December 13, 2022: The department held a lunch to honor and say farewell to Professor Yann Schrodi, who retired at the end of the Fall semester. Dr Schrodi, who joined our department as an inorganic chemist in 2007, has decided to move on to other pursuits. Thanks for everything you have done for the students and the department, Yann - we will miss you! |
November 8, 2022: Dr. Miao has published his latest research, titled "Chemical templates that assemble the metal superhydrides" in the journal Chem. The article is also featured in a CSUN Today story about Dr Miao, which additionally celebrates his Dreyfus award (see Nov 6 news). The department is proud of the deserved press about his work. |
November 7, 2022: Dr. Eller has published his first research paper since joining our department, with CSUN graduate student Jander Cruz as first author! The manuscript, titled "Evaluating nanoscale molecular homogeneity in extreme ultraviolet resists with nanoprojectile secondary ion mass spectrometry" is published in the November issue of the Journal of Micro/Nanopatterning, Materials, and Metrology. Congratulations, Dr Eller! |
November 6, 2022: Dr. Miao has been awarded the prestigious Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, only one of eight faculty to be awarded this year nation-wide! The award worth $75,000 and is based on Dr Miao's accomplishments in scholarly research with undergraduates, as well as a compelling commitment to teaching. Congratulations, Dr. Miao! |
October 19-22, 2022: Our students were once again presenting their research at venues outside CSUN! Nicole Babayans (Melikyan lab) gave a 20 minute talk, titled "Acquiring a predictive power in cobalt-assisted, acid-induced C-C bond forming reactions" at the ACS Western Regional Meeting in Las Vegas. Her talk was well-attended, and she received several questions from interested members of the audience after she finished. |
August 21-25, 2022: Several students and faculty attended the ACS National Fall Meeting in Chicago. Poster presenters included graduate students Ryan Boggess and Leticia Reque from the Tamae lab and Matthew Green from the Teprovich lab, all of which had good traffic around their posters and lots of interest in their research. We want to highlight Leticia, in particular, because she won the Outstanding Poster Award from the Division of Chemical Toxicology. Congratulations, Leticia! |
August 1, 2022: Dr Abrol has published its latest manuscript, in collaboration with former graduate student Bridget Kawamala, who is first author. The paper, titled "Three-stage model of helical membrane protein folding: Role of membrane-water interface as the intermediate stage vestibule for TM helices during their in membrano assembly" is currently available online and will also appear in the October print edition of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. |
July 25, 2022: The Department is deeply saddened to hear about the passing of former graduate student Misael Sanchez. Misa graduated with an MS in Biochemistry in December 2020 after working with Dr. Jessica Vey and continued on to a research position in the biotech industry. The Department extends its heartfelt condolences to his family. |
July 1, 2022: Dr Boulesbaa has published his latest manuscript, along with former CSUN graduate student Zeynep Eroglu and former undergraduates Dillon Contreras, Joie Yuson and Pouya Bahrami as co-authors. The article is titled "Ultrafast electron transfer at the interface of gold nanoparticles and methylene blue molecular adsorbates" and is published in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. |
June 24, 2022: Congratulations to Dr Eller, who has been awarded a LEAPS-MPS (Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences) award from the NSF! The award, for the project titled "Nano-Projectile Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry for accurate molecular analysis at the nanoscale", is worth almost $250,000 over two years. Dr Eller will develop new analytical methods for nanoscale molecular analysis based on secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and will also involve and support numerous research students. It is very important to the continued and growing academic excellence of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at CSUN and helps to provide the very best in educational opportunities for our students. Well done, Michael! |
June 13, 2022: Dr Yi has published a new manuscript of her research, along with co-authors Alex Gilewski (a former MS program student) and Mikhail Litvak (an undergraduate). The article was accepted by the journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice, which is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The study presents a novel model of pairing a metacognitive exercise with measures of linked concepts that are aligned with learning objectives in college introductory chemistry courses. The model shows promising signs of improving student performance and metacognitive thinking and behaviors. The article is currently available online. |
June, 2022: Congratulations to Dr Boulesbaa, who has been renewed for a second year on his $25,000 grant from Pasadena City College, titled "Utilization of Undergraduate Research to Promote Equity and Completion in Micro Nano Technology Professional Workforce Education". Good work, Aziz! |
June 1, 2022: Congratulations to graduate student Janelli Pineda (Fischhaber lab), who was awarded a $1500 travel grant from CSUPERB! This grant will support a trip she will take next summer to a collaborator's lab at Columbia University Health Sciences Center in New York City. Well done, Janelli! |
