Kendall is a rising senior at Louisiana State University of Alexandria in Alexandria, Louisiana. She is on track to complete her bachelor's degree in Chemistry with a minor in both mathematics and business. After graduating in Spring of 2023, she plans to join a graduate program to earn her PhD in chemistry and use the degree to work in industry. This summer, Kendall is conducting research in Dr. Jianbing “Jimmy” Jiang’s group under the guidance of graduate student, Jack McGrath. For the program, her research interest will be the synthesis and evaluation of organic redox-active materials for redox flow batteries. Redox flow batteries (RFB) are large-scale stationary energy storage machines that are highly popular due to their safety and cost efficiency benefits. The redox-active, organic materials that Kendall will help synthesize varies in redox property and solubility in both aqueous and organic systems. After synthesizing the compounds, electrochemical evaluation of the substance will be done to assess the relationship between structure and performance of the compound in a redox flow battery. The hope for this ongoing research is that the RFBs will aid in efficient energy storage and help alleviate harmful environmental factors of established energy storage solutions.
Hello, I am Justin Perdomo soon to be a junior at Kenyon College in Gambier Ohio. I will be a chemistry major and I have an interest in biochemistry. This summer I am working in Dr. Kim’s lab. In the lab, we are working on the reconstitution SLX1-SLX4-PLK1 complex. This complex plays a role in the DNA damage repair process. The first aim is to express and purify the PLK1 protein and SLX4-1632 protein. The second goal is to pull down between the PLK1 and SLX4, USP16, and CHFR proteins. The ultimate goal is to identify new mechanisms of DNA damage response.
Kristine Maxwell is a rising senior at Truman State University. She is currently majoring. in Chemistry and intends to specialize in environmental chemistry after she obtains her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. A little insight into her personal life: she grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and hopes to have enough money so that she can travel the world comfortably. She has fou siblings and her favorite color is sky blue. This summer 2022, Kristine is working with Brandi James in Dr. Anna Gudmundsdottir's lab to study the photodynamic motions of organic azide crystals, specifically of 1-azido-2-nitrobenzene (1A-2NB) crystals. Dynamic azide crystals are materials that respond to external stimuli, release N2 gas, and have the ability to convert light to mechanical motion such as bending, flipping, cracking, etc. When these crystals are paired with low-energy visible light, we can influence cost-effective and sustainable reactions since we are minimizing solvent waste. However, before we can use these azide crystals in applications such as robotics, sensors, etc., we need to understand their crystal packing and forces between the lattices, which dictate how the crystal will react to external stimuli. Throughout the summer, she will continue to learn several complex laboratory techniques involving such as synthesis, characterization of compounds (TLC, IR, NMR spectroscopy), photolysis methods (including sample preparation), crystallization methods, and waste safety whilst handling these materials. Overall, because azides are potentially explosive, we take a lot of safety measures into our procedures and follow them meticulously.