The McGill University Department of Chemistry has signed the Green Chemistry Commitment (GCC) from Beyond Benign, an organization that develops and disseminates green chemistry and sustainable science educational resources that empower educators, students, and the community at large to practice sustainability through chemistry.

A McGill research team led by Professors Mark Andrews (Department of Chemistry) and David Plant (Electrical Engineering) has shown how the glass-like shells of phytoplankton (diatoms) help these microscopic organisms perform photosynthesis in dim light conditions. Despite amounting to only about 1% of the global plant biomass, phytoplankton account for about 50% of the planet’s photosynthetic activity and at least half of the world’s oxygen production.

Room-temperature phosphorescence in organic solids is rare. In a recent article from Perepichka group E. Hamzehpoor, C. Ruchlin and coworkers reported highly phosphorescent boroxine Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) using the covalent doping approach and controlling the ratio of halogenated precursors. Their well-defined porosity enables oxygen sensing with millisecond response time over a wide range (10³…10^-5 torr) of partial oxygen pressure. Read the full paper in Nature Chemistry.

McGill University announced that six of its Professors (two individually, four as part of a multi-institutional team) have been declared winners of this year’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) prizes. These prestigious awards range from individual awards for innovative discoveries by young researchers to recognitions of lifetime achievement and influence. The McGill-based recipients are as follows:

We are currently holding a search for our next faculty member. Please share widely the job post for an assistant professor position in Polymer Chemistry. Find out all the information here: https://www.mcgill.ca/chemistry/jobs/faculty-positions.

McGill undergraduates have a unique opportunity to expand their climate science literacy and acquire tools for taking action to reduce the impacts of the unfolding climate crisis.

Registration is now open to students in every program for FSCI 198: Climate Crisis and Climate Actions, a new undergraduate course featuring a team of multi-disciplinary instructors who will present diverse perspectives on the scientific and social dimensions of climate change.

Each mistletoe berry can produce up to two metres of a gluey thread called viscin. It allows the seeds of this parasitic plant to stick to and infect host plants. Since ancient times, mistletoe berries have been explored as treatments for everything from infertility and epilepsy to cancer. But, until now, no one has fully investigated the potential medical or technical uses of the glue itself.