Welcome to the Turro group !

Included in this document are the most important procedures for day to day group operations as well as some useful suggestions regarding the presentation of data in a scientific context.

1. Administrative Inprocessing into the Group for New Graduates Students Graduates and Postdoctoral Fellows

2. Safety

3. Chemicals

4. Getting Chemicals and Other Supplies

5. Using Services of the Glassblower

6. Disposal of Chemicals & Lab Maintenance Procedure

7. What to Do When You Have Used Up a Chemical

8. Chemistry Libraries and Turro Group Related Documents

9. Use of Group Instruments.

10. Other Important Information

11. Scientific Writing (Prof. Waldemar Adam's Course!)

I. Administrative Inprocessing into the Group for New Graduates Students Graduates and Postdoctoral Fellows

Administrative inprocessing into the Turro group as a new postdoctoral fellow consists of the following items:
Say HELLO to the BOSS!, get a desk, a lab bench and a notebook
and then....

1. Housing Information for Postdocs and Visiting Scientists: Please visit the Columbia Housing Information Homepage. Also please contact Italia Mancinelli (im1@columbia.edu) or Martha Mc Andrew (mcm5@columbia.edu) to process your paper work with regard to housing.

2. Signatures, Columbia ID & Lab Key: Go see Sandy Turro to get the proper paper work regarding your appointment with the proper signatures. You must have a letter from Sandy, that you'll work in the Turro Group.
   Sandy will give you authorization to get an ID card in the 2nd floor of Kent.
   She will give you the key to the labs on 7th floor.

3. Official Paper Work: Ask Sandy which papers and informations you need for the meeting with Lorrie, than go to Lorrie Lind (Havemeyer, Room 338) to get appointed into the department.

4. Health Benefits: Lorrie will also provide information concerning Health Benefits and go to Benefits office (Interchurch 1901) to obtain list of medical packets available. There is an orientation meeting (at Interchurch, Room 1220) every Monday morning at 9:00am and the last Tuesday of the month at 2:00pm. Please register for sessions at Columbia Human Resources, call 870-2100, email hrtraining@columbia.edu or visit their website

5. ID Card Activation & Mail Box: Go see M. Danielle Farrell in the chemistry main office (Havemeyer, Room 344, phone 854-2202, email mdf2105@columbia.edu to get your ID card activated for access to Havemeyer. Advisable to attend. She will also give you access to a mail box.

6. Library Key & NMR Key: Go to Felix Rosado or Christopher Cecilio in the Chemstore on the 1st floor of Chandler to get the appropriate forms to obtain the key to the Library Afterhours and the NMR Lab (if required).

7. Note: If you are an NSF, NIH or other external USA fellowship Postdoctoral Fellow you should go to Beth Israel (Engineering Terrace Rm 351) for information about fellowship stipend and allocation and appointment. Bring NSF pamphlet about NSF fellowship.

8. Note: If you are a foreign postdoctoral fellow with your own funds follow 1 to 3 and 5 to last. If you have your own benefits do not bother with note 4.

9. ISSO - International Students and Scholar Office: If you are not familiar with the American way of life go to ISSO (524 Riverside Drive, Suite 200) or visit their website! They have important information about daily life, bank accounts, taxes, visa...
   If you are an international student or scholar, you have to go there to recertify your documents.

10. Social Security Number: Also if you do not have a social security number, you will get one by going to the Social Security Office (237 W 48th Str. or 55 W 125th Str). Regarding funds, usually people make their own arrangement for getting the money in USA e.g. open an account here and transfer the money from your own institution to here or do otherwise if you choose.

11. Email Account:

    1. Activate your UNI account online ASAP.

12. Readings: It is expected that everyone in the group has read Modern Molecular Photochemistry. If you have not, obtain a copy from Sandy and read it. From time to time the group goes over certain aspects of the book.
    In addition, each group member should read the following articles:
    

    1. L. B. Rigby, "Motivation: its origins and nature" Chem. Tech. 1971, 348. pdf

    2. A. F. Chalmers, "What is this Thing Called Science?" Chapter 8 "Theories as Structures: Kuhn's Paradigms", 1982, p. 39. about library

    3. N. J. Turro, "Geometric and Topological Thinking in Organic Chemistry", Angew. Chem. Inter. Ed. Eng. 1986, 25, 882. doi

    4. J. R. Platt, "Strong Inference", Science 1964, 146, 347. doi

    5. W. E. Drissel, "The Laws of Inference", Chem. Tech. 1991, 520. pdf

13. Server: See Jeffrey to grant you access to group's File Servers.
    
    
14. Glasswares: To find your own glasswares, make a list of glasswares you need, then talk to Steffen, look in the cabinets in the hallway and ask around who has leftowers.

