CSUN with a Heart: The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, along with the university, is concerned about the well-being of our students. Please feel free to express those concerns when you obtain advisement this semester. In addition we have compiled a list of key resources here (or you can download our PDF).
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LEARNING ABOUT OUR GRADUATE PROGRAMS?
- Watch our video about CSUN, our research and our MS degree programs (video)
- Watch our video about the research activities of some of our faculty (video)
News
November 10-12, 2023: Congratulations to undergraduate Hovnan Simonyan (Teprovich lab) who won first place for his poster "High-Temperature Stability of Halogenated Closo-Borate Electrolyte Salts and Potential Use in Implantable Batteries" in the Chemistry Division at the Second Annual International Forum on Research Excellence (IFoRE) sponsored by Sigma Xi in Long Beach, California. The research presented is funded by the NSF LEAPS-MPS program (Award # 2137973).
November 10, 2023: Erika Shirvanian, an undergraduate research student in the Melikyan laboratory, gave an oral presentation, titled "Metal-complexed tricationic diacetylenic polyethers: Challenges of transitioning from tetrad to heptad molecular scaffolds" at the 2023 International Forum on Research Excellence (IFORE) Sigma Xi Conference (Long Beach, CA). Of the 150 abstracts submitted, only 30 were chosen to present, so it was quite an honor. Congratulations, Erika!
September 12-14, 2023: Congratulations to Francis Godfrey, an undergraduate student in the Eller lab, who was awarded a $500 student travel award to attend the Rice SIMS Workshop in Houston, TX. Michael Shaw (a graduate student in the Eller lab) and Francis Godfrey both attended the meeting and presented posters on their research projects.
September 7, 2023: Dr Abrol and a group of colleagues in Biology, Physics and Mathematics have been awarded a NSF MRI grant! The grant, titled "Track 1 Acquisition of a high-performance computer cluster for computational biology" is worth over $730,000. It will support their research, and provide state-of-the-art technology which will train their students in these burgeoning areas of biochemistry and biophysics. Congratulations to you all!
July 26, 2023: Dr. Ye has published her latest research with former CSUN undergraduate student Pouya Bahrami, her collaborator Dr. Julia Y. K. Chan at CSU Fullerton, and Dr. Chan's research students. This article, titled "Capturing Student and Instructor Experiences, Perceptions, and Reflections on Remote Learning and Teaching in Introductory Chemistry Courses During COVID-19" was published in the July/August issue of the Journal of College Science Teaching. Congratulations, Dr. Ye! The image above shows a visual representation of the study performed.
July 1, 2023: Big congratulations go to Drs. Boulesbaa, Teprovich and Ye, who have been granted tenure and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor! Well done, all!
June 30, 2023: Graduate student Janelli Pineda and her research mentor Dr. Fischhaber were awarded a CSU Biotech (formerly CSUPERB) Faculty-Graduate Student Research Collaboration Award, for a project titled “Investigation of Yen1-RFP in Double Strand Break Repair in S. cerevisiae". The award, which runs from August through December 2023, is worth $10,000 of wage support for Janelli. Congratulations, Janelli and Dr. Fischhaber!
June 3, 2023: Drs. Teprovich and Eller hosted the 2023 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Open House. The event featured 15 hands-on demonstrations to local junior and high school students performed by our chemistry and biochemistry CSUN students. It also included seven large scale chemistry of energy demonstrations including: combustion of hydrogen and oxygen balloons, a thermite reaction, a self-carving melon, electrolysis of water, a hydrogen fuel cell, production of acid rain, gas forming reactions, use of a catalyst to accelerate reactions, and light emission from excited atoms. Visitors also enjoyed some home-made liquid nitrogen ice cream and a raffle for Amazon gift cards. Overall, over 100 people attended the event including 76 students from 7 local junior high and senior high schools. We hope to see you all again at next year’s Open House! A special thank you to all our CSUN chemistry and biochemistry students who volunteered and participated in the event: Israel Ayala Manzo, Connor Blair, Jander Cruz, Francis Godfrey Nikita Opel, Floyd Padilla, Christopher Pakhanyan, Casey Swafford, and Christi Thomas. Your contributions made the event successful!