![\"Allegheny](\"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/01\/Mark_Ams_Jan_2021-300x225.jpg\")
While the project\u2019s title sounds rather unconventional, the project has serious scientific goals.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlien life sounds pretty exotic and dramatic,\u201d said Ams. \u201cI place high emphasis on the word \u2018toward,\u2019 though, that comes before alien life in the title of the proposal. The main \u2018product\u2019 will be the high-quality laboratory training of undergraduate students in chemistry research at Allegheny, in addition to the experiences they will gain by interacting at professional conferences. This will happen throughout the summer months and academic year as students join the lab and start their projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
All of the project\u2019s experiments will be conducted by Allegheny students under the close mentorship of Ams. In terms of a final scientific product, Ams said that the goal is to publish the results. The grant covers two years, which will be spent primarily on conducting laboratory experiments. \u201cIf the research goes smoothly, a publication will follow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the heart of this project is the fundamental question of whether life can exist without DNA \u2014 \u201cthe only blueprint for life humans know,\u201d Ams explained. \u201cHowever, the invention of an alternative chemical template to DNA, one that is radically different and not based on biotic building blocks (i.e., exobiotic), would represent a seismic shift of our own understanding of DNA\u2019s uniqueness and origins, as well as open the door for potentially new advances in biotechnology.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research outline proposes an alternative chemical architecture to DNA, using chalcogen atoms as part of a new chemical template. The goal is to determine whether the proposed template can carry out the two basic functions of self-replication as well as carry a genetic code, a combination that is unprecedented in current exobiotic designs. Unlike DNA, the proposed minimal design does not require help from enzymes to operate, and thus is engineered to function in the early stages of its evolutionary development.<\/p>\n
To achieve the research goal, Ams and the student researchers plan to demonstrate the \u201cproof-of-concept\u201d that the chalcogen template can undergo autocatalytic self-replication. Thus, the \u201cbig picture\u201d of this proposal is to stimulate open-ended evolution at the molecular level, moving researchers a step closer to realizing a synthetic cell of alien origins.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a long-term consequence, that would be an exciting breakthrough and could have many implications for our fundamental understanding of the origins of life on Earth,\u201d said Ams, who has been a professor at Allegheny since 2009. \u201cOn the technological advancement side, there may also be many benefits to having an alternative life form available to humankind. Its success at mimicking DNA\u2019s core roles of replication and information storage, yet without enzymatic help, has direct implications for molecular computing and sensor technologies, as well as expanding our conception of life beyond DNA or even biotic chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that other long-term benefits include a potential new source of natural products, therapeutics and synthetic reagents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to find a pathway toward life that uses new chemicals in solution, much like our biology works, but without anything DNA- or even biotic-based. The eventual creation of alien life that is only cellular in size or intelligence is a monumental achievement. It does not need to be intelligent or high functioning in order to demonstrate the fundamental proof-of-principle that life may be possible without DNA,\u201d Ams said.<\/p>\n
As an interesting aside, Ams notes that several current space initiatives have been inspirations for this project. \u201cFor instance, NASA has made groundbreaking discoveries in recent years on the moons Europa (Jupiter), Enceladus and Titan (Saturn), showing that they contain complex carbon molecules as well as liquid oceans of water or methane in which to dissolve them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ams also points to the 2024 Europa Clipper mission, a $4.25 billion NASA project that will send a spacecraft to orbit Europa for the primary purpose of determining its viability for harboring life, whether DNA-based or otherwise. \u201cAnd collaborations with companies such as SpaceX are making human space travel much more feasible, as seen by the exciting rocket launches and landings this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Source: Academics, Publications & Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Allegheny College has received a two-year, $100,000 grant to help train Allegheny students in laboratory research that will explore whether a minimal form of life can be created beyond the confines of DNA, the central building block for all life on Earth. Funding for the research project, titled \u201cToward Creating Alien Life: A Genetic Self-Replicating […]<\/p>\n Continue Reading “Allegheny