As Teresa Rapp and Matthias Agne enter their second year as members of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department’s research faculty, we thought we’d ask them for some thoughts and highlights from their first year at the University of Oregon. Here’s what they had to share ~

Teresa Rapp

What a whirlwind of a year it’s been! When I started at the U of O in September 2023, I was excited to jump into research and start mentoring and working with all the fabulous UO students! Little did I know I’d soon be managing over 12 trainees in my burgeoning research lab. Over the last 12 months we’ve converted 2/3rds of our lab space to a dark room with red light to build our light sensitive molecules, we’ve taken on two PhD students, a Master’s Intern, a Research Scientist, and 13 undergrads who have all made great progress towards their respective projects. I’m very proud of the group community we’ve built in our first year as a lab, and I look forward to all the years to come!

Matthias Agne

As we charge into our second year, I am so proud looking back at the team that has gotten us this far – and I cannot express enough thankfulness for the tremendous PhD rotation students, MS students and undergrads who gave so much of their time and energy to help build the lab and develop our capabilities. Our core team of 4 PhD students are currently tackling hard fundamental problems in energy materials research, from assessing vibrational dynamics in solids for better control of thermal and ionic transport to understanding thermodynamic driving forces for degradation in solid-state batteries, and more! They have taken huge initiative to develop these projects from concept to first results, and we anticipate a very productive year ahead. I would like to recognize the amazing support that I have received from my faculty colleagues and our administrative staff, which has made starting at the University of Oregon such a great experience. I look forward to continuing to grow our team at all academic levels and building collaborations here at UO and around the world!