UC Irvine Department of Chemistry

Professors Maxx Arguilla and Herdeline (Digs) Ardoña are working to foster Filipino graduate student community at UCI. Read more here: ps.uci.edu/news/3103

Congratulations to the 4 graduate student recipients of the 2024 NSF GRFP and the 6 honorable mentions.

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Iota Sigma Pi (ISP) Calcium Chapter is excited to invite you to their second  ISP UCI Women in Chemistry Symposium! This symposium will feature talks from UCI professors, alumni, and industrial chemists.

More information and registration will be found in UCI email.

Natalie Falco, 4th year Griffin Lab, has been awarded the F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship from NIH! Congratulations Natalie🎉

UCI Chemistry grad students, postdocs, and faculty present at the UC Chemical Symposium. UCCS is a UC wide chemical conference that promotes cross UC collaboration.

Research done by Dima FIshman and team featured on the cover of ACS Nano. This study underscores the critical role of photon momenta in light-matter interactions – an aspect previously associated only with high energy photons in classical Compton scattering

Read more about the work and the Fishman Lab below:

http://chem.uci.edu/~dmitryf/people.html…
doi/10.1021/acsnano.3c12666

🌎Happy Earth Month! We will be celebrating this beautiful planet of ours all month long with special content and events you won’t want to miss.

New publication in Frontiers in Education by Prof Renee Link and graduate students on the beneficial effects of learning assistants in undergraduate labs and classrooms.

Learn more about the LA program at UCI and read the publication below:

doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2024.1367087

https://dtei.uci.edu/opportunities/faculty/learning-assistants/certified-learning-assistants-program-clap/

Iota Sigma Pi (ISP) Calcium Chapter.
Antoinette Antonucci, 3rd year in the D**g Lab, is the ISP Vice President and is working to build community between female-identifying students in the UCI Chemistry Department.



Learn more about Antoinette and her research and ISP below:
https://sites.google.com/uci.edu/vydonggroup
iotasigmapi.org

Repost from :
A recent study out of UC Irvine found that vehicle brakes produce charged particles that may post a risk to public health. The finding could support efforts to contain an important source of air pollution.

Read more at bit.ly/PhysSciNews

Jessica Granger-Jones, 3rd year Finkeldei Lab, has been awarded the Fuel Cycle and Waste Division Scholarship from the American Nuclear Society! Congratulations Jessica 🎉

Empowering Women Through Mentorship.
Jess Pazienza, 5th year in the Rychnovsky Lab, is the EWOC campus representative and is working to bring mentorship and community to female-identifying chemists from UCI and beyond!

Learn more about Jess and her research and EWOC below:
https://sites.uci.edu/rychnovskylab/
https://ewochem.org/

ISP is hosting a spring egg hunt event next Thursday at 4:30 pm in Aldrich Park! You are welcome to bring your family and friends, and we hope to see you all there!

Happy Pi Day from the Department of chemistry! 🥧
What is your favorite type of pi(e)?

✨Fun fact!
The record for reciting the most number of decimal places of Pi was achieved by Rajveer Meena at VIT University, Vellore, India on 21 March 2015. He was able to recite 70,000 decimal places. To maintain the sanctity of the record, Rajveer wore a blindfold throughout the duration of his recall, which took an astonishing 10 hours!

New Faculty Spotlight: Matt Sheldon. The Sheldon lab explores how nanoscale materials modify the behavior of light toward the goal of energy science. We are to have the Sheldon lab join us at UCI and can’t wait to see the great research they accomplish.

Learn more about the Sheldon Lab at the link below: https://sites.uci.edu/msheldonlab/

Congratulations to the 2023-2024 DEI fellows for the School of Physical Sciences. These fellows are responsible for leading initiatives on campus to propel the mission of inclusion. This year the chemistry department holds four of these fellowship positions.

You can read more about the DEI fellows for the School of Physical Sciences here:
https://ps.uci.edu/dei-graduate-leaders-fellowship

This , we’re celebrating the invaluable contributions of women to the sciences - from historic breakthroughs to ongoing discoveries.

Don’t miss out! Homecoming is this Saturday, March 2! Go to http://homecoming.uci.edu to register.

Black History Month Researcher Spotlight : Ali Younis is a 5th year in the Borovik Lab working on synthesis of artificial metalloproteins. Ali discussed the importance of POC spaces in the sciences and his experience attending a NOBCChE conference.

Check out these other UCI student academic organizations that support POC and help to build community

maps

ChemUNITY and PACE (Physics & Astronomy Community Excellence) invite you to amentorship workshop on Wednesday, February 14th, at 11am-2pm, in ISEB 1010 (auditorium), sponsored by the School of Physical Sciences. We are peer mentorship programs assisting incoming graduate students in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Hour-long discussions will be facilitated by faculty and staff members and cover fundamental skills in navigating mentor-mentee relationships in graduate school and beyond.
 
11am-12pm: ChemUNITY Department Workshop
12pm-1pm: Lunch Discussion on Academic Wellness
1pm-2pm: PACE Department Workshop
 
Please RSVP by Sunday, February 11th, to let us know if you are coming!

Black History Month Researcher Spotlight : Ciara Gillis is a 2nd year in the Yang Lab working on reactive capture and conversion of CO2. Ciara believes that finding mentors who will advocate for you as well as others, has been instrumental in her success as a researcher.

Professor Yang has recently been awarded the Beall Innovation Award for the labs work on CO2 capture.

Read more about the Yang Lab and Prof Jenny Yang’s Award below:

http://yanggroup.weebly.com/

https://www.chem.uci.edu/node/24835

We proudly honor Black History Month and recognize the invaluable contributions of our Black faculty, researchers, students, staff and alumni. Their year-round contributions drive innovation and discovery that shape the future of the physical sciences.

Congratulations to the 2023-2024 Science Communication fellows for the School of Physical Sciences. They are responsible for bringing new and interesting stories covering science and research news . Rain Talosig is the Chemistry Department SciComm fellow and is a 5th year in the Patterson Lab. You can read more about the science communication fellows for the School of Physical Sciences here: https:/ps.uci.edu/news/3029

Repost from
Joshua Britton, Ph.D. was a visiting graduate student in the UC Irvine Department of Chemistry working in the lab of Professor Gregory Weiss when he developed an efficient and green method of synthesizing molecules found only in minute quantities in plants.
“While Joshua was visiting my lab from Colin Raston’s lab at Flinders University in Australia, he invented a way to accelerate enzymes - the machines that make life possible by catalyzing chemical transformations,” said Weiss, whose lab studies how molecules, including enzymes, operate.
The biotech company, Debut, launches its first skincare line based on work done in the lab of UCl Professor Gregory Weiss. Read more at the link in our bio.

Congratulations to Prof Maxx Arguilla for being awarded the NSF Career award. This work aims to aid his group in developing ultrathin optical and electronic materials.

Photos provided by the Maxx Lab

📣Apply now for the UCI Grad Slam! The deadline is this Sunday, January 21st.
https://gradslam.universityofcalifornia.edu/

Chemistry students are invited to ChemUNITY & DECADE’s end of the year celebration. See email for date/time/location.

Join us tomorrow in the UCI Student Center Emerald Bay at 4:00 pm for the E.K.C Lee Event, "What’s in a shape? Towards a unifying picture of bonding and crystal complexity" by Prof. Sharon C. Glotzer from the University of Michigan.

Join us tomorrow in ISEB 1010 at 2:00pm for a Ph.D. Defense, "Analyzing the Long-Term Aging of Secondary Organic Aerosols and the Impacts of Acidity" by Cynthia Wong in the Nizkorodov Group.