Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Doug Banning
Darren Johnson Lab
Monday, August 5th
10 AM in 110 WIL and via ZOOM
The title of his thesis is “Fresh Quantitative Approaches for High-Throughput Characterization using ChemFETs and Statistical Analysis”
Up next: Doug will be serving as Director of Operations for the Air Force Drug Testing Lab in San Antonio, Texas
Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Arman Garcia
Pluth Lab
Thursday, July 11, 2024
2:00pm in 220 Deschutes and via ZOOM
The title of his thesis is “New Methods for Elemental Sulfur Activation in Water: Development of Hydrophobic Systems for Sulfane Sulfur Utilization”
Up next: Arman will start a post doc position at UC Riverside with Dr. Richard Hooley
Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Kaylin Fosnacht
Pluth Lab
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
2:00 pm in 220 Deschutes and via ZOOM
The title of her thesis is “Advancing the Chemical Understanding of Hydrogen Sulfide and Related Reactive Sulfur Species with Small Molecule Tools for Delivery and Sensing“
Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Yang Zhao
Boettcher Lab
Friday, May 31, 2024
10:00 am via ZOOM
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom Link
The title of her thesis is “Fundamentals of Electrochemical Interfaces: Insights into Electrodes, Electrolytes, and Ion Transfer Kinetics”
Up next: Yang will start a postdoc position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Jacob McKenzie
Brozek Lab
Thursday, May 9, 2024
3:00pm in 240A Mckenzie Hall
and via ZOOM
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom Link
Thesis title and abstract:
“Charge Transport Phenomena in High Surface Area Materials”
While the design of conductive metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and other framework materials for energy storage have seen a major surge in recent years, there are still fundamental questions that remain unanswered. With literature abound describing ion and solvent dependent conductivity in mesoporous media and nonporous conductive polymers we expect such phenomena to be heightened and unique at the interfacial extremes that microporous materials, and 2D Van Der Waals materials possess. We utilize the unique properties of Fe based materials to design model systems in the microporous TMA2FeGe4S10 (TMA: tetramethyl ammonium) and 2D Van Der Waal structure, Fe(SCN)2(pyz)2 to study the impact of solvent and electrochemically inert ions on charge transfer and transport. Taken together, this dissertation describes for the first-time substantial solvent and ion interactions at interfacial extremes, which can’t be neglected in the design of future energy storage technologies, critical to combating increased CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.
Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Michael LeRoy
Brozek Lab
Monday, May 6. 2024
2pm in 211 Lillis Hall and via Zoom
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom link
Thesis title and abstract:
“Using molecular design principles to elucidate the interfacial chemistry of soft materials”
Soft materials are a class of materials including colloids, polymers, DNA, and proteins. Due to their organization on the mesoscopic length scales they exhibit a wide variety of properties such as self-assembly and response to external stimuli. This has led soft materials to be employed in a wide array of applications ranging from catalysis, electrochemistry, and membrane technologies. Ionic liquids and metal-organic framework are two distinct classes of hybrid organic-inorganic soft materials, that are well studied and used as filler materials for polymer membrane separation technologies. However, a current challenge is understanding how the interfacial chemistry between these filler materials and polymer impacts membrane structures and properties. In this dissertation, molecular chemistry is used to explore how mesoscopic properties give rise to those found in the bulk of ionic liquids and nanoscale metal-organic frameworks respectively.
Good luck to Ben McDowell as he defends his thesis for his PhD in Chemistry!
Thursday, March 7, 2024
1:00pm in 260 Condon Hall and via ZOOM
The title of his thesis is ”Structural and Electronic Coupling in Nanoscale Materials”
Up next: Ben will be joining Leidos to do research in their Quantum Technology division
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Janson Hoeher
Widom lab
Thursday, February 229, 2024
10:00am in Willamette 240D and via ZOOM
The title of his thesis is “Using Circular Dichroism and Fluorescence Spectroscopy to Study the Impact of 2-Aminopurine on RNA Folding”
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Sam Shepherd
Prell lab
Monday, February 26, 2024
9:00am in 240C MCK and via ZOOM
Thesis title: “Quantitation of the collisional activation energy in native ion mobility-mass spectrometry using an improved impulsive collision model“
Good luck to Alison Chang as she defends her thesis for her PhD in Chemistry!
Friday, January 12, 2024
1 PM in 132 Lillis Hall and via ZOOM
The title of her thesis is ” The Development and Application of Transition Metal–Hydrides in Catalysis for Alkene Hydrosilylation and Isomerization Reactions”