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II. Safety

• There is a Safety manual located in each lab of the 7th floor. Please read this manual carefully. In it you will find the procedures for the proper handling of Chemicals and Hazardous Materials at Columbia. On the current assignment list is the name of the person responsible for the handling of chemicals. There is also a brochure on regulations for the storage of chemicals, acids & gases in the Turro Group library.

• About every couple of months, the New York City Fire Department will come by for an unannounced safety check. Do not be responsible for the shutdown of our labs !

• Never block doors, walkways, or hallways with solvent bottles, vacuum pumps, or any other type of equipment. . . . . . .

• Proper Disposal Protocol for Tracking Chemical Inventory:

  Do NOT throw away any chemical bottles in the glass waste, especially those with bar-codes.
  1. The bar-coded empty chemical bottles should go in the yellow bin (by elevator).
  2. Blue sticker labeled chemical bottles go into waste hood for pickup.
  3. Make it a good habit! Update group chemical inventory. Click “delete” once the chemical is done.

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III. Chemicals

We have five different categories of chemicals:

1. We store the bulk of the non-flammable organic and non-oxidizing chemicals in plastic trays in the chemical stock room 752 in alphabical order.  Invidual chemicals are also stored throughout the labs. All chemicals can be seached using the online chemical inventory system.

2. Nonflammable organic materials which must be stored at low temperatures are stored in the refrigerator labeld with "NONFLAMMABLE" in Room 752. All materials in all refrigerators must be clearly labeled in English. Include the structure and the date of synthesis. Unsuitably labeled chemicals will be discarded! Even if you store all of your chemicals in a single box with your name on it, you must still separately and properly label all chemicals within that box.

3. Organic oxidizers and flammable materials are stored in a refrigerator labeld with "FLAMMABLE" storage cabinet in Room 756.

4. If you need only 50 mg or so of a chemical but are unable to find it in this group, check with other groups before you order it.  You can use the ChemTracker System.

5. If you decide that a chemical in our stock is not usable, then follow the proper procedure for disposal of that chemical. Small amounts of chemicals can be combined with the hazardous waste labeled as nonhalogenated organic, halogenated organic or aqueous. Large amount should be disposed of by officers from Office of Environmental, Health and Radiation safety. Do not just place it back where you found it!

6. ORDER ONLY THE QUANTITIES YOU NEED. DO NOT SAVE ON THE 10 KILO SPECIALS!

7. Remember, any synthesized chemicals in and out of the fridge will be discarded during the annual MAMOO unless clearly marked with identity and your name.

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IV. Getting Chemicals and Other Supplies

1. The chemistry department stockroom (also known as Chemstores) is on the first floor of Chandler. To purchase materials from the stockroom, fill out the purchase forms down there with the appropriate item number. Fill out 2 white forms. You need an account number (ask Prof Turro for the number) and your social security # as the ID, disregarding whatever # is given in your ID card. After filling out the order, leave one copy w/ stockroom personnel and take the other copy up to the folder located outside of Sandy's office. The stockroom does not have many chemical reagents, it only stocks common solvents and gases. Chem Stores is self-serve.
   

2. To purchase a chemical or minor equipment (i.e; GC/HPLC syringes, consumables, filter paper) from an external supplier (Aldrich, Fluka, Fisher, VWR etc...) use the group's online ordering system.
   

3. To order a chemical or equipment that is NOT a fast order company and less than $500.
   

   The ordering of chemicals or equipment which do not meet the above conditions, must be done through MSL/CRL (Microelectronics Sciences Lab/Columbia Radiation Lab).
   
   PROCEDURES FOR ORDERING FROM MSL/CRL:
   a. Get a quotation from the company. Contact the company from which you will be ordering and request pricing, availability, shipping charges and a contact name. If possible, get a hard copy of the quotation.
   