May 20, 2022: This afternoon we held our departmental awards ceremony, in advance of commencement in the evening, for the first time in three years! Undergraduate students Cynthia Avedian, Erick Gonzalez, Jonathan Hakimian, Oscar Arevalo Soto, Edward Bryan Huseman, Joie Yuson, Walter Torres, Vanessa Estrada and Christi Thomas have been given departmental awards for excellence in their academic and research endeavors. Graduate student Jander Cruz was given the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award, and graduate students Isabella Crisostomo and Leticia Reque were co-honorees for the Sandra L. Jewett Scholarship in Biochemistry. More details about the awards and awardees can be found on our department's Student Awards webpage. Congratulations to all the awardees - the department is very proud of your accomplishments! |
May 13, 2022: This semester we had one student successfully complete her MS Biochemistry degree. Congratulations to Hafridha Hadi, from the Fischhaber lab! Hafridha has already landed a great job in the biotech industry - good luck your next chapter, Hafridha! |
April 25, 2022: Three of our faculty have been awarded RSCA grants from CSUN for their research! Dr Jeffery Charonnat was awarded a $5,000 min-grant, and Drs. Miao and Ye were each awarded 3 units of release time for the upcoming academic year. Congratulations to everyone! |
April 7, 2022: The Teprovich group has published an article titled “Closo-borate gel polymer electrolytes with remarkable electrochemical stability and a wide operating temperature window” in the journal Advanced Science. Matthew Green (current graduate student), Katty Kaydanik (former graduate student), and Miguel Orozco (former undergraduate student) are all coauthors on the manuscript. This research is funded by the NSF’s LEAPS-MPS program (award No. 2137973). This work features a gel polymer electrolyte that enables a lithium ion battery (LIB) to operate at -35 °C and allows for the fabrication of a flexible LIB. The article can be accessed online. |
April 1, 2022: Numerous students from our department presented their research projects at CSUNposium, which was held virtually again this year. Several of our participants won awards in their respective categories. Congratulations to graduate students Matthew Green (Teprovich lab) and Jander Cruz (Eller lab), who won first and second place, respectively, in their 10-minute oral presentations group! First place honors also go to undergraduate student Christi Thomas (Medh lab) for her poster. Congratulations to all of our students for their efforts! |
Dec 20, 2021: Dr Abrol has published a chapter in the latest volume of the journal Advances in Protein Chemistry and Structural Biology, titled "Development of enhanced conformational sampling methods to probe the activation landscape of GPCRs". His two co-authors, Erik Serrano and Luis Jaimes Santiago are former undergraduate researchers from the Abrol group. |
September 27, 2021: Dr. Fischhaber has published her latest manuscript in Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports. The paper, titled "SAW1 is increasingly required to recruit Rad10 as SSA flap-length increases from 20 to 50 bases in single-strand annealing in S. cerevisiae" is co-authored by former graduate students Jane Odango, Juan Camberos and Fred Fregoso. The paper will be published in the December 2021 issue of the journal, but is available now online. |
September 21, 2021: Dr. Miao has received confirmation that his Major Research Instrumentation grant has been funded by the NSF! The grant, awarded to PI Miao along with co-PIs from our department Drs. Eloranta, Boulesbaa and Teprovich as well as co-PI Lau from Physics, funds the project titled "Acquisition of a GPU/CPU computing cluster for research and education in computational chemistry and materials" and is worth just over $455,000. The grant will provide important computing infrastructure for researchers in the College of Science and Math. Congratulations to the PI and co-PIs! |
September 10, 2021: Dr. Crowhurst has been awarded a SCORE-SC3 grant from the National Institutes of Health. It is a four-year grant, worth $435,000, for the project titled "Synergy between acid stress chaperones HdeA and HdeB with clients and their key sites of activity". The grant money not only funds the research in her lab; money is also budgeted to support student researchers in her lab. Congratulations, Dr. Crowhurst! |
September 7, 2021: Dr. Teprovich has been awarded a Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) research grant from the National Science Foundation. The two-year grant, worth $248,526, will support his proposal titled “Investigating Ion-transport and Dynamics in Composite Materials Containing Large Boron-rich Anion (LBRA) Salts.” Preliminary results included in the proposal were collected by current graduate students Matthew Green and Katty Kaydanik and former undergraduate student Miguel Orozco. Congratulations, Dr Teprovich! |
June 30, 2021: Dr. Crowhurst has published another manuscript, with co-authors Imex Aguirre-Cardenas, a former undergraduate in the lab, and Dane Geddes-Buehre, a former MS student. The paper, titled "Removal of disulfide from acid stress chaperone HdeA does not wholly eliminate structure or function at low pH" is published in Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports, September 2021 edition, and is available as an Open Access article online. |
