I like to say that “H+ doesn’t exist in solution,” so I’m definitely in the “who cares about gas phase anomalies?” approach to this question. (Even if I ALSO intellectually care about gas phase chemistry, but for different reasons.)

Obviously PolyPro is the BEST building material!

I’ll talk more about this paper next week, but we believe that this work will be very useful in helping to train new undergraduate and graduate students in learning how to analyze NMR spectra of peptides and proteins.

I had multiple outfit changes during the final.

Final exam bonus points question:

It was a beautiful morning for a final exam!

I feel a lot better about determining merit based on “actual accomplishments” versus based on “potential” and “stature of the sponsoring PI and the institution” and “letters of recommendation”. Opportunities are a red herring here, because the same issues still apply to 2nd year students.

Stated alternatively: Tufts and UD undergrads will compete very well on *accomplished research* with undergrads at most higher-ranked institutions. Tufts and UD grad students will fare less well when compared to equivalent grad students, because reputation/LoR will factor in more heavily.

I just don’t think that by early in their second year of grad school they will have distinguished themselves (in grad work) sufficiently for reviewers - it will come down to letters of rec (and careful editing of their proposals, which is also down to advisers). Judge on what they ACCOMPLISHED.

I honestly think that, long-term, it is a good policy. As-is, it rewards 2nd-year students in big labs. Rewarding the students who were most productive as undergrads (focusing on research first, GPA second) is probably a better indication of “most promising”.

Proline/Sidechain C–H/O Interactions Stabilize cis-Proline cis-Proline amide bonds are associated with substantial changes in protein structure, dynamics, and function. Approximately 5% of all proline amide bonds are in the cis conformation, but there is an i...

Preprint of his second paper. We literally talked about this paper fundamentally locking in a GRFP (two first author papers as an undergrad!). He derserves better from NSF. chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

One of my best undergrads ever is in this situation. Had a 1st-author paper published last summer, deferred applying on grad advisor’s rec, will have a *second* 1st-author pub in a few weeks, 2nd year student in a great lab…and now ineligible. Gutted for him.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...