College Professor and Students to Explore Whether Alternative Form of Life Can Be Created”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics-publications-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":2393,"date":"2020-08-07T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T16:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chem\/2020\/08\/07\/recent-allegheny-college-graduate-receives-prestigious-teaching-fellowship\/"},"modified":"2020-08-07T12:31:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T16:31:00","slug":"recent-allegheny-college-graduate-receives-prestigious-teaching-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/2020\/08\/07\/recent-allegheny-college-graduate-receives-prestigious-teaching-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Allegheny College Graduate Receives Prestigious Teaching Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":" Joseph P. Hayes, a 2020 Allegheny College graduate from Jamestown, New York, has received a $32,000 Pennsylvania Teaching Fellowship from the WW Foundation to fund his master\u2019s degree studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he also will teach in high-need schools.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to getting into the classroom and building relationships with my students as well as all of the faculty I will be working with at Duquesne,\u201d said Hayes, who was a chemistry major and education studies minor at Allegheny.<\/p>\n The highly competitive WW Foundation program recruits recent graduates and career changers with strong backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and math \u2014 the STEM fields \u2014 and prepares them specifically to teach in high-need secondary schools. It is the second year of the program, and this year 28 individuals were awarded Pennsylvania Teaching Fellowships. Each Fellow receives a grant to complete a specially designed master\u2019s degree program based on a yearlong classroom experience. In return, Fellows commit to teach for three years in high-need Pennsylvania schools. Throughout the three-year commitment as a teacher of record at a public school, Fellows receive ongoing support and mentoring.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are thrilled that Joe Hayes has been named a WW Foundation Teaching Fellow,\u201d said Susan Slote, assistant professor of English and director of education studies at Allegheny. \u201cThe Foundation has long sought to identify and support excellence in teaching, particularly in rural and urban schools that have traditionally struggled to attract and retain highly qualified teachers. While Joe felt a call to becoming a high-school chemistry teacher ever since he first arrived at Allegheny, he increasingly turned his focus to understanding educational inequities in our public schools, and to serving where his teaching will be most needed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe relationships I had at Allegheny are hands down the most valuable part of my college experience,\u201d said Hayes, who played football for the Gators for four years as a wide receiver. \u201cThe relationships I built with my professors at Allegheny helped support me academically and even helped me look forward to my future. I would not have even known about the fellowship if my professors hadn\u2019t reached out to me and suggested that I look into it.\u201d<\/p>\n Hayes thanked Professor Slote; Director of Fellowship Advising Patrick Jackson; Elizabeth Guldan, his academic advisor and assistant professor of chemistry; and Autumn Parker, a career advisor in the Allegheny Gateway, for helping him prepare for his recruitment into the fellowship. \u201cThe support I had from Allegheny staff throughout the entire process was huge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hayes has previous classroom experience, he said, having worked as a teacher\u2019s aide in a special education classroom in his hometown during the summers. Also, the ability to study and participate in athletics inspired Hayes during his four years at the College, he said. \u201cThe opportunity to play football while receiving a great education at the same time was critical for me,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cAt Allegheny you are actually able to be both a student and an athlete, which is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n The WW Teaching Fellowship connects STEM experts with the students who need them the most, WW Foundation President Rajiv Vinnakota said. \u201cNot only will the program prepare each Fellow to be an excellent educator, it will also give them the practice, support, and network of peers needed to succeed throughout their careers in the classroom,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd for our university partners, the Fellowship supports their continued efforts to recruit, prepare, and mentor STEM teachers in the high-need schools that need them most.\u201d<\/p>\n The WW Teaching Fellowship launched in Pennsylvania in 2018. All three participating universities \u2014 Duquesne, West Chester and the University of Pennsylvania \u2014 received $400,000 matching grants to develop their teacher-preparation programs based on standards set by the WW Foundation. Over the program\u2019s three years, the participating Pennsylvania universities will enroll 108 Fellows.