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!