3rd-year Graduate Student Research Symposium

About the Conference

The 25th annual Chemistry Graduate Student Research Symposium is being held June 4th, 2026.  Please continue checking this site, our department calendar and email for updates. The symposium primarily consists of research presentations by third-year graduate students in the Chemistry Ph.D. program at the University of Minnesota. Presentations will take place in four concurrent sessions and will be 20 minutes in length with an additional 5 minutes reserved for discussion. All presentations will be formally assessed by a committee of faculty members and distinguished celebrity judges. Travel awards will be presented to those individuals judged to have given the top three seminars in each of the four sessions for a total of twelve awards. Written feedback will also be provided to all presenters.

It is the intent of the faculty that full attendance by all departmental faculty and students will be a high priority. 

Schedule Overview

• 8:30 a.m. – Opening Remarks (B50 Tate Hall)
• 8:45 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. – Morning Session (Rooms B20, 101, 110, 105)
  • 10:25 AM – 15 minute break
• 12:20 – 1:30 p.m. – Lunch Break 
• 1:35 – 3:15 p.m. – Afternoon Session (Rooms B20, 101, 110, 105)
• 3:15 – 3:45 p.m. – Break (Judges confer)
• 3:45 p.m. – Awards Ceremony & Closing Remarks (Tate Hall Atrium)

Abstracts

Abstracts are available on the Chemistry Intranet.

Program Breakdown

Morning Session

Bioanalytical – B20 Tate Hall

• 8:45 a.m. – Jordan Kunze
  • DEVELOPMENT OF AFFINITY MICRO FREE FLOW ELECTROPHORESIS IMMUNOASSAY FOR LEPTIN
  • Advisor: Bowser  
• 9:10 a.m. – Rose Liyanagunawardana 
  • DETECTION OF LOW ABUNDANCE SECRETED CELLULAR SENESCENCE MARKERS THROUGH NANOPARTICLE-BASED MASS CYTOMETRY
  • Advisor: Arriaga
• 9:35 a.m. – Gabrielle Blake* 
  • Scalable Native Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry with Online Tangential Flow Filtration
  • Advisor: Gadkari  
• 10:00 a.m. – Rhea Caldwell 
  • Development & Investigation of Glutathione Carbon Dots as biosensors for in vitro Oxidative Stress Monitoring in Cells
  • Advisor: Haynes  
• 10:40 a.m. –Sandra Nwankwo 
  • CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR ALPHA USING ONLINE AFFINITY MICRO FREE-FLOW ELECTROPHORESIS.
  • Advisor: Bowser  
• 11:05 a.m. – Eledon Beyene* 
  • Characterizing the Higher Order Structure and Efficacy of Stressed Antibodies via Native Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry and Gas Phase Unfolding
  • Advisor: Gadkari  
• 11:30 a.m. – Jaya Jakhar 
  • DETECTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CATALYTIC DNA USING DROPLET MICROFLUIDICS.
  • Advisor: Bowser  
• 11:55 a.m. – Ikumi Ellis 
  • Fungal Siderophores: Secondary Metabolites Produced by Fungal Endophytes Influence Switchgrass Micronutrient Acquisition
  • Advisor: Boiteau  

Physical Chemistry – 101 Tate Hall       

• 8:45 a.m. – Luis Padilla Jr 
  • SPECTROSCOPIC AND COMPUTATIONAL CHARACTERIZATION OF ETHYLFLUOROSULFATE AND ETHYLCHLOROSULFATE: A GAS PHASE MICROWAVE STUDY
  • Advisor: K. Leopold  
• 9:10 a.m. – Killian MacFeely 
  • PROBING NON-THERMAL PLASMA-LIQUID ELECTRIC FIELD MAGNITUDES IN OPERANDO WITH RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY
  • Advisor: Frontiera  
• 9:35 a.m. – Timothy Krogmeier 
  • UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS OF COMPETING SPIN-PAIR DEPHASING PATHWAYS IN MOLECULAR SPINS
  • Advisor: Head-Marsden  
• 10:00 a.m. – Abhinav Kapur 
  • CHARGE-TRANSFER-INDUCED NEUTRALIZATION OF SPONTANEOUS ORIENTATION POLARIZATION IN ORGANIC LIGHT-EMITTING DEVICES
  • Advisor: Holmes
• 10:40 a.m. – Victor Drewanz Gnani Ernesto 
  • PROTON TRANSFER IN THE GAS PHASE DRIVEN BY A SUPERACID: THE MICROWAVE CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TRIMETHYLAMMONIUM FLUOROSULFATE ION PAIR.
  • Advisor: K. Leopold  
• 11:05 a.m. – Claire Arnold 
  • INVESTIGATION OF THE INFLUENCE OF DNA DAMAGE ON LIPID DROPLET COMPOSITION IN AML12 CELLS USING RAMAN MICROSCOPY
  • Advisor: Frontiera  
• 11:30 a.m. – Emmanuel Adeniyi 
  • INFLUENCE OF CHEMISORBED N-HETEROCYCLIC CARBENES ON INTERFACIAL SOLVENT DYNAMICS AND HYDROGEN EVOLUTION REACTION OVER PLATINUM(111) SURFACES
  • Advisor: Neurock  
• 11:55 a.m. – Saranya Velliyarat 
  • METALLIC CONDUCTION AND ANISOTROPIC CHARGE TRANSPORT IN TETRATHIAFULVALENE-BASED CONDUCTING COORDINATION POLYMERS.
  • Advisor: Boyn