<\/p>\n The Pennsylvania program is supported by the William Penn Foundation, Highmark, AT&T, the Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union, M&T Bank, the Weiss Family Foundation, Pennsylvania\u2019s State System of Higher Education Foundation, and several other major individual donors. Given the state\u2019s shortage of secondary-level STEM teachers, the foundation is looking for additional partners and funders to expand the program.<\/p>\n Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops the nation\u2019s best students to meet the most critical challenges. The Foundation supports its Fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American society. In June 2020, the Foundation\u2019s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to rename the organization and to remove Woodrow Wilson from its name; a new name will be announced in the fall of 2020.<\/p>\n Source: Academics, Publications & Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joseph P. Hayes, a 2020 Allegheny College graduate from Jamestown, New York, has received a $32,000 Pennsylvania Teaching Fellowship from the WW Foundation to fund his master\u2019s degree studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he also will teach in high-need schools. \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to getting into the classroom and building relationships with […]<\/p>\n Continue Reading “Recent Allegheny College Graduate Receives Prestigious Teaching Fellowship”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics-publications-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":2394,"date":"2020-07-08T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T16:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chem\/2020\/07\/08\/allegheny-graduate-greg-merz-helps-track-down-coronavirus-therapies\/"},"modified":"2020-07-08T12:12:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T16:12:00","slug":"allegheny-graduate-greg-merz-helps-track-down-coronavirus-therapies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/2020\/07\/08\/allegheny-graduate-greg-merz-helps-track-down-coronavirus-therapies\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegheny Graduate Greg Merz Helps Track Down Coronavirus Therapies"},"content":{"rendered":" Dr. Greg Merz is hot on the trail of a killer. He spends most of his workday watching proteins interact with one another, usually eavesdropping on this give-and-take on his computer screen with the help of a cryo-electron microscope.<\/p>\n Merz, a 2010 Allegheny College graduate, conducts his observations and research at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), and the killer he\u2019s trying to put under wraps is the novel coronavirus.<\/p>\n Merz originally headed west after completing his Ph.D. at Cornell University. He wanted to get involved in research to develop therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease and Parkinson\u2019s disease. That was until this past March when he was called in to help develop medicines to curtail COVID-19. He is now a member of the Quantitative Biosciences Institute Coronavirus Research Group, which is a task force led by more than 20 faculty members and their research groups at UCSF. It includes experts in virology, cell biology, structural biology, computational biology and drug discovery.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a whole, we are focused on finding therapeutics for COVID-19, specifically by disrupting the replication cycle of the virus,\u201d says Merz.<\/p>\n A virus replicates by forcing its genetic material into a host (human) cell, which is followed by the synthesis of viral proteins, Merz explains. Viral proteins interact with human proteins, and these interactions allow the virus to hijack host cells, which in turn allows the virus to replicate and spread. So far, the research group has mapped over 300 of these viral\/human protein interactions.<\/p>\n \u201cOne main goal of the group is to design and develop compounds which disrupt key viral-host protein interactions, thereby prohibiting the virus from replicating and eliminating COVID from the body,\u201d says Merz, who was a double major in chemistry and economics at Allegheny.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s work was featured in an April 30 article in the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> that focused on the team\u2019s valuable discoveries related to COVID-19 therapies.<\/p>\n \u201cMy specific research is in the Structural Biology Consortium or the structural biology subgroup. Our aim is two-fold: First, we want to understand in detail the structures of the viral and human proteins and how they interact at the atomic level \u2014 that is, which parts of each protein are interacting, and how are the individual atoms arranged in these interactions,\u201d Merz explains. \u201cOnce we understand how these proteins interact structurally, we can design potential drugs to break those interactions and thus disrupt the life cycle of the virus. The second aim is to structurally characterize already developed potential drugs, in order to understand how they bind to their targets. This information is very useful for those designing and optimizing therapeutics, and can lead to greatly increased potency for already promising drug candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n Merz is a member of one of the teams expressing proteins (protein expression refers to the way in which proteins are synthesized, modified and regulated in living organisms), and he also is on a group that oversees the collection and data processing for cryo-electron microscopy. \u201cSo I\u2019m able to contribute at the beginning of the process and then again at the end,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Says Merz, who is originally from Rochester, New York: \u201cOn a very basic level, I wouldn\u2019t be working on COVID research today if it wasn\u2019t for my experiences at Allegheny. I developed my passion for lab work while doing summer research and then my comp under Dr. Marty Serra, and this set me on my way toward graduate school and ultimately my current post-doctoral position. One of the many insights that Dr. Serra taught me during my time in his lab was that it\u2019s important to be able to communicate to a wide range of audiences. He was always adamant that we not only present to scientific audiences, but to the general public as well, and I really think this has served me well during the pandemic. (Watch Merz talk about how his Allegheny education has aided in his research by clicking here.)<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBeing a double major also helped me to understand the non-medical factors surrounding the pandemic,\u201d says Merz. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t only suffering because they are sick or know someone who is sick. Many have lost their jobs or are fearful about losing their job, are worried about paying the rent or providing for their families. Having a background in economics gives me a good platform to analyze the non-medical impacts COVID has had on our world, and analyze the balancing act of social distancing and keeping things shut down against getting folks back to work and the economy up and running again.\u201d<\/p>\n Merz says that on most days he goes to work at the UCSF laboratory. \u201cObviously going to work is less safe than working remotely, but with lab work this is not an option,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Each person has to complete a daily health screen before coming to work on the UCSF campus, he says. \u201cFor transportation to work, we are not allowed to take any form of transportation where we might come into close contact with people outside of our own homes, such as public transportation, rideshare or carpooling. I have been biking to work, others drive themselves, and those who live close by walk,\u201d says Merz. \u201cI also think that maintaining mental health during this time is just as important as maintaining physical health, so I\u2019ve been mindful of that as well. I\u2019ve really been focusing on trying to get enough sleep and exercising on the days when I\u2019m not biking to work.\u201d<\/p>\n Merz says perhaps his toughest challenge is being able to \u201cshut off my brain,\u201d to stop focusing on work. \u201cThere is so much exciting research to be done, so many interesting ideas to follow up on, that you really want to be involved in all of it, when that\u2019s not really possible. And there are so many talented scientists, from areas that I don\u2019t know too much about, who push me by asking questions about my areas of expertise, or challenge me to learn new concepts, that I feel that I need to do a lot of learning to keep up. Not that I need any more of a push to work, but every day I\u2019m trying to keep up with current events, and it\u2019s been dominated by COVID coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n Source: Academics, Publications & Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dr. Greg Merz is hot on the trail of a killer. He spends most of his workday watching proteins interact with one another, usually eavesdropping on this give-and-take on his computer screen with the help of a cryo-electron microscope. Merz, a 2010 Allegheny College graduate, conducts his observations and research at the University of California […]<\/p>\n Continue Reading “Allegheny Graduate Greg Merz Helps Track Down Coronavirus Therapies”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics-publications-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":2395,"date":"2020-03-10T12:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T16:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chem\/2020\/03\/10\/max-e-and-mary-roha-found-the-right-chemistry-for-successful-lives\/"},"modified":"2020-03-10T12:23:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T16:23:00","slug":"max-e-and-mary-roha-found-the-right-chemistry-for-successful-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/2020\/03\/10\/max-e-and-mary-roha-found-the-right-chemistry-for-successful-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Max E. and Mary Roha Found the Right Chemistry for Successful Lives"},"content":{"rendered":" Max E. Roha will tell you that, throughout his career, critical thinking played a major role in his success as a research chemist. Look beyond the obvious and consider in detail the underlying assumptions of what is considered to be true, the 1944 Allegheny College graduate advises today\u2019s students.