   The ordering database may be found on the Turro Server on the partition "Group" in the folder "DATABASES/ORDERS AND SCHEDULES". To access it 'double click' on the "Turro Group Orders". It is a Filemaker Pro application. Ask Brian or Siva if you have any questions.

   1. Click on the button "See Order Forms"

   2. Locate the "New" button which is below the part # column and click it to create a new entry. DO NOT WRITE OVER OLD ORDERS!

   3. Enter the company name, address, contact name, telephone and fax number. Enter your name in the "ship to:" line.

   4. Enter the part number, quantity, description and price of any items you wish to purchase. Please include the shipping charge.

   5. Modify the "realistic arrival date" already entered on that line. (Notice it is initialized to today's date.) Add at least 14 days to the date unless this is an emergency order.

   6. Answer the questions about permanent equipment by clicking on those lines. If the items are components of permanent equipment describe which system. Enter Your Name beside "Ordered by:"

   7. Click on the "print order" button located beside the "new" button. When the dialog box appears choose 2 copies to print. Make sure you are printing the current record only. Quit from the Order program by pressing "command Q".

   8. Place one hard copy of the order into the binder located outside of Sandy's office labelled TURRO GROUP ORDERS. Please staple the quotation to the MSL requisition form. Get the boss to sign the other copy and walk it or fax it over to the MSL/CRL office (854-1909). Note the MSL/CRL fax number is included at the bottom of the order form. MSL can be reached at 854-3265, if there is a problem. Phone Natalie to ensure that the fax arrived.

   9. Find the lab notebook entitled PURCHASE ORDER COMMAND CENTER next to the TURRO GROUP ORDERS binder. In the notebook, inscribe your name, the date, the requisition number and who the requisition was sent to (MSL, chemical engineering, or the chemistry business office). Let Steffan know that you sent in a requisition.

   10. Once a P.O. has been generated it will be sent to your email, but you are responsible for entering the P.O number in the logbook.

   11. If after 3 days the P.O. number has not been sent, call MSL (or chemical engineering, or the chemistry business office). If it has already been generated, write the P.O. number in the P.O. Command Center notebook.

   12. It is your responsibility to see if the manufacturer received the purchase order. If the order has not been receieved by the manufacturer, contact MSL (chemical engineering, or the chemistry business office).

   13. When the item has been received, note the date in the P.O. Command Center logbook.

   14. IF YOU ORDER VIA MSL AND RECEIVE THE ITEM AT CHEMSTORES, IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU RETAIN THE PACKING SLIP.

   15. Place packing slip in envelope next to P.O. command center in alphabetical order.
       

   < $2000 Regular procedure: Overhead is charged to the grant (Columbia University overhead is approximately 70%)
   Orders > $2500 require a special procedure.
   $2,499 - $9,999 2 written bids, quotations, and/or proposals ar required. Oral bids are not accepted.
   $10,000+ 3 written bids, quotations and/or proposals are required.
   
   Sole Source Procurement and Justification: All equipment over the amount of $2,499 must be accompanied by a SOLE SOURCE FORM. These forms are available at MSL or with Mark. Please fill it out completely. When you are genuinely dealing with a sole source vendor, one additional quote from another vendor is required.
   
   Emergency Orders: Complete ordering as above except write URGENT on order form. YOU MUST PHONE IN THE P.O. TO THE COMPANY YOURSELF AND PLACE THE ORDER. For all orders received after 12noon, MSL will attempt to get you a PO, but MSL cannot guarantee it. Please use this option only when it is really urgent. Abusing it will result in penalty for the whole group.
   
   MSL Contacts: If you have any questions or problems please call
   Natalie at 4-3265; Fax: (212) 854-1909
   Melina Ziegel Departmental Administrator Columbia Radiation 4-1910; mz2001@columbia.edu

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V. Using the Services of the Glassblower

Section on using the services of the glassblower- subject to special requirements of NJT.