June 4, 2021: Dr Miao has published his latest manuscript, titled "Multistep Dissociation of Fluorine Molecules under Extreme Compression" along with international collaborators, in the journal Physical Review Letters. Using a large-scale crystal structure search method based on first principles calculations, he and his collaborators found that, before reaching an atomic phase, F solid transforms first into a structure consisting of F2 molecules and F polymer chains and then into a structure consisting of F polymer chains and F atoms, a distinctive evolution with pressure that has not been seen in any other elements. |
June 1, 2021: We have received confirmation that Dr. Crowhurst has been promoted to full Professor and Dr. Miao has been granted tenure to accompany his promotion to Associate Professor last year. Both positions will be effective as of the start of the 2021-2022 academic year. Congratulations, Drs. Crowhurst and Miao! |
May 2021: Dr Eller has published his first paper since he joined the faculty at CSUN! The paper, a collaborative effort with scientists in Texas and Minnesota, is titled "Nanoprojectile Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry for Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles" and was published this month in the journal Analytical Chemistry. Congratulations, Dr. Eller! |
May 24, 2021: Today the College of Science and Mathematics held its virtual graduation ceremony (see link above). After its completion, the Department held our own celebration of our graduating students as well as award winners - please watch the recording and celebrate with us! |
May 18, 2021: Congratulations to Jane Odango, who has been named one of the awardees for the campus' Distinguished Thesis/Graduate Project Competition. This is a campus-wide competition, and only four students are given the award each year. Jane did her thesis research in the lab of Dr Fischhaber. Great work, Jane! |
May 14, 2021: This semester five of our Master's students successfully completed their degrees! Jane Odango (Fischhaber lab) earned her MS Biochemistry degree, while Anthony Bernot (Teprovich lab), Osma Gomez (Teprovich lab), Daniel Gonzalez (Eloranta lab) and Dalar Khodagholian (Miao lab) earned MS Chemistry degrees. All of our graduates have already landed either jobs in industry or acceptance to PhD programs. Congratulations to all of you! |
May 3, 2021: Dr Ye has published a paper in the journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice. The paper, written with former undergraduate student Candido Moreno and current graduate student Duyen Pham is titled "Chemistry self-efficacy in lower-division chemistry courses: changes after a semester of instruction and gaps still remain between student groups" and is available online. |
May 3, 2021: Undergraduate students Guliayi Ainiwaer, Blanca Aparicio, Arlet Artoonian, Pouya Bahrami, Nanor Bedrosian, Justina Gorgy, Akemi Hinzer and Joie Yuson have been given departmental awards for excellence in their academic and research endeavors. Graduate student Osma Gomez has also been given the graduate student teaching assistant award. Congratulations to all the awardees - the department is very proud of your accomplishments! |
April 30, 2021: Drs. Andersen, Eller, Kelson and Miao have each been awarded a RSCA minigrant! Each minigrant is worth either 3 units release time or $5,000, to be used during the 2021-2022 academic year. Congratulations to all of you! |
February 1, 2021: Profs. Teprovich and Boulesbaa have received an additional $30,000 in funding through their ongoing contract with DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) for a project titled "Nanocomposite Spectroscopy Characterization for Solar Batteries.” Congratulations, Joe and Aziz! |
January 10, 2021: Congratulations to Jane Odango, who was awarded the prestigious Crellin Pauling Student Teaching Award at the virtual CSUPERB Symposium! The award, which includes a $2000 scholarship, celebrates her work as a teaching assistant in our lower division Chemistry labs. A story about Jane and her award can be found in CSUN Today. Congratulations, Jane! |
January, 2021: Dr Eller has been awarded a research grant from the Semiconductor Research Corporation! The grant, worth $83,500, is to support his proposal, titled "Nano-projectile SIMS for evaluating molecular homogeneity in ultra-small domains". Congratulations, Dr Eller! |
News & Events
2022 News
April 7, 2022: The Teprovich group has published an article titled “Closo-borate gel polymer electrolytes with remarkable electrochemical stability and a wide operating temperature window” in the journal Advanced Science. Matthew Green (current graduate student), Katty Kaydanik (former graduate student), and Miguel Orozco (former undergraduate student) are all coauthors on the manuscript. This research is funded by the NSF’s LEAPS-MPS program (award No. 2137973). This work features a gel polymer electrolyte that enables a lithium ion battery (LIB) to operate at -35 °C and allows for the fabrication of a flexible LIB. The article can be accessed online. |
April 1, 2022: Numerous students from our department presented their research projects at CSUNposium, which was held virtually again this year. Several of our participants won awards in their respective categories. Congratulations to graduate students Matthew Green (Teprovich lab) and Jander Cruz (Eller lab), who won first and second place, respectively, in their 10-minute oral presentations group! First place honors also go to undergraduate student Christi Thomas (Medh lab) for her poster. Congratulations to all of our students for their efforts! |
2021 News
