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E-mailDuquesne professor's research earns green grant
Student with Dr. Tomislav Pintauer
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Test tube solutions
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Mike Cronin is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer and can be reached at 412-320-7884 or via e-mail.
A Duquesne University chemistry and biochemistry professor won a $550,000 National Science Foundation grant to study a copper and vitamin C catalyst method he developed to reduce cost and waste materials in processes common to the pharmaceutical and industrial chemical industries.
"In today's modern society, we are striving to develop novel and 'greener' alternatives to currently available synthetic processes," said Tomislav Pintauer, 35, in an e-mail from Switzerland.
Pintauer said he hopes his work will "stimulate other researchers around the world to strive to make their catalytic processes environmentally green and friendly."
The five-year grant comes from an NSF program set up to support young faculty members who have not received tenure. It is based upon their scholarship, the impact of their work and the research exposure they offer to graduate and undergraduate students, said Karen Ferrick-Roman, a Duquesne spokeswoman.
By using vitamin C in the process, Pintauer lowered the amount of copper he uses as a catalyst to 5 parts per million or fewer, he said.
That is 10,000 times less than traditional methods, Ferrick-Roman said.
"Dr. Pintauer competed with young researchers from top chemistry programs across the country for this award, and receiving it underscores his innovative methods as well as a high level of undergraduate and graduate student involvement," said David W. Seybert, dean of the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences.
NSF officials pointed to the education component of Pintauer's research. They highlighted Pintauer's plans to develop free summer courses in subjects such as X-ray crystallography and to provide guidance to minority high school students.
"The big part of this NSF grant is the educational component," said Pintauer, who participates in the American Chemical Society's Project SEED, which trains economically disadvantaged students.
"The ultimate goal of the program is to enable these students to get engaged in high level scientific research and ultimately convince them to continue their scientific careers at the university level," he said.
With colleagues in Switzerland, Pintauer is applying for a joint grant from the NSF and the Swiss Science Foundation.
"This grant would enable us to send graduate students from Duquesne University to Switzerland and vice-versa -- clearly an excellent opportunity," Pintauer said. He said the grant would eliminate competition among laboratories conducting similar research and encourage collaboration.
Pintauer joined Duquesne's chemistry department in 2005 after post-doctoral work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his doctorate at Carnegie Mellon University after obtaining a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and master's degree in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
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