Derek Muensterman has been named one of the Winter 2020 Undergraduates of the Quarter.

Derek is originally from Bend, Oregon and attended Summit High School. After high school, Derek took a break between high school and college. Instead, he went into the cannabis business which exposed him to hydrocarbon extractions and different types of reactions. The information he obtained originated from an open source provided by a community which inspired his passion for chemistry.

While attending community college and working full time, Derek originally wanted to be an Environmental Science. However, with no real end goal yet in site, he began fulfilling the Baccalaureate Core requirements. His work in the cannabis business helped solidify his passion to pursue chemistry.

As an Oregon native, Derek looked at Oregon State and University of Oregon for research opportunities in their STEM programs, ultimately deciding on OSU. Beginning at the endophyte lab, Derek was able to get his first OSU lab position. Using a letter of recommendation from Jennifer Duringer, he was able to move into a more research focused group, getting in touch with Craig Marcus. At the end of the physical year, Marcus extended his info to different research labs, connecting him to Jennifer Fields.

Derek now works in a research lab with Jennifer Fields finding trace contaminants PFAS on suits. These traces are used to address preoccupational exposure to PFAS before workers are even exposed to it.

In his spare time, Derek enjoys snowboarding, fly fishing, and skateboarding. His favorite novel is One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Derek enjoys eating Thai or Southern food however, his favorite food depends on his mood!

After graduation, Derek plans on attending graduate school to earn a PhD. Although it took Derek a while to get his foot in the door for research, being involved has inspired him to be more motivated with chemistry, developing his passion. He urges those who would like to pursue research to keep pushing forward as OSU is an incredible school for it!

Rony Kaluda has been named one of the Winter 2020 Undergraduates of the Quarter.

Originally from Israel, Rony attended Sunset High School in Beaverton, Oregon where her passion for chemistry began. She found the experiments in her high school chemistry classes fun and blowing things up exciting. While Rony has always enjoyed science, these classes just seemed to make sense, leading her to believe it was a sign that she was most attracted to chemistry.

Rony wanted to stay in state and believed OSU was the best option to pursue chemistry and research opportunities. Neal Sleszynski reached out to Roni in her first term at OSU because she began her freshman year with 90 credits. He got her in touch with Claudia Maier to work in a research lab.

Rony applied for the SURE science program for the summer which was a proteomics based program. She is now working on projects looking at pesticide degradation in addition to pollen and phytochemcial stability in different plants. These projects all vary but include mass spectrometry.

In her spare time, Rony enjoys hiking, Tae Kwon Do, and reading her favorite book, Howl’s Moving Castle. Her favorite food is chocolate. After graduation, Rony hopes to become a graduate student in the Maier Lab seeking her Masters in Analytical Chemistry.

Conner Bailey has been named one of the Winter 2019 Undergraduates of the Quarter and we couldn’t be happier for him. Connor grew up in Beaverton Oregon just outside of Portland. He attended Southridge High School for all four years where he found his passion for chemistry through taking stem chemistry in school. His teacher was a chemical engineer before becoming a teacher so he was able to show the students a lot of analytical instruments which sparked his interest in analytical chemistry.

            Conner’s family has a long line of beaver’s from his brothers to his dad, beaver pride runs in his family. Conner was also drawn to Oregon State University due to the chemistry program and the things it has to offer.

Last summer Conner did research under Dr. Maier, he worked on the preliminary research of gangliosides. Through the research they were trying to find methods to separate the gangliosides so that they could get a full analysis of the compounds. Conner received the opportunity to do research through the university’s Summer Undergraduate Research Engagement program.

            Post-graduation Conner hopes to go to graduate school to pursue a PhD in chemistry. Currently he has been accepted into a PhD program at Washington State University.

            Outside of school you can find Conner either kicking a ball around on the soccer field or working on has magic trick skills. Conner has been a magician since middle school, maybe through his degree Conner will be able to hone his magic skills.