Chemical Biology – 110 Tate Hall        

• 8:45 a.m. – Joseph da Costa 
  • USING DIRECTED EVOLUTION TO ALTER THE STRUCTURE OF PROLYL-HYDROXYLASE DOMAIN TO MODULATE THE HUMAN HYPOXIA RESPONSE
  • Advisor: Bhagi-Damodaran  
• 9:10 a.m. – Shanwen Ke 
  • Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Prenylation Prosubstrates for Enhanced Cellular Uptake and In Vivo Labeling Efficiency
  • Advisor: Distefano  
• 9:35 a.m. – Isabella Jacobsen 
  • Harnessing E3 ligase scaffolding protein MAGEA11 for cancer-specific protein degradation
  • Advisor: Pomerantz Georg 
• 10:00 a.m. – Deborah Karunagaran 
  • PROBING PENICILLIN-BINDING PROTEIN ADAPTATIONS TO ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS
  • Advisor: Carlson  
• 10:40 a.m. – Muhammad Umer Syed 
  • DELETION OF RND EFFLUX PUMPS AFFECTS MOTILITY IN PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA
  • Advisor: Carlson  
• 11:05 a.m. – Anjana Painamittathu Sundaresan 
  • METABOLIC LABELING VERSUS IN VITRO INCORPORATION REVEALS THAT PRENYLATION STATUS IMPACTS PROTEIN STABILITY
  • Advisor: Distefano  
• 11:30 a.m. – Ethan Essenfeld 
  • EXPANDING TARGETED PROTEIN DEGRADATION: IMPROVED DEGRADER PHYSIOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND NON-UBIQUITINATED DEGRADATION PATHWAYS
  • Advisor: Pomerantz  
• 11:55 a.m. – Srujana Mohanty 
  • Development Of SLO3 and CatSper Inhibitors as Non-Hormonal Male Contraceptives
  • Advisor: Georg  

Synthesis – 105 Tate Hall

• 8:45 a.m. – Felicia (Chia-Ling) Yu 
  • Energy-Activated and Diversifiable Aryne Precursors
  • Advisor: Roberts  
• 9:10 a.m. – Nitha Puthalath 
  • Asymmetric Inert Bond Activation and Functionalization Using Chiral 2-Aminopyridine Transient Directing Groups (cTDGs)
  • Advisor: Douglas  
• 9:35 a.m. – Stephanie Castillo 
  • Structure-Property Relationships of Polymers with Main-Chain Polar Heterocycles
  • Advisor: Lamb  
• 10:00 a.m. – Nandha Karthikeyan 
  • EMPLOYING DECARBOXYLATION TO STUDY FIELD EFFECTS
  • Advisor: Hoover  
• 10:40 a.m. – Ali Younis 
  • CHALLENGES IN 5-MEMBERED HETEROARYNES: OVERCOMING BORATE COMPLEX FORMATION THROUGH COMPUTATIONALLY GUIDED LIGAND DESIGN
  • Advisor: Roberts  
• 11:05 a.m. – Avneesh Kumar 
  • MILD EXTERNAL BASE FREE SYNTHESIS OF α-ARYL-α-HETEROARYLMALONONITRILES VIA PROTON-TRANSFER DUAL-IONIZATION NUCLEOPHILIC AROMATIC SUBSTITUTION
  • Advisor: Grenning  
• 11:30 a.m. – Alison Duckworth 
  • CHAIN-STRAIGHTENING, NON-ALTERNATING COPOLYMERIZATION OF a-OLEFINS AND CARBON MONOXIDE TOWARDS PHOTODEGRADABLE KETO-POLYETHYLENE
  • Advisor: Tonks  
• 11:55 a.m. – Douglas Kavaguti 
  • Regioselective Synthesis of Carbazoles: When Mechanistic Investigations Unveil Unexpected Reactivity
  • Advisor: Roberts  

