Steve Zimmerman
@steveczimmerman.bsky.social
Organic chemist Prof who “rewired” from a Big Ten University in US to become Adjunct Prof at Ben-Gurion University 🇮🇱 | molecular tweezers, supramolecular chemistry, RNA targeted therapeutics, sustainable polymers, and other cool stuff; aspiring comedian
My last three students at Illinois. Congratulations to Dr. Joel Roberts, Dr. Nafisa Ibrahim (co-advised by @jrl-electrochem.bsky.social), and Astarte Abbott. Three amazing students with a bright careers ahead!
May 21, 2025 at 5:55 PM
My last three students at Illinois. Congratulations to Dr. Joel Roberts, Dr. Nafisa Ibrahim (co-advised by @jrl-electrochem.bsky.social), and Astarte Abbott. Three amazing students with a bright careers ahead!
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Some of the wildest voltammograms we’ve seen! And how to avoid them (just soak!) See our recent grad Nafisa’s systematic redox copolymers - synthesis, CV, SEIRAS and bulk electrolysis tour de force - in collab with @steveczimmerman.bsky.social #chemsky #electrochem pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Synthesis, Voltammetry, and Spectroelectrochemical Characterization of Tunable Ferrocene-Jeffamine Redox-Active (Co)polymers: Controlling Redox and Ionic Interactions Through Composition
There is a critical need for predictably modulating the reactivity of redox-active polymers (RAPs) to improve their performance in applications such as catalysis, energy storage, and sensing. However,...
pubs.acs.org
March 20, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Some of the wildest voltammograms we’ve seen! And how to avoid them (just soak!) See our recent grad Nafisa’s systematic redox copolymers - synthesis, CV, SEIRAS and bulk electrolysis tour de force - in collab with @steveczimmerman.bsky.social #chemsky #electrochem pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
You beat us to the post 🥳 An absolute pleasure to work with Nafisa over these years! Pretty soon we will share her work on redox-active polymers!
Congratulations to ZGroup and RodriguezGroup student Nafisa Ibrahim on passing her PhD defense. Super proud of this amazing scientist and wonderful person! 🥳🤩👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
March 13, 2025 at 7:03 PM
You beat us to the post 🥳 An absolute pleasure to work with Nafisa over these years! Pretty soon we will share her work on redox-active polymers!
Congratulations to ZGroup and RodriguezGroup student Nafisa Ibrahim on passing her PhD defense. Super proud of this amazing scientist and wonderful person! 🥳🤩👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
March 13, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Congratulations to ZGroup and RodriguezGroup student Nafisa Ibrahim on passing her PhD defense. Super proud of this amazing scientist and wonderful person! 🥳🤩👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Please check out our Angew. communication on DNA mimic foldamers that can outcompete DNA itself in the binding of proteins! 🧬
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
DNA Mimic Foldamer Recognition of a Chromosomal Protein
Biomolecular mimics are intended to outperform their natural counterparts. However, B-DNA surface mimicry to target DNA-binding proteins has long remained underdeveloped. We have introduced helical a...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 27, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Please check out our Angew. communication on DNA mimic foldamers that can outcompete DNA itself in the binding of proteins! 🧬
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
The irony of my column on a promising new data on personalized mRNA-based vaccine for pancreatic cancer coming out the same day that Iowa gets closer to banning "gene-based vaccines" is not lost on me. gift link:
March 4, 2025 at 8:38 PM
The irony of my column on a promising new data on personalized mRNA-based vaccine for pancreatic cancer coming out the same day that Iowa gets closer to banning "gene-based vaccines" is not lost on me. gift link:
Whether there is another election or not may well be irrelevant. Good chance they will have firm control of the election machinery by then so the dear leader can win in a popular landslide.
The last one is, I think, basically baked in. I see no indication that Trump will voluntarily leave office after his term is up, and I predict he will make noises about a third term before December 31, 2026.
I'm not sure there is a bound. I gave a presentation yesterday in which I predicted more airplane crashes, pandemics, and nuclear proliferation--and a nonzero chance Trump serves a third term. I don't think that last one is *likely* but given recent events I can't see why it should be ruled out.
March 4, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Whether there is another election or not may well be irrelevant. Good chance they will have firm control of the election machinery by then so the dear leader can win in a popular landslide.
An organic reaction that is both interesting and highly useful.
