On December 5, the Chemistry department held its 4th annual Graduate Research Symposium. The event celebrated the research accomplishments within the department, featuring talks by 4th year graduate students, poster presentations, and a keynote lecture by department alum (Ph.D. 1984) Professor Emeritus Jeff Byers from Middlebury College.
Eight 4th year graduate students, Zhanibek (John) Bekkhozhin, Patrick Damacet, Zhou Deng, Michelle Garcia, Yingze Jing, Grace Lawhern, Shefali Patra, and Vedang Puranik, delivered research talks on topics ranging from the study of proteins at the molecular level to the design of cutting-edge materials for electronics, sensing, and catalysis. Among these students, Patick Damacet from the Mirica Group was awarded as the presenter with the most engaging talk by popular vote.
Graduate students and postdocs in the department also presented posters on their research. Nakyeong Ahn from the Qi group won the prize for best poster by popular vote, while Mia Holroyd from the Glueck Group was awarded by a panel of postdocs for having the best poster based on scientific merit.
The symposium was capped by Prof. Jeff Byers’ keynote lecture entitled “One Thing Always Leads to Another: From Steele Hall to Emeritus”, where he shared some highlights from his research group’s work on novel radical chain reactions for organic synthesis as well as a few insightful tokens of wisdom for researchers in the early stages of their careers.