Afternoon Session

Energy and Environment – B20 Tate Hall

• 1:35 p.m. – Aiden Berndt 
  • DRIVERS OF DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER COMPOSITION IN PRAIRIE POTHOLE WETLANDS
  • Advisor: Boiteau  
• 2:00 p.m. – Mia Halliday 
  • INVESTIGATING ORGANIC INTERFACES FOR EFFICIENT WATER SPLITTING USING VIBRATIONAL SUM FREQUENCY GENERATION SPECTROSCOPY
  • Advisor: Massari  
• 2:25 p.m. – Caini Huang 
  • COMPARISON OF THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF DISSOLVED ORGANIC MATTER FROM GROUNDWATER AND RIVER SOURCES TO THE WEST FLORIDA SHELF
  • Advisor: Boiteau  
• 2:50 p.m. – Aleksander Rabago 
  • STABILITY AND COMPETITIVE SORPTION OF LIGNIN-DERIVED ORGANIC ACIDS ON GOETHITE: THE ROLE OF CARBOXYL AND CATECHOL FUNCTIONAL GROUPS
  • Advisor: Penn & Boiteau 

Materials – 101 Tate Hall   

• 1:35 p.m. – Benjamin Clayville 
  • Selective Li ion Transport via Interpenetrated Crystal Growth on ZIF-8 Seeded Nanocomposite Membranes.
  • Advisor: Park
• 2:00 p.m. – Maria Komal 
  • OPTIMIZATION OF POLYMERIC MEMBRANES FOR MINIATURIZED ION-SELECTIVE SENSORS FOR CONTINUOUS AND REAL-TIME MONITORING OF ELECTROLYTES IN INTERSTITIAL FLUID
  • Advisor: Stein
• 2:25 p.m. – Liam Warren
  • ENABLING IONIC CONDUCTIVITY IN METAL-ORGANIC MATERIALS (MOMs) 
  • Advisor: Park
• 2:50 p.m. – Kathryn Bairley 
  • 3D MANGANESE-BASED ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE METAL-ORGANIC FRAMEWORK WITH ELECTROCHROMIC PROPERTIES
  • Advisor: Park

Polymers – 110 Tate Hall  

• 1:35 p.m. – David Santiago 
  • SCALABLE APPROACH TO RECYCLABLE CROSSLINKED POLYETHYLENE FROM HYDROXY TELECHELIC PRECURSORS
  • Advisor: Hillmyer  
• 2:00 p.m. – Luc Wetherbee 
  • Investigating The Effect of Strong Dipole Incorporation in Homopolymers and Adhesive Tie Layers
  • Advisor: Lamb  
• 2:25 p.m. – Miles Willis
  • NOVEL POLYMERIC EXCIPIENTS FOR IMPROVED ORAL DELIVERY OF CLASS IV ACTIVE PHARMACEUTICAL INGREDIENTS 
  • Advisor: Reineke  
• 2:50 p.m. – Simran Simran 
  • BULK RING-OPENING TRANSESTERIFICATION POLYMERIZATION OF γ-METHYL ε-CAPROLACTONE USING HCl 
  • Advisor: Hillmyer  

Synthesis – 105 Tate Hall

• 1:35 p.m. – Sanu Pullarat 
  • EXPANDING ACCESS TO PREVIOUSLY INACCESSIBLE HETEROARYNES
  • Advisor: Roberts  
• 2:00 p.m. – Rolando Calderon-Oliver 
  • N-HETEROCYCLIC CARBENE-CARBODIIMIDE (NHC-CDI) ADDUCTS AS TUNABLE PLATFORMS FOR STUDYING ORGANIC INTERMEDIATES
  • Advisor: Lamb  
• 2:25 p.m. – Katherine Dallmier 
  • IDENTIFICATION OF APOBEC3A INHIBITORS FROM A COMPLEX-TO-DIVERSE NATURAL PRODUCT SCREEN
  • Advisor: Harki