Can you guess the products of these reactions? check out our latest publication to find out!
chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#OrganicChemistry #Stereospesific #Radicals
chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
#OrganicChemistry #Stereospesific #Radicals
March 2, 2025 at 2:03 PM
An organic reaction that is both interesting and highly useful.
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Here is a tentative Supramolecular Chemistry starter kit. Please let me know if you wish to be added ! #ChemSky
go.bsky.app/RjRgi6n
go.bsky.app/RjRgi6n
January 6, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Here is a tentative Supramolecular Chemistry starter kit. Please let me know if you wish to be added ! #ChemSky
go.bsky.app/RjRgi6n
go.bsky.app/RjRgi6n
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Lots of RSC journals popping up on Bluesky (with proper domain names - well done!) including @chemicalscience.rsc.org; flagging for #Chemsky
a picture of a penguin with the word hello on it
Alt: A picture of a cartoon penguin waving 'hello'; with the caption 'hello' at the bottom of the gif
media.tenor.com
February 27, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Lots of RSC journals popping up on Bluesky (with proper domain names - well done!) including @chemicalscience.rsc.org; flagging for #Chemsky
Heartbreaking day in Israel as Shiri Bibas and her two sons Kfir and Ariel are buried in a single coffin. 😢
February 26, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Heartbreaking day in Israel as Shiri Bibas and her two sons Kfir and Ariel are buried in a single coffin. 😢
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
In our #ChemSci Pick of the Week today, Barry Carpenter argues that the "allowed" and "forbidden" classifications for electrocyclic reactions should be abandoned, based on NEVPT2 and DFT calculations.
Judge the evidence for yourself #ChemSky #CompChemSky 🧪! Read it free: doi.org/10.1039/D4SC...
Judge the evidence for yourself #ChemSky #CompChemSky 🧪! Read it free: doi.org/10.1039/D4SC...
February 19, 2025 at 10:20 AM
In our #ChemSci Pick of the Week today, Barry Carpenter argues that the "allowed" and "forbidden" classifications for electrocyclic reactions should be abandoned, based on NEVPT2 and DFT calculations.
Judge the evidence for yourself #ChemSky #CompChemSky 🧪! Read it free: doi.org/10.1039/D4SC...
Judge the evidence for yourself #ChemSky #CompChemSky 🧪! Read it free: doi.org/10.1039/D4SC...
Great talk by Gabi Lemcoff showing how solid solution synthesis produces latent metathesis catalysts.
February 18, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Great talk by Gabi Lemcoff showing how solid solution synthesis produces latent metathesis catalysts.
Exciting time in Jerusalem - my first ICS meeting.
Start of 88th ICS meeting. The whole Lemcoff group is attending.
February 18, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Exciting time in Jerusalem - my first ICS meeting.
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Thanks to everyone who shared this request. We updated our new Trump Tracker blog today with the voices of some federal scientists who reached out. More to come.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Trump Tracker: Firings, lawsuits and U.S. science in chaos
Follow President Donald Trump’s impact on U.S. research and science globally
www.science.org
February 17, 2025 at 1:13 AM
Thanks to everyone who shared this request. We updated our new Trump Tracker blog today with the voices of some federal scientists who reached out. More to come.
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Clinton Bailey, Who Documented a Vanishing Bedouin Culture, Dies at 88. What an amazing life! A series of chance meetings, including Ben Gurion's wife, and a curious nature leads to the extraordinarily important task of documenting Bedouin life.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/w...
Clinton Bailey, Who Documented a Vanishing Bedouin Culture, Dies at 88
Armed with a camera and tape recorder, he spent decades preserving the ancient traditions of nomadic Middle Eastern tribes.
www.nytimes.com
February 9, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Clinton Bailey, Who Documented a Vanishing Bedouin Culture, Dies at 88. What an amazing life! A series of chance meetings, including Ben Gurion's wife, and a curious nature leads to the extraordinarily important task of documenting Bedouin life.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/22/w...
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Another assault on US competitiveness at a time when biomedicine is roaring with innovation, an own-goal in a high-stakes international tournament. Of course the real losers are American people needing medicines and cures.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately
The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease.
www.washingtonpost.com
February 8, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Another assault on US competitiveness at a time when biomedicine is roaring with innovation, an own-goal in a high-stakes international tournament. Of course the real losers are American people needing medicines and cures.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Black excellence: Twice as qualified, half as respected, and still passed over or labeled as a ‘DEI hire.’
