SSM Distinguished Achievement Award

DR. PAMELA RIGGS-GELASCO RECEIVES 2004 SSM DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

At its annual picnic on April 24, 2004 Dr. Pamela Riggs-Gelasco received the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Award.

Her service has been extraordinary as the College of Charleston director for the NIH-Basic Research Infrastructure Network program that has brought in $371,768 to the College to support multi- disciplinary projects in chemistry, biology, and physics. When the CofC’s match is added, this grant is now worth over $500,000 to the participating departments. She has managed this program with great acumen in a most collegial fashion, inculcating a great amount of respect from her colleagues in all of the involved departments.

In regards to her research efforts, this past year she has received a $100,000 NIH-AREA grant to support her work. In the last year she has two publications:

Baldwin, J., Krebs, C., Saleh, L., Stelling, M.*, Huynh, B. H., Bollinger, J. M., Riggs-Gelasco, P. “Structural Characterization of the Peroxodiiron(III) Intermediate Generated during Oxygen Activation by the W48A/D84E Variant of Ribonucleotide Reductase Protein R2 from Escherichia coli”,Biochemistry, 2003, 42, 13269-13279.

Brehm, J.*, Riggs-Gelasco, P. “The 50th Anniversary of the Watson and Crick DNA Structure: Protein Explorer Tutorials of DNA structures for Educators and Students”, The Chemical Educator, 2003, 8, 375- 377.

Riggs-Gelasco, P., Price, J. C., Guyer, R. B., Brehm, J. H.*, Barr, E. W., Bollinger, J. M., Jr., Krebs, C., “EXAFS-Spectroscopic Evidence for a Fe=O Unit in the Fe(IV) Intermediate Observed during Oxygen Activation by Taurine:a-Ketoglutarate Dioxygenase (TauD)” submitted, J. Am. Chem. Soc.

The co-authors with asterisks (*) are undergraduates. In the past year she has had beam time on the cyclotrons at Stanford, Brookhaven, and at Argonne, and has taken an undergraduate with her on more than one occasion to perform experiments. Pam was awarded beam time on these instruments in competition with proposals from Research I universities. The submission to the Journal of the American Chemical Society is to, arguably, the most respected journal in all of chemistry.

In addition to her outstanding research and service efforts she remains an exemplary teacher in the classroom.

All in all, Dr. Riggs-Gelasco is a superb role model for our students. Her extraordinary efforts in the past year are very deserving of recognition as being truly distinguished.