<\/p>\n \u201cPursue goals which are important to solve, even when others may \u2018know\u2019 that there is no solution,\u201d Roha says. \u201cBring all of your knowledge, from college, from scientific literature, from life, and from your associates, to bear to solve your problems.\u201d<\/p>\n While attending Allegheny, Roha received several scholarships that encouraged him in the study of chemistry. And as fate would have it, those scholarships also led Roha to meet the love of his life, the late Mary Chapman, in the College\u2019s chemistry labs. They would form a lifelong partnership that brought happiness and success to them both.<\/p>\n As a way of paying it forward, Roha has established the Max E. Roha and Mary Chapman Roha, Class of 1944, Chemistry Scholarship to inspire new generations of chemists at Allegheny College. The scholarship provides support for rising juniors and seniors majoring in chemistry.<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoy supporting worthwhile causes and helping solve worthwhile problems,\u201d Roha says of his decision to fund the scholarship. \u201cI hope the Roha Scholarship will reaffirm students\u2019 pursuit of chemistry, in research, in education, or in some other area that needs creative chemical input.\u201d<\/p>\n He urges students especially to question what they are told, especially in the field of chemistry. \u201cIt\u2019s important to know that other people draw chemical conclusions based on things that are not so. Be sure you are not misled by these erroneous conclusions,\u201d says Roha, who lives in retirement in suburban Cleveland.<\/p>\n In 1940, Roha was considering going away to school, but his parents needed help on their dairy farm in Meadville, so he chose to stay and enroll at Allegheny. Luckily for him, there was another first-year student, Mary Chapman from Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, who had to take a course in chemistry to fulfill her science requirement. Mary eventually became a chemistry major as well, partly to prove she could hold her own with the men.<\/p>\n Mary took a summer job at H.J. Heinz in Pittsburgh in their lab to monitor the mold content in ketchup. But Heinz would hire her only if she agreed to stay on until the tomato crop was finished. She worried about missing classes and finding a lab partner at Allegheny, but the late Professor Herbert Rhinesmith had a plan and matched Max and Mary. It was instant chemistry, as they say. Max and Mary began dating and remained lab partners throughout their Allegheny years and beyond. They prepared for advanced study in chemistry at Harvard after graduating from Allegheny in 1944.<\/p>\n However, with World War II raging, Max joined the Navy and headed to the Pacific, where his ship supported the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After Max returned stateside, they were married. Both then enrolled at Harvard, where Max pursued his doctoral studies in organic chemistry and Mary continued to work on a sponsored graduate-level chemistry project until the birth of the first of their three children.<\/p>\n After receiving his Ph.D. in 1949, Max started work at BF Goodrich as a research chemist in Brecksville, Ohio. He stayed with Goodrich his entire career with increasingly responsible roles involving innovative processes, mostly in Ohio but including four years in the Netherlands as a scientific liaison to European universities and chemical companies. Mary taught chemistry at the American High School in The Hague and at Hathaway Brown School for Girls in Shaker Heights, tutored chemistry at a community college in the Cleveland area, and was involved with science education until her death in 2001.<\/p>\n Source: Academics, Publications & Research<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Max E. Roha will tell you that, throughout his career, critical thinking played a major role in his success as a research chemist. Look beyond the obvious and consider in detail the underlying assumptions of what is considered to be true, the 1944 Allegheny College graduate advises today\u2019s students. \u201cPursue goals which are important to […]<\/p>\n Continue Reading “Max E. and Mary Roha Found the Right Chemistry for Successful Lives”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics-publications-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":2303,"date":"2019-09-20T11:27:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T15:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chem\/?p=2303"},"modified":"2019-09-20T11:29:22","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T15:29:22","slug":"lord-lecture-richard-eisenberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chemistry\/2019\/09\/20\/lord-lecture-richard-eisenberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord Lecture: Richard Eisenberg"},"content":{"rendered":"![\"Joseph](\"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/08\/LI_4570edit-300x200.jpg\")
![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/06\/Greg-Merz-225x300.jpg\")
![\"\u201cOn](\"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/06\/Greg-Merz2-225x300.jpg\")
![\"Max](\"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Max-Roha.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.allegheny.edu\/chem\/files\/2019\/09\/dbd6ab8bcf371335343242d5dd0af64b51ce132c-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n