News Highlights

Four Chemistry graduate students awarded Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships
Four Chemistry graduate students have been awarded 2023-24 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships. The awardees are Beza Tuga, Erin Plasek, Rachel Rapagnani, and Shelby Auger. The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship gives UMN’s most accomplished PhD candidates an opportunity to devote full-time effort to their research by providing time to finalize and write their dissertation during the fellowship year.

Undergraduate junior Ethan Ashbrook named a 2023 Goldwater Scholar
Chemistry undergraduate student Ethan Ashbrook has been named a 2023 Goldwater Scholar. Ethan is a junior in the University of Minnesota Chemistry BS program working with Professor Ian Tonks.

Rene Boiteau joins Department of Chemistry faculty
The Department of Chemistry will welcome Rene Boiteau as an Assistant Professor in fall 2023. Boiteau has been a faculty member at Oregon State University since 2018, with a joint appointment in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Division. The Boiteau Group works to address critical knowledge gaps regarding the mechanisms by which plants and microbes control elemental cycles in oceans, rivers, industrial/wastewaters, sediments, and soils by transforming various organic and inorganic chemical species.

Jessica Hoover joins Department of Chemistry faculty
The Department of Chemistry will welcome Professor Jessica Hoover to the faculty in fall 2023. Hoover joins the University of Minnesota from West Virginia University, where she has been a faculty member since 2012. Research in the Hoover Group is focused on mapping the mechanisms of organic transformations catalyzed by transition- metal complexes, with particular interest in catalytic redox reactions in which bond- breaking and -forming steps occur along with oxidation or reduction steps.

Chemistry Diversity and Inclusion Committee debuts DEI Self-Study program
The Department of Chemistry Diversity & Inclusion Committee is introducing a new self-study program for the UMN Chemistry community. The program encourages students, faculty, and staff to engage with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) lessons and stories through a variety of multimedia resources.

Professor Christy Haynes named new head of the Department of Chemistry
College of Science and Engineering Dean Andrew Alleyne has named Distinguished McKnight University Professor Christy Haynes as the next head of the Department of Chemistry. She will start in the role in summer 2023.