• Glassblower
  Fridolin Kummer is the glassblower of the chemistry department located in the first floor of Havemeyer Hall room 144 (Tel. # 4-2201). He works usually only one day a week. If you need special glassware first check in the labs and in the cabinets in the hallway, then look into the catalogs if you can buy it. Usually glassware we can buy from a company in less expensive than getting it made from our glassblower. If you want to visit the glassblower you should set up an appointment over the phone (leave him a message to call you back) since he is only one day a week in and have a drawing of your glassware ready. Before you place an order you need to get an estimate of the cost and getting an approval from Prof. Turro.

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VI. Disposal of Chemicals & Lab Maintenance Procedure

It is necessary that all old or used chemicals be disposed in the manner proscribed by law! If you do not know the correct method of disposal for a given chemical, consult the person in charge of chemical (meghan) or the safety committee.

Lab Maintenance Procedures

If any problems arise concerning electricity, air conditioning units, plumbing or flooding in the labs, fume hood failures, deal with them immediately.


I. Emergencies (all hours):

1. Fire explosion, medical emergency, hazardous chemical spill
   CALL 99 (Campus Emergency)

2. Other building emergency like flood, fume hood failures, power failures
   CALL 44899 (Facilities) and then 45902-Felix Rosado or 45200-Christopher Cecilio (Chemistry Building services)

II. Regular services (Mon-Fri, 8-4):

EMAIL to fixAD@columbia.edu and a copy to felixr@chem.columbia.edu (Felix Rosado, building manager)

III. Genral issues (chemical waste disposal, radiation safety, etc...):

CALL 48749, Office of Environmental, Health and Radiation safety

IV. During Offhours (Weekends and weekdays after 5PM):

1. Call Maintenace directly at 42275 and explain to them the problem.

2. Get a WORK ORDER #.

3. Get the name of the Maintenace person who comes to check the problem.

4. Fill out the blue Maintenace logbook.

Hints:

1. A general problem in Chandler are the clogged sinks. Plumbing requests often take a longtime. After e-mailing the plumbing request to Felix, try to get a WORK ORDER # from him as well.

2. If the requests are not checked after a week, call Bob Moran at 47738 or e-mail him (rm@columbia.edu). Tell him about your request and if you have it, provide him with a WORK ORDER #. Bob is the building supervisor, which means that he is higher on the chain of command. Requests sent to Bob get done very rapidly.

3. Often Maintenace people will arrive and if they can't get into a room where the repair is to be done, they'll just leave. It's wise to leave a written message on the door telling the Maintenace person where they can find you or someone who will let them in.

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VII. What to Do When You Have Used Up a Chemical

If you use up a chemical which is entered in our chemical inventory please remove from the inventory.

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VIII. Chemistry Libraries and Turro Group Related Documents

Libraries

1. The Chemistry Department library is located on the 4th floor of Chandler

2. The Turro group library is located in Room 754 Chandler.

In the Turro group, the program "Endnote" is used for all applications regarding literature. On the server in the subdirectory /Group/Databases/Turro Group Library/Turro library/ there exists the index of the Turro group library. You will find all books which are property of the Turro group listed there. If you take a book out, bring it back as soon as you don't need it anymore!
The following procedures regard maintenance of your notebook and the documentation and presentation of scientific data. The guidelines for successful writing will help you to avoid some unpleasant experiences while publishing papers or giving talks.


Important documents:

 

Below you will find the following documents, please review them carefully and see a group member or Professor Turro if you have any questions.

• Lab Notebooks
• Effective Presentation - Short (.doc)
• Effective Presentation - Long (.doc)
• Successful Writing (.doc)
• "Whitesides' Group: Writing a Paper" - Adv. Mater. 2004, 16(15) p.1375-1377
• "Internet resources for scientific writing" - Chem. Innov. 2001, 31(2) p.60-62
• Effective Research (.doc)
• Group Meeting Schedule
• Group Responsibilities
• Error Analysis
• Powerpoint tips
• IRV Template

 

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IX. Use of Group Instrument

1. Get training from person-in-charge, include running at least one sample under supervision

2. Always discuss the suitability of the samples with the person-in-charge.

3. Log in and Log out. With comments on usage of instrument, sample analysed, time period, condition of instrument

5. The user is expected to be closely watching the status of the instrument while in use

6. Report abnormal instrument conditions immediately to person-in-charge

Contact info will be posted on/near the instrument. This includes name, email and phone number of the person-in-charge. Phone numbers are also available in the Chandler 7th floor hallway.

