Chemistry News and History

 

Fall 2022: Dr. David Montelongo started as a new full-time tenure-track faculty.

Fall 2021: All Chemistry labs are back in person.  Our lab technician team including Gary Wilkes, Lina Chea, Jason Maxwell, Jennifer Pereira, and Ryan Wheeler and all of our faculty did an amazing job during this difficult period.

Summer 2021: Professor Richard Grow retired after more than 20 years at LPC.

March 2020: The Chemistry Department went entirely online due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Fall 2019: Dr. Christopher Dudzik and Dr. Russell Jensen have been hired as new full-time, tenure-track faculty.

Summer 2018: Samantha Portea, who has been a lab technician for Microbiology, has been converted to full time/12 months and will now be part of the Chemistry team as well.

Spring 2018: We have funding for a new FTIR (Infrared Spectrometer), new Periodic Tables, new calculators, and additional glassware for our Organic Chemistry labs

2017-2018: Gary Wilkes is now the Lead Science Technician and we have three new Lab Technicians: Miki Okada, Kauhleen Mangayan, and Rhiannon Follenfant.

Fall 2016: Enrollment and course offerings are higher than ever. New whiteboards in the science building have be installed.

Fall 2015: The newly renovated Library has opened as a great resource for our students and new countertops have been installed in our labs.

Fall 2014: The older science building got a fresh coat of paint outside and we have funding for a GC-MS! The Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectroscopy instrument will allow a whole new level of instrumental analysis for our students.

Fall 2012: The beautiful, new Science and Technology building opened as planned. We now have about twice as much space for lectures and labs.

Winter 2011:  Ground has been broken on the new science building! Construction is scheduled to be complete by Fall 2012.

Spring 2010 We completed the design process with KH architects. Designs were submitted to DSA(Division of State Architects) in May 2010. Chemistry will stay in the older (1996) building and room 1807 will be renovated so that we will have a third Chemistry Lab along with a student work room/Instrument room (1806) dedicated to Chemistry Students. Biology will have four new labs in the new building just north of 1800 where Lot G and the lawn currently reside. Biology will keep their current lab in 1810. Grading is scheduled to start as early as summer 2010 and construction will begin roughly Winter 2011. Estimated completion is Fall 2012.

Fall 2008 Science and Engineering has been approved to begin planning a $10 million expansion of the Science and Technology Building (1800)

Summer 2008: We received a new AA (Atomic Absorption) Spectrometer. The instrument has been installed in the General Chemistry lab and we will be doing several new labs on this instrument this year. This another big addition to our department thanks to Measure B.

Summer 2007: Our new FT-IR (Infrared Spectrometer) with an internal reflectance attachment and 10 logger-pro visible spectrometers have been purchased using Measure B equipment funding and are in service. These instruments are a great addition to our department and will give our transfer students a big advantage.

Spring 2007: Gerry Gire was hired as our new Science Education Technician.

Spring/Summer 2006: We are proud to announce the hiring of two full time faculty, Dr. Richard Grow and Adeliza Flores.

Summer 2006: Anasazi NMR was installed and is up and running.

January 2006: LPC Chemistry has recieved funding through Measure B to aquire an Anasazi 60MHz NMR! This will instrument will allow our students to analyze both C and H in molecules that they have synthesized and will utilize a permanent magnet donated several years ago. We also have funding to aquire two new rotary evaporators. These will be used by Organic Chem students to evaporate solvents from their reaction mixtures.

Spring 2005: LPC Chemistry received a generous donation of an HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatograph) from Mr. Doug McKenney. Mr. McKenney generously donated his time to install the instrument as well.

Spring 2004: Dr. Juliette Bryson has retired after more than 30 years at Las Positas and Chabot Colleges. The department and the college will miss her. She is very excited about her retirement and will be travelling all over the world and keeping in touch. If you are a former student and would like to contact her, she would be excited to hear from you at jbryson@laspositascollege.edu.

December 2001: Dr. Deleray retired in May 2002 after 32 years of teaching Chemistry at Las Positas and Chabot Colleges: Dr. Deleray is so very excited to be setting up the computer data collection equipment that he has planned to stay involved with the Chemistry Department for several years! He's having a great time working with our faculty in Chemistry 1A/1B this year and interacting with their students as he makes the equipment work for our experiments. Former students are encouraged to contact him at:
adeleray@laspositascollege.edu