            Students like Conner are a huge part of what makes our Department so great.  We wish him well in the future, and cannot wait to see what his next big adventure is.

Dillon Crook has been named one of the Winter 2019 Undergraduates of the Quarter and we couldn’t be happier for him. Dillon grew up in St. Helens Oregon just 30 miles north of Portland in an old lumber and paper mill town. He attended St. Helens High School for all four years and went on to Portland Community College to discover his passion in life and get his Associate of Arts.

            Dillon’s father earned his Master’s in Education here at Oregon State which was one of the driving factors for him to attend school here. In addition, Dillon is a sixth generation Willamette valley resident, furthering his connection to the University. Coming to OSU allowed Dillon to grow his passion for chemistry and education.

For the last three years Dillon has been doing research under Dr. Subramanian, he works on exotic crystal structure analysis of solid oxides; specifically methods using solid state synthesis. As well as characterization and instrumental techniques related to the research. His path to research started with the careers in chemistry course (CH 220) and a job shadow with one of Dr. Subramanian’s graduate students, Sarah Synnestvedt. After the job shadow Dillon become fascinated with Dr. Subramanian’s research and started working under Sarah until she graduated in 2017 with her masters, when he then transitioned to working with Joseph Tang.

            Post-graduation Dillon hopes to teach abroad in Macaw, China for a term, through this experience Dillon hopes to be able to further is career in teaching chemistry or some other physical science at the middle or high school level.  He has already made strides in reaching his goal by being an undergraduate teaching assistant for the general chemistry for non-science major’s courses for the past year.

            Outside of school Dillon likes eating Tacos and enjoying nature. He and his family have traveled across the United States and have visited places such as Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and many other national parks.             Students like Dillon are a huge part of what makes our Department so great.  We wish him well in the future, and cannot wait to see what his next big adventure is.

Noah Tufts was named one of our Undergraduates of the Quarter for Fall 2020 and we’re thrilled to include him!

Noah is an Oregon native and grew up in Aloha before his family moved to Banks. He attended Forest Grove High School where he got a chance to apply his interest in chemistry. His father was a chemist and while he never pushed Noah into pursuing chemistry, he was always fascinated by what his father did as part of his career. He wound up enjoying his high school chemistry course and soon moved into honors chemistry. There he met another teacher who helped stoke his interest, Morey Miller. While TAing and attending AP Chemistry, Mr. Miller gave Noah the chance to run his own experiments and despite his limited success, it solidified his interest in both research and chemistry.

            Wanting to remain close to his family and his home state, OSU was a clear choice for his academic pursuits. He felt that a local school meant he could keep costs low but still have the potential to get involved in research and other opportunities as he discovered them. In fact, it was in Dr. Gable’s CH361 course that he discovered his love of experimental chemistry and decided that research was where he wanted to be. He began asking around for opportunities, meeting TAs and generally getting to know who was looking for researchers. Befriending one of the TA’s in Dr. Gable’s class helped him to find a possible research home in with Dr. Beaudry’s group. He made a point to attend every one of their group meetings and soon enough, a spot opened up and he was able to join.

            Currently, he is working to develop additional methods of optimizing the production of homoherringonine (a drug used to treat leukemia) from its primary intermediary, cephalotaxine-g. He’s not alone in the project, as the lab often has a total of 6-10 people any given term, and it’s an exciting chance to meet new people as the year progresses. He hopes to move into graduate studies after he has completed his degree and eventually move into Organic Synthesis.

            When he’s not in the lab, he is an avid Taekwondo student and is a part of the OSU Taekwondo club. He enjoys the movie, “The Red Turtle” and eating any flavor of curry he can find. We wish Noah well in his pursuits and are glad to have such a passionate and dedicated undergraduate working in our research labs!

Jessica Brown has been named Undergraduate of the Quarter for Fall 2020 and we couldn’t be more proud! A native Oregonian, Jessy grew up in Portland and attended Cleveland High School. She enjoyed studying chemistry because it fits nicely in between biology and physics, two of many science subjects that she enjoys exploring.

