Academia

Patrick Harran has been named the first Donald J. & Jane M. Cram Chair in Organic Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. Previously, Harran was the Bell Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in Dallas.

Arthur J. Ragauskas has been named the first recipient of the newly created Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Alternative Energy Technology, which is aimed at fostering collaborative, international research in this field. The position will be located at Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg, Sweden. Ragauskas will remain as a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a research faculty member of the Institute of Paper Science & Technology at Georgia Institute of Technology.

George C. Shields has been appointed dean of the newly formed College of Science & Technology at Armstrong Atlantic State University, in Savannah, Ga. Shields comes to Armstrong Atlantic from Clinton, N.Y.-based Hamilton College.

Matthew B. Soellner has joined the faculty of the department of medicinal chemistry within the University of Michigan’s College of Pharmacy. He completed postdoctoral research with Jonathan A. Ellman at the University of California, Berkeley.

Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede has accepted a full professorship in biological chemistry at Sweden’s Ume? University. She had been an associate professor in biochemistry at Rice University, in Houston, since 2004. Currently, she works on copper transport proteins and how the crowded cell environment affects protein folding.