Black folks have always known this because we’ve seen it happen to our own family members. I know I have.
Black folks have always known this because we’ve seen it happen to our own family members. I know I have.
February 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Black excellence: Twice as qualified, half as respected, and still passed over or labeled as a ‘DEI hire.’
Black folks have always known this because we’ve seen it happen to our own family members. I know I have.
Black folks have always known this because we’ve seen it happen to our own family members. I know I have.
So sad. The retreat from excellence by a private foundation signals just how much the fear of these people is driving behavior.
🧪👩🏻🔬
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest private funder of biomedical research, yesterday killed a $60 million program aimed at making universities’ STEM education more inclusive. scim.ag/3EtS0US
February 7, 2025 at 1:08 PM
So sad. The retreat from excellence by a private foundation signals just how much the fear of these people is driving behavior.
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Only a couple years ago I learned that the structure of the alpha helix was solved by Herman Branson, a Howard professor who was doing a sabbatical with Pauling at the time, despite initial pushback from Pauling and Corey that his proposed helix model was much too tight. #BlackHistoryMonth
February 2, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Only a couple years ago I learned that the structure of the alpha helix was solved by Herman Branson, a Howard professor who was doing a sabbatical with Pauling at the time, despite initial pushback from Pauling and Corey that his proposed helix model was much too tight. #BlackHistoryMonth
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Oh my 2,3-dihydrofuran,
I don’t know know any monomer cooler than
Thee.
Your cyclic vinyl ether,
Makes thermosetting so much easier
For me:
You ROMP in the dark, Crosslink in the light,
Recycle to monomer under vacuum overnight.
Degrade in acid or with a lot of O2,
Oh DHF this is an ode to you.
I don’t know know any monomer cooler than
Thee.
Your cyclic vinyl ether,
Makes thermosetting so much easier
For me:
You ROMP in the dark, Crosslink in the light,
Recycle to monomer under vacuum overnight.
Degrade in acid or with a lot of O2,
Oh DHF this is an ode to you.
Degradable thermosets via orthogonal polymerizations of a single monomer - Nature
Degradable thermoset multimaterials can be synthesized from a commercially accessible, biosourced monomer using orthogonal polymerizations in a single pot; after selective degredation, the resulting s...
www.nature.com
January 29, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Oh my 2,3-dihydrofuran,
I don’t know know any monomer cooler than
Thee.
Your cyclic vinyl ether,
Makes thermosetting so much easier
For me:
You ROMP in the dark, Crosslink in the light,
Recycle to monomer under vacuum overnight.
Degrade in acid or with a lot of O2,
Oh DHF this is an ode to you.
I don’t know know any monomer cooler than
Thee.
Your cyclic vinyl ether,
Makes thermosetting so much easier
For me:
You ROMP in the dark, Crosslink in the light,
Recycle to monomer under vacuum overnight.
Degrade in acid or with a lot of O2,
Oh DHF this is an ode to you.
Reposted by Steve Zimmerman
Find out what the economic impact of the NSF is in your state new.nsf.gov/about/about-...
NSF by the Numbers
NSF by the Numbers provides statistical and funding information for awards, NSF-funded institutions, funding rate, proposals evaluated, and obligations by fiscal year
new.nsf.gov
January 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Find out what the economic impact of the NSF is in your state new.nsf.gov/about/about-...
Crying or laughing emoji just won’t work but this is definitely why I’m here for BlueSky
January 18, 2025 at 6:24 AM
Crying or laughing emoji just won’t work but this is definitely why I’m here for BlueSky
Physical organic chemists - is there a good (non textbook) collected series of graduate-level problems on pericyclic reactions? Looking for problems involving mechanisms, stereochemistry, and application of W-H, FMO, and Zimmerman methods.
January 9, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Physical organic chemists - is there a good (non textbook) collected series of graduate-level problems on pericyclic reactions? Looking for problems involving mechanisms, stereochemistry, and application of W-H, FMO, and Zimmerman methods.
Cousin-in-law with a beautiful home in the Hollywood hills had to evacuate yesterday. Just learned his house/neighborhood was spared. Sympathies to all who were not so lucky.
January 9, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Cousin-in-law with a beautiful home in the Hollywood hills had to evacuate yesterday. Just learned his house/neighborhood was spared. Sympathies to all who were not so lucky.