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.

Staci’s group was working in environmental chemistry and toxicology, topics which Jackson was very interested in. After contacting Staci, they exchanged a few more emails and he was welcomed into the research group.

After graduation, Jackson knew he wanted to get into grad school. While he finalizes his plans, he is currently looking into a handful of schools to pursue Astrochemistry. This field is the crossroads of Astronomy and Chemistry, studying the effects of chemicals and materials in extraterrestrial environments. As the field often deals with poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the very chemicals he’s currently studying in his research group, it seemed like an excellent fit. We hope it continues to fuel his passion in chemistry!

When not at school, he follows his native Oregonian roots and enjoys exploring and hiking through nature. He’s also found of video games, fitting in some time between study sessions and school work. His favorite book is 2001: A Space Odyssey, and his favorite food is sushi. Yum!

We wish all the best to Jackson from OSU to beyond!

Linus explained he loves chemistry because to him, chemistry felt like the “Goldilocks of the sciences.” He described how chemistry had the best of both worlds, with the rich physical application of biology and logical mathematical structure of physics.

In addition to classes and his work in research, Linus worked as a peer advisor for the College of Science over the summer and is a member of the unicycle club. He also was a member of his high school marching band but after graduation, was not certain continuing would be an option in college. While touring Oregon State and first seeing Reser Stadium, he could not resist joining the band. For Linus, marching band became a major factor in his decision to attend Oregon State. Since then, he has earned a role as the drum major.

We are delighted to name Linus an Undergraduate of the Quarter for Spring 2019. After graduation, Linus hopes to attend medical school and work as a physician in Oregon. We wish him the best in his future endeavors and are excited to see what he accomplishes.

Currently, Tanner is working in Dr. Burrow’s lab. He got started in this lab by asking professors if they had any openings in their lab, because he wanted to see if research was something he would be interested in. Now, Tanner is working with nanoparticles, specifically nanostars. He aids a graduate student, Lixia, by making nanostars from nanoseeds. He also performs data collection and analysis for this project.

Outside of school, Tanner likes to hang out with friends, and get to know new people, especially if they are also chemistry students. He finds collaboration on school work to help transition into friendships. He is also a part of the professional chemistry fraternity Alpha Chi Sigma. The fraternity is fairly small right now, but Tanner hopes to see it grow by the end of his time at Oregon State.

Yitong Qi has been named undergraduate of the quarter for fall term 2018, and we are so pleased.

Yitong grew up in Xi’an, the capital city of the Saanxi Province in China. He then moved to Salem where he attended Sprague High School.

An initial interest in sustainable energy and materials drove Yitong to pursue Chemical Engineering in his undergraduate work. He discovered that engineering was less about the materials than the process, and decided to switch to Chemistry to work first hand with the chemicals. He found research interest after joining Dr. Ji’s lab, where he works with graduate students and post docs on projects related to battery materials. Projects in the lab involve making and applying carbon materials to battery use and the chemistry behind them.

In his spare time, Yitong enjoys watching movies, hearing stories, and eating guacamole.

After graduating from Oregon State University, Yitong plans to attend graduate school.

Students like Yitong are just some of the reasons were so proud of our Undergraduate Majors.  We wish him great success in his future endeavors.

Eric Qian has been named one of the Spring 2018 Undergraduates of the Quarter and we couldn’t be happier for him.

Eric has been living in Corvallis since he was 4 years old and his love of the town helped contribute to his choice to stay local for college. He went to Crescent Valley High School, a school he enjoyed due to the passion the teachers had as well as the school’s dedication to the arts which helped him develop an interest in creating jewelry.

When entering college, Eric’s original plan was to be a premed student. He quickly discovered a love of materials science and decided he would focus on chemistry instead of becoming a doctor.

It was through joining Dr. Michelle Dolgos’ lab that he realized how much he enjoyed the chemistry side of his research, focusing on finding new and optimized ways to generate electricity.

Eric recently graduated, but took a short break from research to write his honors thesis, which focuses on the study of Aurivillius phases. His main focus was on ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties and trying to find a new material that is as effective as Lead Zirconium Titanate (PZT) yet wasn’t toxic or lead-based. Eric believes that the material chemistries’ focus towards environmentally friendly and green materials is very noble and focused most of his time there.

Eric plans to take a year off before Graduate School to relax. His main hopes are to get back into playing music because he is a musician at heart, being able to play piano, clarinet, tenor sax, and the organ. He also has an extensive list of nonfiction books he has been meaning to work his way through, including Stuff Matters, a book on materials that shaped human history.

The highest ambitions in Eric’s educational career is to gain a PhD and become a professor himself because of his love of teaching and conducting research. He believes it would be very fun to have a research group of his own in order to pass down his insights and spark the interests of future generations.

Jason Srey has been named one of the Spring 2018 Undergraduates of the Quarter, and we couldn’t be more pleased.

Jason was born in Chicago, Illinois, but spent most of his life in Clackamas. He attended Clackamas High School.

Jason chose chemistry because he wanted to learn more about how atoms and molecules react. His curiosity was piqued when his 7th grade science teacher made a gummy bear explode in a test tube. Jason was also often sick throughout his childhood and spent a lot of time in doctor’s offices and pharmacies. This exposure to the world of medicine along with the introduction to chemistry during 7th grade science class first attracted him to chemistry.

He wants to be in the medical field because of how large of a role it played in his childhood and because it is related to his favorite subject. He researched the world of pharmacy and decided that was where he wanted to go in life, and is using chemistry as a basis for achieving that goal. Jason currently performs research for Dr. Sandra Loesgen, and focuses on discovering new antibiotics or anti-cancer compounds by feeding synthetic compounds to fungal cultures as precursors. He has been there since mid fall term, and credits his introduction to research to Dr. Neal Sleszynski who helped him initially contact three professors who are doing work in areas of interest.

In his spare time Jason likes to listen to, and perform music. He has practiced the violin for five years and taught himself to play the piano through online tutorials in his spare time. He likes all genres of music besides classical, and his favorite movie is Titanic.