I am honored to have been asked to chair the Department of Chemistry. Some of you (but not most) may recall that this will be my second tour of such duty, having first served from 2001 to 2007. I want to thank Matt Sigman for his outstanding leadership these past five years. In this issue, I invite you to join us in a special fundraising opportunity to honor his legacy by supporting the newest Sigman-Marks Endowed Fellowship.

This issue of Catalyst highlights our outstanding students, faculty, postdocs, alumni, research initiatives, and collaborations that demonstrate excellence in our department. 

This fall, the Department of Chemistry has 37 new graduate students, bringing the total to 185 students, the largest graduate program at the University of Utah. Our department supported over 2,000 undergraduate students with new teaching labs and learning spaces.

 We are thrilled to introduce three new faculty members, each bringing unique expertise to our department. Valerie Pierre will lead research in bioinorganic and supramolecular chemistry, a field with many promising applications. Long Luo’s focus on electrochemistry in analytical, organic, and materials chemistry will enrich our research landscape. Jacob J. Lessard's organic and materials chemistry program will contribute to our department's academic diversity.

I want to thank Jack and Peg Simons for reaching the fundraising goal of $1,000,000 to establish the Jack and Peg Simons Endowed Chair in Theoretical Chemistry. Jack and Peg’s unwavering support and commitment to the department and its students have a tremendous impact on educating future generations of chemists.

This past summer we lost one of our former colleagues, Josef Michl, an outstanding chemist and strong supporter of the department. With the Michi family’s generous endowment, the department will establish “The Josef and Sara Allensworth Michl Presidential Endowed Chair in Chemistry” this upcoming year. We will be forever grateful to Josef and Sara for this extraordinary gift.

In September of this year, we recognized our 2024 Distinguished Alumni: Gretchen Domek, BS’03, Alan Eastman, Ph. D. ’71, and Paul Weider, BS’78. We celebrated their outstanding careers and provided our students with the opportunity to discuss the future of science, education, and special initiatives that could help them build their own futures.

With the unwavering support of our students, faculty, alumni, and friends, we will continue to build on an outstanding foundation of excellence and provide life-changing educational and research experiences for our exceptional undergraduate and graduate students.  

 Thank you again for all your support.

                                                                                           Sincerely, Peter B. Armentrout