She has always been close to his family and OSU seemed like the perfect fit with its broad offering of science majors. The opportunity to explore a variety of disciplines in science was also appealing. It also helped that many of her family members also went to OSU and shared their experiences with her.

She is currently working with the Nyman Research Group. She first met Dr. Nyman during her second term of Inorganic Chemistry but she sought Dr. Nyman out at a Portland event where she discussed her research. In the group she is working on Uranium Sulfate chemistry with Ian Colliard, a graduate student.

The project explores the synthesis and solution properties of monovalent ion uranium sulfate clusters with group 1 ions and the ammonium ion. While she only just started late in the Summer, she is working hard to learn the techniques with her mentor.

Beyond OSU, she is still settling on which field of chemistry is most appealing. Her current plans are to move into graduate studies of inorganic chemistry. We know it can be hard to choose a field when chemistry encompasses and touches on so many!

Outside of school, she enjoys ballroom dancing, painting, gardening and jigsaw puzzles. She also spends time working with a USDA plant pathology lab to maintain a greenhouse of hydroponic grape plants. Her favorite book is “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr and she enjoys blueberries most of all!

Matt Silveira has been named one of our Winter 2021 Undergraduate of the Quarter, and we’re excited to tell you a little more about him.

Matt was raised in the small town of Escalon, California.  He is at least the third generation to graduate from Escalon High School, home of the Cougar’s.  He chose Oregon State because his grandparents would take him and his brother on  vacation in the summer through the Willamette Valley to visit extended family in Walla Walla, and he says, “it’s just a really nice place. I really enjoyed my time here as a kid.”

He had always enjoyed the physical sciences growing up. “You know, when you’re in grade school there really isn’t a distinction between chemistry, physics, biology and all that stuff, but science always stood out. I really didn’t get into chemistry until I was going through General Chemistry at Linn-Benton where I had a professor that was very enthusiastic and she taught in a way that really inspired me to pursue it further, as opposed to a different major I was in at the time. So, when I transferred to Oregon State, I was fully committed to being a chemistry major.”

After deciding to go to Oregon State, Matt was browsing the Chemistry Department website and ran across Dr. Walt Loveland’s website. His research sounded interesting, so he got in touch.  They talked for 15-20 minutes and according to Matt, “before he knew it, I was working in his lab.”  Matt’s job is to manufacture fission targets used for the study of kinetic energy when splitting an atom. The targets are used by graduate students as well as researchers at various National Labs including Livermore or Los Alamos.  He got into this research area because when he was in High School there was an interesting section about radioactivity, and it really intrigued him. Dr. Loveland’s lab was his opportunity to learn more and expand his knowledge as a scientist. During his time with Dr. Loveland, Matt has had a paper published as first author.

After graduation, Matt wants to take a gap year.  He’s also interested in Inorganic Chemistry, so wants to apply for a few different nuclear and inorganic chemistry positions wherever he can.  He says his summer is going to be really heavy into the applications.

When he is not in the lab, Matt is a big outdoorsman.  He says that is another reason why he chose Oregon State is because of its proximity to many good hiking and fishing spots, and will happily spend his time off on a trail in the woods.

His favorite book is a toss-up between For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.  He says his favorite food has to be a classic American Cheeseburger.  Block15 is his go-to when in school, and he thinks they have the best fries in town.

We’re incredibly proud of our Undergraduates of the Quarter and wish Matt all the luck with his future.

Citlali Nieves Lira has been named one of our Winter 2021 Undergraduates of the Quarter and we couldn’t be prouder.

