Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Ashley Mapile
Richmond/Scatena and Brozek Labs
Thursday, August 15, 2024
2pm in 110 Willamette and via Zoom
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom link
The title of her thesis is “Unique Mechanisms of Colloidal Stability Probed by Surface-Specific Vibrational Spectroscopy”
Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Eoghan Gormley
Hendon Lab
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
10:00 AM in 110 Willamette Hall
and via ZOOM
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom link
The title of his thesis is “Simulation of Defects in Molecular Materials using ab initio Methods”
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Robin Bumbaugh
Hendon Lab
Tuesday, August 13, 2024
2:oo PM in 110 Willamette Hall
and via ZOOM
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom link
The title of her thesis is “Investigation and Evaluation of Coffee Qualities Through Electrochemical Methods”
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Upcoming Thesis Defense
Nolan McNeill
Michael Haley and Darren Johnson Labs
Thursday, August 8th, 2024
12pm in 110 Willamette Hall
and via ZOOM
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom link
The title of his thesis is “Substitution and Analysis of Additional Heteroatoms in 1,2λ5-Azaphosphinines”
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.