Extras for Non-Group Members.

1. Get Pemission from Prof. Turro. The person will be asked to sign a piece of paper as an evidence of understanding their responsibilities.

2. Working hours only for non-group members (9am to 5pm)

3. The visitors should prepare their accessories, like syringe for GC injections, if they need the instrument on a frequent basis.

X. Other Important Information

Labeling of Files (PDF Version)

All files sent to Prof. Turro should have: YourInitials_KeyWord(s)_DraftNumber_Date.doc

NJT_H2@C60_Relax_JACS_081006.doc

JC    =     Judy Chen
BD    =     Ben Dach
CG    =     Cheng Guo
JG    =     Jia Guo
SJ    =     Steffen Jockusch
JRL    =     Jeffrey Lancaster
XL    =     Xuegong Lei
XLi    =     Xia Li
YL    =     Yongjun Li
JM    =     Joseph Moll
EJP    =     Ellane Park
YR    =     Yi Rao
AS    =     Arun Sundaresan
NJT    =     Nicholas J. Turro
OZ    =     Olaz Zeika
XZ    =     Xinxin Zhu

Labeling pdfs of the literature (See the group home page for the list of journal abbreviations).

Example:

 “Ion-Molecule Reactions of Tetramethylethylene Radical Cations in Zeolites,”
 Mary V. Barnabas and Alexander D. Trifunac, Chem. Phys. Lett.,  1992, 193, 298-304.

Corresponding Label: CPL_193_298_92_ETransZeo.pdf
 ie. journal_volume_firstpagenumber_year_keyword.pdf

Note: use two digit for the year of the journal.  If the journal comes out once a year, the volume number will suffice.  In your data base to find a pdf you can often just type in underscore page number and underscore to see if you have an article or not.

Individual Research Reviews (IRVs)

Each month or so, each group member meets individually with the Boss to discuss accomplished and proposed research. (Dates are emailed to the group members.)

At IRVs, the basic idea is prioritize your research program in terms of experiments to be performed, papers to be written, equipment to be ordered or repaired, etc. The IRV should be written as an NSF proposal (2-3 pages) and structured as follows:

1. motivation, why are you working on your project and why should NSF support it?

2. what are the questions that you are trying to answer with your research?

3. how is your research plan going to answer these questions?

4. what is the context of your research within the context of published research?

5. what are the most significant results likely to come out of your research?

6. what are the most significant intellectual problems standing between you and successful results?

7. what are the most significant technical problems standing between you and successful results?

This format for the IRVs is to be used so you can begin to build a literature data base and data base of other information that will be useful for this and other reports. The reports in turn will serve as the basis for publications.

Group Research Reviews

Group meetings usually take place on Tuesday mornings. Each group member will present a group research review of accomplished research about every two months or so. Group meeting talks should be less than forty-five minutes in length. If your talk exceeds this length, you are responsible for the lunch of all Turro group members. Talks should be presented using a presentation software (Authorware Professional, Multimedia Director, Powerpoint, etc.). Please follow rules of good public speaking: speak to the audience, not to the board, do not place too much information on a single overhead, etc. The dates of your research reviews are posted with the IRV schedule. It is critical for effective presentation that you put molecular structures and experimental conditions on all of your spectra.

Presentations should be placed on the server at: Server>Group Presentations>Your Folder.

Be sure to properly label your presentation. For Group Research Reviews, the proper format is: your initials_RR_date.

Make sure Turro gets a print-out of the presentation just before the actual presentation.

Several times a year, we have "Group IRVs", during which proposed research for the next several months is discussed.

Mamoo

Mamoo (Must Appropriately Make Offices Orderly) is the annual Spring Cleaning, during which we update the Turro group inventory. Do not even think of dodging your Mamoo responsibilities. The day is miserable for all of us, but is required to keep entropy from taking over.

Log Books

• When using a group instrument always sign in and out in the appropriate log-books.

• If a problem is detected it should not only be recorded in the log-book but should also be reported to the person in charge (verbally) so that they can take action.

• If you use the last of any consumable item ( such as papers, pens, etc.) please report immediately to the person in charge.

Policy on Funding for Meetings

Click Here

Exiting the Turro Group

Procedures for Exiting the Group

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