Category: Grad Student Spotlight

Emma Tran and Grace Lindquist receive 2021 Keana Fellowships

Posted on by Leah O'Brien

UO Chemistry and Biochemistry graduate students Emma Tran and Grace Lindquist have been named as the department’s 2021-22 John Keana Fellows. Emma is in her fifth year of the chemistry doctoral program, working in the Richmond Lab. Grace is a fourth-year doctoral student and works in the Boettcher Lab.

The Keana Fellowship was established in 2017 in honor of Professor Emeritus John Keana, and provides annual fellowship awards to graduate students studying in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oregon. The award may be used to assist with defraying the academic costs associated with attending the university such as tuition, fees, books, miscellaneous supplies, research and living expenses.

We asked Emma and Grace to tell us a little about themselves and their science.

photo - Emma Tran

Emma Tran

I was born in Vietnam, but grew up mainly in Las Vegas, Nevada. There, I completed my Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematical Sciences. While juggling coursework, waitressing, and tutoring, I only got to dabble briefly in chemistry research. It wasn’t until I started graduate school at the University of Oregon that I gained more experience and insight into scientific research. As I progressed through my graduate school career, my interest in research grew as I gained a deeper appreciation for science communication, chemical education, mentorship, and the efforts toward improving the representation of underrepresented groups in science.

About her research

I am currently conducting research in Dr. Geraldine Richmond’s lab, investigating the interfacial phenomena of oil-in-water nanoemulsions. Through various experimental techniques such as pendant drop tensiometry, dynamic light scattering, and vibrational sum frequency scattering spectroscopy, I study the surface chemistry, behavior, and properties of biocompatible and environmentally friendly emulsifiers. The insight and fundamental knowledge gained from my research aims to guide the rational design of tunable drug delivery systems and safer oil remediation methods.

Future plans

I am planning to defend and graduate with my PhD in Spring 2022, and currently exploring and considering several career trajectories, hoping to broaden my skill sets and research breadth. My long-term goal is to become a professor at a primarily undergraduate institution while establishing strong partnerships with neighboring national labs and/or industry collaborators.

photo - Grace Lindquist

Grace Lindquist

I grew up in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota and attended the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in central Minnesota. At St. Ben’s I was a part of the FoCuS program which was aimed at increasing gender and racial diversity in STEM majors. I was on an accelerated course path and took every class with the same group of women, some of which are still my closest friends. Having a constant support network in chemistry really helped me succeed as a chemistry major and encourage me to pursue my PhD. As a grad student here at UO, I am heavily involved in outreach. I lead Mad Duck Science, a program that conducts science experiments with students from a local, under-funded middle school. I am also an outreach coordinator for Women in Graduate Science, where I help organize various activities throughout the community to encourage young girls to pursue degrees in STEM.

About her research

In the Boettcher lab I research anion exchange membrane water electrolysis. It is a growing technology that, with further development, has the potential to compete with current mature electrolyzer technologies. Water electrolysis is a carbon-emission-free process that produces hydrogen renewably, which is key to supporting the transition to a clean energy economy. I love my research because I work at the interface between fundamental and applied science. It’s very inspiring to get to see the direct impact my results have on improving renewable energy technology.

Future plans

I plan to pursue a postdoctoral position to expand my understanding of electrochemical energy technology, after which I hope to work in a position where I can maximally impact society through research, outreach, and science policy advocacy and development.

 

Amber Rolland Selected for UO Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship

Posted on by Leah O'Brien

Photo: Amber RollandChemistry and Biochemistry graduate student Amber Rolland has been awarded the 2021-22 UO Doctoral Research Fellowship.

Open to students in any UO PhD program, the fellowship is awarded to the most outstanding doctoral student as determined by a faculty selection committee. Dissertations are judged on the quality of the written proposal and the potential impact of the research both within and beyond the student’s field. The fellowship carries an award stipend of up to $20,000 and includes a University tuition waiver, GE fee subsidies, and GE health insurance.

Amber is a fifth-year graduate student in the Prell Lab. Her dissertation work has pushed the boundaries of native ion mobility-mass spectrometry to elucidate more complex, detailed information about biomolecular structure, overcoming the quantitative barrier of this technique. The first half of Amber’s dissertation work comprises her computational and molecular dynamics approaches to gain insight into gas-phase compaction/structure of protein ions and to enable, for the first time, quantitative comparison between experimental and simulated structural data with known accuracy and precision. The second, ongoing half of her PhD research applies these computational approaches to investigate features of protein complexes which are important for human health yet typically difficult to characterize with other state-of-the-art methods due to their heterogeneity and/or disorder, including pore-forming toxins of interest for drug delivery such as alpha-hemolysin and cytolysin A, human eye lens crystallin proteins involved in cataract formation, and dynein motor protein subcomplexes.

