Turpin to Make Three URCA Presentations

Senior Chemistry major Corey Turpin will be setting a record at the 2018 URCA Symposium that will be hard for others to beat. Not only will he be presenting at his third URCA Symposium, but he will be involved in three different presentations this year.

Corey will begin his 2018 URCA at the first session of the event at 9 a.m. as he performs the lead role of Nika Magadoff in a scene from the opera "The Consul" by Gian Carlo Menotti. His character is a magician trying to obtain a Visa from the Consulate. He attempts to impress the secretary by performing magic tricks and hypnotizing the rest of the people waiting in the room into believing they are at a ball. He only succeeds in creating chaos and frightening the secretary.

His second presentation is at the first poster session at 11:45 a.m. in the Alumni Room and is titled "Investigation of Imidazole Based Drugs and Phosphazene Drug Delivery Systems." The goal of this research was to utilize inorganic systems as drug delivery molecules, specifically phosphazenes. The research began to synthesize a benzimidazole based core with propanol group substituted in the C2 position (for attachment to the ring) and two methylnapthyl groups (to increase lipophilicity) at the N1 and N3 positions. Results from these studies have been characterized via nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, infrared pectroscopy, and mass spectrometry.

Corey's final presentation at the 2 p.m. oral session in the Faculty Room is titled "Investigation of the Supramolecular Chemistry of Calixarenes and Calixarene-Core Star Polymers." His research has focused on the self-organization of calixarene-core star blockcopolymers into larger aggregates and complexation of silver by a calixarene. In the first part of the project, a calixarene initiator was used in a three-step synthesis to make a four-armed amphiphilic star block copolymer that has hydrophobic polylactide (PLA) blocks attached to hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) blocks. In the second part of the project, attempts were made to complex silver using the previously mentioned calixarene initiator. In summary, the projects described utilize supramolecular chemistry in designing new, potentially useful biomaterials.

Be sure to follow Corey through his day at URCA along with many other talented students at the 9th Annual URCA Symposium.