Many thanks to Prof. Wei Zhao and Prof. Steve Baldelli for the invitation to speak at their symposium on Advances in Applied Nonlinear Spectroscopy. It has been an exciting symposium, and I certainly appreciate the hybrid format. We were able to fit in a taste of Zach’s exciting new work on the P3HT project!

A warm welcome to Laila, who will be working with us for the remainder of the summer and starting as a rotation student in our lab for fall quarter. Laila will be learning to synthesize some mixed-halide perovskite nanocrystals and measuring them during growth and during photo-induced halide segregation. We’re looking forward to working with you, Laila, welcome to Eugene!

Best wishes to Sonja, who volunteered in our lab as a highschool student. Sonja made significant progress in improving our synthesis of mixed-halide nanocrystals during her time here, and we are looking forward to seeing her research career take off when she joins a new lab at Syracuse University. We will miss your great questions at group meeting, the photos of your baking creations, and your reports on Mistoffelees the cat and your neighborhood garbage bear!

Today was Brandon’s last official day in our group, before he heads off to pursue his doctorate at UIUC. We will miss Brandon, his endless supply of interesting trivia, his amazing food at our potlucks, and his interesting wardrobe, which always kept us guessing! We’re thankful for all he has contributed to the lab, and we’re looking forward to seeing all of the great science he does at UIUC!

A big congrats to Laura, who was selected for the Anita and Friedhelm Baitis Scholarship! Laura was one of only two awardees from the Chemistry Department this year. This is a well-earned recognition of Laura’s stellar academic work at UO, and will support her research in the lab this summer. Looking forward to a fun summer and seeing everything Laura can achieve! Read more about it here.

Many thanks to Prof. Chris Bardeen and Prof. Suggy Jang for organizing a great Telluride conference on excitons, and for the kind invitation. In addition to Kelly, Madi, and Morgan’s work on pseudoisocyanine aggregates, I also added in Zach’s impressive new SSTA measurements during the annealing of donor-acceptor bulk heterojunctions! Thanks for pulling that together, Zach! What a great way to end this academic year.

A big congrats to Brandon, who graduated with honors today, and was selected for the Warner Peticolas Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Chemical Research in Physical Chemistry! This award is an annual prize to a University of Oregon undergraduate who has distinguished themself by performing the best research in Physical Chemistry. Well deserved, Brandon – congrats!

Big congrats to Michael and James on their Graduate Student Awards for Excellence in the Teaching of Chemistry! Michael was the head TA for the General Chemistry Laboratory this year, while James was a TA for the Physical Chemistry Laboratory. Great job, both!

A big congratulations to Laura on receiving the Pchem Undergraduate Fellowship! The fellowship will allow her to continue her research this summer on the thermal annealing of squaraine thin films, so she can understand how the changing intermolecular orientations affect the electronic structure and dynamics of these potential solar cell materials. Great job, Laura – this is really well deserved!

I’m tremendously honored to receive the A.J. Ersted Award for Distinguished Teaching this year! I’m really grateful to work at a place with fantastic students and for a department, college, and university that cares so deeply about our educational mission. Read about all of the teaching award winners here.