Citlali grew up near the Mexican desert, in the middle of Queretaro.  When she was 14 or 15, she moved to Tigard with her father.  It was a big change for her, going from the desert to the big forest.  She graduated from Tigard High School, home of the Tigard Tigers.  Citlali has always liked the state of Oregon.  She enjoys that there are so many places to go and so many things to see.  She knew she wanted to stay in state to go to college.  Citlali reported that she’s a Ford Scholar, so it’s more financially beneficial to stay in Oregon, she also heard Oregon State had a strong STEM program.  It was an easy decision at that point.

When Citlali was in high school she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. The plan in Mexico was that she wasn’t going to go to college because it’s very hard for women, especially, to get into school and find support there. It wasn’t until her family got to Oregon that she started thinking maybe she could actually go to college and get a degree. She wasn’t sure what that was until she had a chemistry class. She reports having an amazing teacher, who was able to relate Chemistry to everyday life.  “Everything has a reason for happening, and because of chemistry we can explain it.”  Citlali’s teacher told her about an internship program with the ASE. Her teacher helped her apply for it and she interviewed with OSU Professor Marilyn Rampersand Mackiewicz, and was awarded the internship.  That amazing experience was what made Citlali fall in love with Materials chemistry.  “I got to learn a lot about how to actually work in a lab, what a researcher did, what the obligations of a P.I. were, and I just fell in love with the lifestyle. I liked the work you had to put in. I liked the little puzzles chemistry brings every day, although sometimes it was really frustrating because I didn’t get the results or I didn’t get what I was looking for. But at the end of the day there’s always a solution, and there’s always a way to find one, and I really liked and enjoyed that. You can always complete the puzzle, it just takes a while to gather and assemble all the pieces. Besides learning so much about chemistry, I also learned so much about managing my time in the lab, working with others, and sharing ideas, I learned a lot from Dr. Mackiewicz.”

Citlali continued working with Dr. Mackiewicz when she started at OSU.  She works with silver nanoparticles and is tuning the shape and size of them. So, they make different shapes of nanoparticles: triangles, spheres, cubes, rods, and different things that could be used for more applications in chemistry.

After graduation, Citlali wants to attend graduate school for inorganic Chemistry, start working at a university and become a PI of her own lab.  Her back-up plan is to work in industry, as long as her chemistry topic is fun.

Outside of school, Citlali plays tennis.  She admits she’s not that good, but she loves the sport all the same.  She also spends a lot of time on the Equity, Justice and Inclusion committee for the chemistry department, working to make the department more inclusive to under-represented students.  She also enjoys hanging out with her friends and watching movies.  Her favorite book is 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Her favorite food is Sushi.

When asked if there was anything else Citlali thought we should know, she said, “I would like to add that OSU is a pretty great community. There are many resources for people to get help and get to the place they want to be. I had a lot of help getting to school, with people advising me and telling me what to do. If you can just reach out to people that would be great, and also creates a community. Especially for all of my girls in STEM, it can be hard, and we all have got to stick together.”

We are incredibly proud of our students, and especially of Citlali for being an Undergraduate of the Quarter, and we wish her the best of luck with her future.

Madeline Bloom has been named one of our Fall 2020 Undergraduates of the Quarter.  We’re so proud of her.

Madeline was born in the Bay Area of California, but moved to Medford when she was five.  She graduated from South Medford High, home of the Panthers.  According to Madeline, she’s been interested in forensic science ever since middle school.  She chose Oregon State because she saw that our undergraduate program had a forensic sciences option and thought, “Wow, this is perfect.”  She was enamored with the area; the shear amount of research being performed in the department and the opportunities she could potentially get involved with.  Her decision was made.

After her sophomore year she had an internship at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Forensic Lab in Ashland, OR.  That’s where she was first introduced to mass spectrometry as an analytical technique. After that internship, she started researching labs she wanted to be a part of for her Honors Thesis during her junior year.  She came across Dr. Claudia Maier’s Lab in the Mass Spectrometry Center.  After talking with her and meeting her lab group and learning about her research she became super interested in working with her.  After talking about what projects Madeline was interested in she decided to look at the Oxylipins.  Madeline stated that, “even though it isn’t technically related to forensic science, all the skills I am learning are directly applicable.”