In her free time, Amber enjoys hiking, traveling, and photography. She is the recipient of an ARCS Foundation of Oregon fellowship, John R. Moore Scholarship, Graduate Doctoral Service Award, and Peter O’Day Fellowship.

 

Hazel Fargher selected for Keana Fellowship and DOE Research Award

Posted on by Leah O'Brien
Photo - Hazel Fargher
Hazel Fargher

UO Chemistry and Biochemistry graduate student Hazel Fargher has been named the department’s 2020-21 John Keana Fellow, and has also recently been selected for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program. Hazel is in her fifth year of the UO Chemistry Doctoral program, working on a joint project between the D.W. Johnson, Haley, and Pluth Labs.

The Keana Fellowship was established in 2017 in honor of Professor Emeritus John Keana, and provides annual fellowship awards to graduate students studying in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oregon. The award may be used to assist with defraying the academic costs associated with attending the university such as tuition, fees, books, miscellaneous supplies, research and living expenses.

The SCGSR Program is open to graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees in areas of physics, chemistry, material sciences, biology (non-medical), mathematics, engineering, computer or computational sciences, or specific areas of environmental sciences that are aligned with the mission of the Office of Science. The award provides supplemental funds for recipients to conduct part of their thesis research at a host DOE laboratory in collaboration with a DOE laboratory scientist. The research projects are expected to advance the graduate awardees’ overall doctoral research and training while providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at the DOE laboratories. Hazel is one of 52 students nation-wide that were selected for the award this fall.

We caught up with Hazel and asked her to tell us a little about herself and her science.

I grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, not too far from the beach. I went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in MA for my undergraduate degree in chemistry. I then started my first year of graduate school at UO in 2016.

I first got really excited about research when I learned about the principles of ‘green chemistry’. This is a really vague term but can refer to any chemical research that helps address environmental problems. During my time at WPI, I worked in Prof. Marion Emmert’s lab, studying ways to separate mixtures of rare earth elements so that they can be recycled. Now, I hope that some of the really fundamental work that I’m doing in physical organic chemistry can one day be useful in applications such as chemical sensing and pollutant extraction.

About her research

I am a host-guest chemist, so I design and synthesize organic hosts to bind guest molecules. More specifically, I develop hosts to bind hydrosulfide, which is both a highly toxic, foul-smelling molecule usually found in wastewater, and also a biomolecule that is essential for life.

I’m very excited to share that this award will help fund an internship at Oak Ridge National Lab through the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research program. I will be bringing hosts designed in the DWJ and Haley labs to the Moyer chemical separations group. We hope to use these hosts to study ion pair extraction of radioactive cesium salts from water. This area of research can be used to remove cesium nuclear waste from waterways and tank storage.

Future plans

After getting my PhD, I would love to continue to do hands-on research in a lab. I am keeping an eye out for post-doc positions and opportunities at national labs.

Checkers Marshall Awarded Haugland Graduate Research Fellowship

Posted on by Leah O'Brien

Chemistry graduate student Checkers Marshall has been selected as the next recipient of the Rosaria Haugland Graduate Research Fellowship.

The Haugland Fellowship is a prestigious award. It is the first graduate research fellowship ever awarded by the UO Chemistry and Biochemistry Department and made possible by a generous gift from Dr. Rosaria Haugland. Dr. Haugland is the co-founder of Molecular Probes, which was a Eugene company founded in 1975 that is now part of Thermo Fisher’s Invitrogen brand. Checkers was selected from a highly accomplished pool of applicants for excellence in research on metal organic framework nanoparticles, coursework, and ongoing activities that embody the intent of the Haugland award.

Photo - Checkers Marshall
Checkers Marshall

We asked Checkers to tell us a little about themselves and their science.

I grew up in Denver, a city with a vibrant artistic community. In my high school years, I performed slam poetry at open mics and fell in love with the art of fire spinning. My interests in chemistry and art share a common theme: symmetry. I am designing a series of interactive workshops, Point Groups for Props, to teach performance artists how to apply group theory to their props: hula hoops, juggling clubs, and more can be easily categorized by their symmetry operations. My main props are Russian fire fans, which have a point group of C2V.

