is filled. The successful candidate must be qualified to work in the United States. Drexel University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from qualified women, members of minority groups, disabled individuals and veterans.

Tony Williams Drexel Visit

Tony Williams stopped by Drexel on August 21, 2008. After a nice chat with Martin Walker over lunch, Tony presented a demo of ChemSpider. The timing was not great because this was concurrent with the ACS meeting in Philadelphia. However, Tony recorded the session and it is available here as a Flash screencast.

Tony also took the opportunity to make an announcement of some new text mark-up features about to be made available on ChemSpider. For a brief video and description see his blog post.

I met Tony when I was a graduate student at the University of Ottawa and he was running the NMR facilities there. Even though he had not touched an NMR in 12 years he clearly has not lost his touch and got us out of a serious jam with the acquisition of carbon spectra on our Varian instrument. Just like old times.

Once you get to know Tony you'll appreciate why so many of us are willing to support and put our trust in ChemSpider.