She is currently continuing her research in Dr. Maier’s lab. Madeline works alongside Post-doc researcher Dr. Manuel Garcia- Jamarillo, optimizing a method to analyze a group of chemical biomarkers called Oxylipins which are derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids. They’re specifically looking at the biomarkers in human plasma that are derived via biological enzymatic reactions. They’re able to use them to look at different diseases associated with inflammation such as cardiovascular disease or if they’re looking at brain tissues they can look at human diseases associated with the brain. They are currently optimizing a method to quantify these in a triple quad mass spectrometer and then comparing the new method with a standard LC-MS instrument. Madeline is also using this research as a part of her Undergraduate Honors thesis.  She says it’s been a really fun experience, and she’s learned a lot about analytical chemistry and instrumentation and just the scientific method in general.

Madeline graduated in June, and will be attending George Washington University to pursue a Master of Forensic Science in the field of study of Forensic Chemistry in August. After two years in the Master’s program, she hopes to gain employment at a crime lab.

Outside school, Madeline worked as a Peer Advisor for the College of Science and the Science Success Center.  She did this for three years and said she loved it.  She was also a member of the OSU Chamber Choir.  She said music has always been very important to her and she knew wanted to do something in addition to science.  As a member of the Chamber Choir, she was able to meet new and interesting people outside the sciences.  She also got to travel.  In 2018, Madeline went to Washington DC to perform for Holocaust Remembrance Day at the National Cathedral, and last year, they went to Spokane.  Madeline says, during the pandemic, the choir has been meeting remotely, and on occasion in a limited in-person capacity at the SEC Plaza because it’s outside.  She also reported that they have special singing masks that are less restrictive, but still fully enclosed.

Her favorite food is chocolate.  She completed a brief study abroad in France during her freshman year and said her favorite part was visiting the chocolate museum.  She loved everything about it.  Her favorite book is East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  She used this book as her senior paper in High school.  She said her Mom introduced her to the book, and she loves everything it stands for.

We’re incredibly proud of students like Madeline, and wish her all the best in her future endeavors.

We’re proud to announce that Samuel Wolff has been named one of our Fall 2020 Undergraduates of the Quarter.

Samuel grew up all around the Portland Metro area, but graduated from Lake Oswego High School, home of the Lakers.  He chose chemistry purely out of interest.  After a brief stint in Chemical Engineering, he realized they didn’t focus enough on the fundamentals, so he switched to Chemistry.  He chose Oregon State because he didn’t want to leave Oregon and was pleased by the opportunities available here.

Shortly after switching to chemistry, Samuel joined Dr. Kyriakos Stylianou’s lab.  Dr. Stylianou works with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Samuel’s little niche in the lab is photocatalysis.  Improving MOFs for photocatalysis is essentially the goal. The big thing about sustainable energy is that hydrogen gas is of course a promising source of sustainable energy. And if you want to improve the way MOFs produce hydrogen sustainably, you have to engineer them in such a way that they absorb solar radiation (instead of using ultraviolet lights or stuff like that). A big parameter they focus on is red-shifting the absorption spectrum, to test improvement.

The chromophores are within the ligands, so they typically use an amino functional group or a hydroxyl. But yes, you can incorporate photo-synthesizers into the MOF. The most common general characterization techniques for these materials are powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), IR spectroscopy and surface area analysis. But to understand optical and electronic properties we typically employ UV-Vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

Samuel graduated in June, and his plan was to take a gap year before applying to graduate schools for admission fall term 2023.  He wants to focus on materials chemistry with an emphasis in energy, energy storage and/or hydrogen gas.

Outside school, Samuel likes to rock climb, hike, camp, and participate in other outdoor activities.  He also enjoys reading when he has time.  His favorite food is Sushi, and his favorite book is the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

We’re very proud of our Undergraduates of the Quarter, and wish Samuel all the best with his future.