hUMNs of Chemistry #1

Rana Abdu

(she/her)
Graduate Student, Roberts Group

Tell us about your journey to the University of Minnesota.

I’m originally from Colorado and got my BA in biochemistry at Colorado College. I applied to graduate schools mostly in the midwest as I did not want to live on either coast. I ended up picking the University of Minnesota because there were a couple of professors that I was interested in working with. I also liked the department culture, and that the Twin Cities are decently sized.

Are you involved in any student groups? What inspired you to get involved?

I am currently part of the Graduate Student Workshop Committee (GSWC), Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), and SciMentors. I got involved so I can meet people outside of my group and to strengthen my sense of belonging in the department by organizing events and meeting others with similar identities to me. 

Tell us about an important mentor in your academic life?

My undergraduate chemistry professors, specifically Dr. Jessica Kisunzu and Dr. Habiba Vaghoo, were instrumental to me getting to graduate school. I was able to drop-by their offices regularly to ask questions and get advice but also just chat about life. They helped make the chemistry department a welcoming space and instilled confidence in me that allowed me to pursue graduate school.

What do you do outside of the classroom/lab/office for fun?

Outside of lab, I love to go on hikes around the Twin Cities but also exploring some of the further away national parks. I have also built a PC gaming setup and started getting back into playing video games after taking a break during undergrad. 

Where is your favorite spot in the Twin Cities?

Gold medal park is one of my favourite spots. I lived close to it during my first year and would go there often. I like that I can just walk around the park or that I can also go to nearby spots like the stone arch bridge or the mill city farmers market.

Mollie Dunlap

(she/her)
Associate Administrator

Please give a brief description of your role within the department.

One of my roles is to help faculty with administrative requests, such as assisting with faculty searches, meetings of our Chemistry External Advisory Board and promotion and tenure assistance. I also work with our international postdocs and visitors to help facilitate their arrival in our department, connect our on campus recruiters with our students and postdocs for future employment opportunities, and help with departmental events throughout the year.

Tell us about your journey to the University of Minnesota.

I lived in Florida until 2012 and taught elementary school there. I had the opportunity to move to Minnesota, a change was very much needed, so the timing was perfect. I tried to find a job in public school here, but it was quite a process to transfer my credentials from Florida to Minnesota. I had been applying for jobs at the U, and when I did get forward momentum on a Minnesota teaching certificate, I had received a job offer at the University.

Do you have a background in or like chemistry? Tell us about it!

I made it through 2 weeks of Chemistry in high school, if that counts.

What professional successes are most important to you?

Professional successes that are important to me are the things that help make the Chemistry experience a meaningful one for our students, postdocs, and visitors.

What do you hope to contribute to the chemistry community at the University?

I hope that my biggest contribution to the Chemistry community is to be one of the people in our department that everyone feels comfortable enough to come to with anything that they need help with.

What was your very first job?

I worked as a dishwasher in a small, family owned restaurant.

What do you do outside of the classroom/lab/office for fun?

I love riding my bike, taking road trips, and hiking.

What non-chemistry interest or activity of yours might surprise department members?

Even though I grew up in Florida, I love everything about winter.

Where is your favorite spot in the Twin Cities?

The many bike trails that I have access to without having to drive my car.

Tell us about who makes up your household (including pets).

Myself, my son, Will, who is a graphic design student at the U, and two cats - Bentley and Sheik.

---

Aaron Massari

(he/him) 
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Tell us about your journey to the University of Minnesota.

It's been a game of Plinko (look it up kids), and in retrospect there were a lot of random events and advice that pushed me around until I popped out in this job.  Undergrad research was probably the most formative. It shook me out of a fog in my junior year and put me on a track to be a chemist. The grad student with whom I worked was probably one of the most influential mentors in pointing me to where I am now. He was incredibly patient and always fired up to work on whatever we were working on. His enthusiasm was infectious and it always felt like I was working with him rather than for him.  

We would love to hear more about your research!
What do you hope to accomplish with this work? What is the real-world impact for the average person?

The knee jerk response to that question is usually "we shoot lasers at molecules and see how they wiggle". In science speak, we use short pulses of infrared light, basically heat, to excite molecular vibrations, and then we measure how those vibrations change over time. The real-world impact of this type of work is that we can learn about how energy flows through molecules and materials, which affects the way that things heat up and cool down, the way that electricity moves, and the speed that chemical reactions occur.

What courses do you teach? What can students expect to get out of your course?

I teach a range of courses, from freshman through graduate-level courses. I hope that students take away from any course that I teach an appreciation for how relevant chemistry is in their lives. I hope that they walk out of the classroom and notice new things and wonder how they work. Or maybe they see something they've seen a thousand times but now they see it differently. Maybe they wonder what the molecules are doing inside to make it do what it does.

What’s your favorite piece of chemistry/science pop culture media? Why do you love it?

Pretty much anything that involves time travel -- TV, movies, books. I think the perfectionist in me likes the idea that there's always a possibility to do things over and do them better with time travel. At the same time, the scientist in me loves the reality check that do-overs often have unintended consequences and introduce errors that propagate. Thinking about how things collapse into chaos (or somehow don't) when timelines intersect is entertaining escapism.

What was your very first job?

My very first job was cutting grass at a cemetery in the town where I grew up. Most of the time it wasn't as creepy as it sounds. But occasionally it got really creepy, especially at dusk.

Where is your favorite spot in the Twin Cities?

Mississippi River Trail is beautiful; Franconia Sculpture Park is one of my favorites; the Turf Club is always memorable. And there is a secret place from which you can see all of the fireworks displays in both metros and all the suburbs at once on the Fourth of July, but you'll have to find it!