9601658 Chamberlin University of California Irvine This award from the Academic Research Infrastructure (ARI) Program will assist the Department of Chemistry at the University of California at Irvine upgrade the existing 500 MHz and 300 MHz NMRs. This equipment will enhance research in a number of areas including the following: (1) signaling mechanisms in the central nervous system (2) new models for monodisperse silica-supported catalysts (3) strategies for the formation of peptide b-sheets (4) new reactions and strategies that allow the efficient assembling of complex molecules with high stereo- and enantiocontrol (5) polyene macrolide antibiotics (6) synthetic methodology/natural product synthesis and polymer syntheses/materials chemistry (7) research of compounds which contain indole rings coupled at the 2 position, and (8) new reactions of silacyclopropanes. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is the most powerful tool available to chemists for the elucidation of the structure of molecules. It is used to identify unknown substances, characterize specific arrangements of atoms within molecules, and to study the dynamics of interactions between molecules in solution. Access to state-of-the-art NMR spectrometry is essential to chemists who are carrying out frontier research. The results from these NMR studies are useful in the areas such as polymers, catalysis, and in biology.