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Bonding in Chemistry: Surprising Results from an Ordinary Glovebox
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Does that mean we did not have our disagreements? Of course we did! Those were inevitable. Who does not fight with someone they spend that much time with? The glovebox could always be cleaner, and low supplies could always have been refilled faster. However, making up and maintaining our relationship was a priority, both for our science and our mental health. As it turns out, we learned that it is pretty hard to stand next to someone you are not speaking with for 10 hours a day! Our humble beginnings in the Chirik group (Figure 1) glovebox took us along divergent career paths, neither of which
hen many of us reflect on graduate school, we think about the long hours, challenging science, failed reactions, and pots of coffee/fast food that got us through those formative years. Less common is a discussion of the friendships that were born from that time. The relationships forged at hallway vending machines, in 15 min intervals in line at the NMR spectrometer, or from countless hours with arms in the glovebox can also be credited for keeping spirits up during an arduous and exhausting time. For the two of us, it was the latter experience during our time in Paul Chirik’s group (then at Cornell University and now at Princeton University), where a sisterhood of sorts formed between us. Long before Tammy became an Assistant Director and Publisher at ACS Publications and Suzanne a Professor at Purdue University and Inorganic Chemistry Associate Editor, we were two college graduates who decided to embark on a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry. Being assigned to the same glovebox was an accidentthat is just how it worked out. However, what developed over our time in graduate school was an unbreakable bond (pun intended!) that has lasted through 16 years and counting. When we reflect on the glovebox time we spent together, we remember conversations about family, experiments, relationships, classes, departmental gossip, weekend recaps, the latest group meetings, and excitement about our futures. No topic was off the table. Among the stirring, filtering, and drying that routinely took place in our glovebox, a support system and lifelong friendship grew. Looking back, we probably did not really know what was happening right in front of us. In addition to camaraderie, working in the glovebox taught us life skills. We learned how to work as a team. We learned how to divide up the recurring work and keep our glovebox tidyonly so that our chemistry worked; we were not saints! We improved our communication skills and established a daily routine. One person set up the box trap, and another took it down. One person brought in consumables, and the other took out the trash. We assigned ourselves solvents to fill and equipment to monitor. We even divvied up freezer space, which was quite a contentious issue. Once we established our roles, no further discussion about the glovebox was needed. We worked together well and trusted each other to stay accountable. More importantly, we learned how to plan our experiments and reaction needs around each other. Everyone had to get their work done, and we had to figure out how to work most efficiently while maintaining our productivity. While Tammy had the side of the glovebox with the balance, Suzanne got the side with the antechambers. We switched when we needed to, and we learned to work in our home base area. Each day, experiments were coordinated, considering who needed to use the balance, who required coordinating solvents or halogenated reagents, who needed to stir a reaction and for how long, and if any of the reactions required reduced temperatures. © XXXX American Chemical Society
Figure 1. Chirik group annual Christmas photograph, showing Suzanne (front row, second from left) and Tammy (front row, third from left). Photograph by Karen Chirik.
we could have predicted when daydreaming about our futures. Upon graduation (2006), Suzanne went on to accept a postdoctoral appointment with Prof. Karsten Meyer at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, where she learned to apply her love of synthetic inorganic chemistry to the new world of actinides. Off with a running start as an Assistant Professor at Purdue University (2008), over the past decade Suzanne has established a vibrant research program spanning the f block of the periodic table and was recently promoted to Full Professor (2018). Her research interests include organometallic transformations mediated by organoactinide species, coordination chemistry of f-block elements, and elucidation of electronic structures of metal complexes bearing redox-active ligands. Tammy, on the other hand, joined the laboratory of Prof. Christopher Chang at the University of California, Berkeley (2007), as a postdoctoral fellow and then moved on for a stint as a chemistry instructor and Director of the Welch Summer Scholar Program at Texas Tech University (2008).
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.9b00007 Organometallics XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Organometallics
Editor's Page
Tamara E. Hanna: 0000-0001-9664-7607
She moved to Washington DC in late 2011, where she quickly established herself as a fixture at ACS Publications. Starting as a Managing Editor of two journals, Tammy rose through the ranks to her current position as an Assistant Director and Publisher. Currently, Tammy’s responsibilities include the strategic development and management of 24 ACS journals, as well as new journal product development and development of new publishing initiatives, among other tasks. Despite our separate forays into academics and scientific publishing, years later the sisterhood remains. We do not always talk to each other regularly, but when we get the chance to catch up at ACS national meetings or during our other travels, or make a point to call each other, we always pick up right where we left off. It is like no time has passed. We have supported each other through marriages, births, family triumphs and tragedies, promotions, and new jobs. It all started with two clueless graduate students, and now we are two (hopefully less clueless!) women who do our best at balancing the demands of work and family life. Our conversations have grown more serious, with our lives focusing on our careers, children, and work challenges. However, we still enjoy reminiscing about the good old days and gossiping about what our laboratory mates are up to now. We no longer stand side by side for hours a day, but it is amazing how the technical and communication skills we cultivated so long ago are still present. Juggling a busy day of work meetings, kids’ soccer and swim practices, and dinner out with seminar speakers is no problem now; you might say our glovebox did not just allow us to grow scientifically but helped us cultivate life skills as well. Important Lessons as Taught by Our Glovebox 1 Air and water are for people, not organometallics. 2 With a little cooling off and time, beautiful things crystallize. 3 Some days, things just don’t work. Go back to bed. 4 Everyone needs a little time to regenerate. 5 If you don’t clean up your mess, it’s just going to cause problems. 6 If you drop it, find it; it hasn’t disappeared. It’s a glovebox, not a black hole (P.J.C.). 7 If you use it up, put it back. 8 The early bird gets the vacuum suckers. 9 Kimwipes are good fodder for lithium salts in humid air. 10 As a rule, always check the atmosphere before you begin. 11 The gloves are stretchy, but everything has a breaking point. 12 Freezers are limited on space, so don’t keep trash. 13 A thorough purge will keep everything on track.
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the ACS. Biographies
Prof. Suzanne Bart of Purdue University
ACS Assistant Director Dr. Tamara Hanna
Suzanne C. Bart* Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, 560 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, United States
Tamara E. Hanna,* Assistant Director
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American Chemical Society, 1155 Sixteenth Street N.W., Washington, DC 20036, United States
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Authors
*E-mail:
[email protected]. *E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Suzanne C. Bart: 0000-0002-8918-9051 B
DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.9b00007 Organometallics XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
