Recent Faculty Awards
Dr Gary Eiceman joined the faculty at NMSU in 1980 and is currently a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is author or co-author of more than 170 publications on the topic of ion mobility spectrometry, on the measurements of toxic chemicals at trace concentrations in complex mixtures, and on chemical separations with gas chromatography. He holds eight patents, is a consultant to seven industry and government agencies and is a founding member of the International Society for Ion Mobility Spectrometry. Funding for his research has come from industry and government through agencies such as the Environ. Protect. Agency, Dept. of Energy, NASA, US Army, FBI, and the Natl. Science Foundation and has exceeded $6 million in 24 years. While at NMSU, he has spent sabbaticals as a Senior Research Fellow in the Research Directorate of the US Army Chemical Research Development and Engineering Center in Maryland; at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in Manchester, UK; and more recently, at the Institut für Spektrochemie und Angewandte Spektroskopie (ISAS) in Dortmund, Germany. Since 1983 has been a regular Visiting Lecturer at the Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua in Mexico. The first edition of his book "Ion Mobility Spectrometry" (published by CRC Press) co-authored with Dr. Z. Karpas sold out and a revision is scheduled for publication late 2004. He was recently awarded the Westhafer Award, NMSU's most prestigious reward given to a faculty member for outstanding research.
Gary has taught freshman chemistry (Chem 100), quantitative methods of chemical analysis (Chem 371), chemical instrumentation (Chem 521), and chemical separations (Chem 527). He has supervised 11 PhD, 11 MS, and over 40 B.S students in his research laboratory which has also hosted over 15 high school students and 18 postdoctoral fellows or senior visiting colleagues.
Congratulations
to Assistant Professor Stephen Starnes for winning the Patricia Christmore
Faculty Teaching Award for 2004. This award recognizes two junior faculty
across our campus, who have established a reputation for teaching excellence.
We are proud and lucky to have Stephen teaching organic chemistry in
our program. Some highlights on Dr. Starnes follows.
Professor Starnes received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry
from Texas Tech University in 1993 and a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University
in Organic Chemistry in 1998. His advisor was Allan D. Headley. He worked
two years as a post-doctoral research associate (1998-2000) at The Scripps
Research Institute in Julius Rebek Jr.'s group. He joined the Department
of Chemistry and Biochemistry at New Mexico State University fall 2000
as a tenure-track assistant professor in Organic Chemistry. Professor
Starnes' graduate research involved the synthesis of un-natural amino
acids and an examination of their physical properties using spectroscopic
and computational techniques. His post-doctoral work was in the field
of Molecular Recognition. The work involved the design and synthesis
of triphenylene, phthalocyanine and porphyrin based receptors that were
used for the recognition of small organic molecules.
PUBLICATIONS and PRESENTATIONS: Professor Starnes has co-authored 17
publications from his graduate, post-doctoral and NMSU related research.
He has presented 14 talks over this research at regional and national
conferences.
RESEARCH INTERESTS: Professor Starnes' research interests lie within
the realm of supramolecular chemistry particularly in the area of anion
recognition. This interest consists of the design of anion receptors
that function as supramolecular chiral auxiliaries and catalysts as
well as sensors, extractants, and membrane carriers for anions of biological
and environmental significance. He also has an interest in the design
and synthesis of sensors for nitro-containing species for explosives
detection.