I received my BS in Chemistry from Fort Lewis College, a small liberal arts institution in the San Juan mountains in Colorado. I excelled in my first semester of chemistry under Dr. Aimee Morris, who asked me to TA general chemistry lab the following term. This simple act catalyzed my academic career; I am forever grateful to Dr. Morris and the other incredible professors I had at FLC who encouraged my progress and pushed me to become a better scientist. I enjoyed a relatively diverse community at FLC. Many of my professors were women, and because the college gives free tuition to Indigenous students, many of the folks I talked science with were of Indigenous descent. Today I aim to use my position to elevate the voices of the underrepresented and to create a welcoming environment in the traditionally exclusive world of academic science.

Current Research

I joined Dr. Carl Brozek’s research lab as his first student during the summer of 2018. My research focuses on nanoparticles of highly porous materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Understanding how MOF nanoparticles grow allows us to design rational syntheses that target specific particle sizes and functionalities. One of the most promising applications of MOF particles is in gas separation membranes, which must be very thin to be applicable in industrial settings. Controlling particle size is therefore an important step in this direction. I am particularly interested in MOFs that are capable of charge transport; conductive, porous, well-ordered materials are attractive for energy-dense charge storage devices. I am currently developing a model system to study ionic and electronic charge transport in assemblies of porous MOF particles. I believe this fundamental work will pave the way towards the integration of MOFs in electronic devices.

What’s next?

I am keeping my options open, but I aim to join a small company or start-up in sustainable technology that would benefit from my skill set. Regardless of what I choose to do in my scientific career, I hope to return to the Rocky Mountains, get a cat, and continue my journey in the performing arts.

4 PhD Students and 3 Undergrads win NSF GRFP in Chemistry

Posted on by Leah O'Brien

Four PhD students and three undergraduates in the UO department of Chemistry and Biochemistry have been selected by the National Science Foundation for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP):

The [GRFP] program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions. Fellows benefit from a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), opportunities for international research and professional development, and the freedom to conduct their own research at any accredited U.S. institution of graduate education they choose. As the oldest graduate fellowship of its kind, the GRFP has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers.

Our 2020 recipients:

PhD

Alison Chang
Marc Foster
Khoa Le
James May

Alison Chang
Marc Foster
Khoa Le
James May

Undergraduates

Madi Scott
Makenna Pennel
Casey Bisted – 2019 grad, now in PhD program at UW

Madi Scott
Makenna Pennel
Casey Bisted

Our Honorable Mentions:

PhD

Julia Fehr
Grace Kuhl
Gabrielle Warren

 

Undergraduate

Dylan Bardgett

Julia Fehr
Grace Kuhl
Gabrielle Warren
Dylan Bardgett

This is our department’s highest number of GRFP fellowship recipients and honorable mentions to date. Special thanks to faculty members Shannon Boetcher, Mike Pluth, Amanda Cook, Julia Widom, and Chris Hendon for the great job they’ve done teaching the CH 401/601 Fellowship Application Skills workshop.

Hutchison Lab Grad Helps Students Reimagine the Car Seat

Posted on by Leah O'Brien

Lundquist faculty members and MBA students partnered with the Knight Campus and others to reimagine the car seat.

The result: WAYB’s Pico car seat.

photo: Aurora GinzburgAmong the partners was Aurora Ginzburg, a graduate student in the Hutchison lab, who served as the liaison between WAYB and the students as they sought to integrate greener, more sustainable materials into their new design.

Read more in the article below from the Fall 2019 edition of UO Business magazine.

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Eric Beyerle named John Keana Fellow for 2019-20

Posted on by Leah O'Brien
Photo: Eric Beyerle
Eric Beyerle

Eric Beyerle, a graduate student in Guenza Lab, has been selected as the next John Keana Graduate Student Fellow.

The fellowship was established in 2017 in honor of Professor Emeritus John Keana, and provides annual fellowship awards to graduate students studying in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oregon. The award may be used to assist with defraying the academic costs associated with attending the university such as tuition, fees, books, miscellaneous supplies, research and living expenses.

The first John Keana Graduate Student Fellowship was awarded in 2018-19 to Matthew Cerda in the Pluth Lab.

Tawney Knecht Receives DOE Graduate Student Research Award

Posted on by Leah O'Brien


photo - Tawney KnechtTawney Knecht, a 4th-year chemistry graduate student in the Hutchison Lab, has been selected to receive the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) award. Her proposed  research project, “Precisely Nanostructured Indium Oxide Electrocatalysts Toward Efficient CO2 Conversion”, will be conducted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.

The SCGSR program provides funding to outstanding U.S. graduate students to pursue part of their graduate thesis research at a DOE laboratory. Tawney is one of 49 new SCGSR awardees from 39 universities across the nation. This research opportunity is expected to advance the graduate students’ overall doctoral thesis and address scientific challenges central to the Office of Science mission by providing access to the expertise, resources, and capabilities available at DOE facilities.