Dec 20, 2021: Dr Abrol has published a chapter in the latest volume of the journal Advances in Protein Chemistry and Structural Biology, titled "Development of enhanced conformational sampling methods to probe the activation landscape of GPCRs". His two co-authors, Erik Serrano and Luis Jaimes Santiago are former undergraduate researchers from the Abrol group. |
September 27, 2021: Dr. Fischhaber has published her latest manuscript in Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports. The paper, titled "SAW1 is increasingly required to recruit Rad10 as SSA flap-length increases from 20 to 50 bases in single-strand annealing in S. cerevisiae" is co-authored by former graduate students Jane Odango, Juan Camberos and Fred Fregoso. The paper will be published in the December 2021 issue of the journal, but is available now online. |
September 21, 2021: Dr. Miao has received confirmation that his Major Research Instrumentation grant has been funded by the NSF! The grant, awarded to PI Miao along with co-PIs from our department Drs. Eloranta, Boulesbaa and Teprovich as well as co-PI Lau from Physics, funds the project titled "Acquisition of a GPU/CPU computing cluster for research and education in computational chemistry and materials" and is worth just over $455,000. The grant will provide important computing infrastructure for researchers in the College of Science and Math. Congratulations to the PI and co-PIs! |
September 10, 2021: Dr. Crowhurst has been awarded a SCORE-SC3 grant from the National Institutes of Health. It is a four-year grant, worth $435,000, for the project titled "Synergy between acid stress chaperones HdeA and HdeB with clients and their key sites of activity". The grant money not only funds the research in her lab; money is also budgeted to support student researchers in her lab. Congratulations, Dr. Crowhurst! |
September 7, 2021: Dr. Teprovich has been awarded a Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) research grant from the National Science Foundation. The two-year grant, worth $248,526, will support his proposal titled “Investigating Ion-transport and Dynamics in Composite Materials Containing Large Boron-rich Anion (LBRA) Salts.” Preliminary results included in the proposal were collected by current graduate students Matthew Green and Katty Kaydanik and former undergraduate student Miguel Orozco. Congratulations, Dr Teprovich! |
June 30, 2021: Dr. Crowhurst has published another manuscript, with co-authors Imex Aguirre-Cardenas, a former undergraduate in the lab, and Dane Geddes-Buehre, a former MS student. The paper, titled "Removal of disulfide from acid stress chaperone HdeA does not wholly eliminate structure or function at low pH" is published in Biochemistry and Biophysics Reports, September 2021 edition, and is available as an Open Access article online. |
June 4, 2021: Dr Miao has published his latest manuscript, titled "Multistep Dissociation of Fluorine Molecules under Extreme Compression" along with international collaborators, in the journal Physical Review Letters. Using a large-scale crystal structure search method based on first principles calculations, he and his collaborators found that, before reaching an atomic phase, F solid transforms first into a structure consisting of F2 molecules and F polymer chains and then into a structure consisting of F polymer chains and F atoms, a distinctive evolution with pressure that has not been seen in any other elements. |
June 1, 2021: We have received confirmation that Dr. Crowhurst has been promoted to full Professor and Dr. Miao has been granted tenure to accompany his promotion to Associate Professor last year. Both positions will be effective as of the start of the 2021-2022 academic year. Congratulations, Drs. Crowhurst and Miao! |
May 2021: Dr Eller has published his first paper since he joined the faculty at CSUN! The paper, a collaborative effort with scientists in Texas and Minnesota, is titled "Nanoprojectile Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry for Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles" and was published this month in the journal Analytical Chemistry. Congratulations, Dr. Eller! |
May 24, 2021: Today the College of Science and Mathematics held its virtual graduation ceremony (see link above). After its completion, the Department held our own celebration of our graduating students as well as award winners - please watch the recording and celebrate with us! |
May 18, 2021: Congratulations to Jane Odango, who has been named one of the awardees for the campus' Distinguished Thesis/Graduate Project Competition. This is a campus-wide competition, and only four students are given the award each year. Jane did her thesis research in the lab of Dr Fischhaber. Great work, Jane! |
May 14, 2021: This semester five of our Master's students successfully completed their degrees! Jane Odango (Fischhaber lab) earned her MS Biochemistry degree, while Anthony Bernot (Teprovich lab), Osma Gomez (Teprovich lab), Daniel Gonzalez (Eloranta lab) and Dalar Khodagholian (Miao lab) earned MS Chemistry degrees. All of our graduates have already landed either jobs in industry or acceptance to PhD programs. Congratulations to all of you! |
May 3, 2021: Dr Ye has published a paper in the journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice. The paper, written with former undergraduate student Candido Moreno and current graduate student Duyen Pham is titled "Chemistry self-efficacy in lower-division chemistry courses: changes after a semester of instruction and gaps still remain between student groups" and is available online. |
May 3, 2021: Undergraduate students Guliayi Ainiwaer, Blanca Aparicio, Arlet Artoonian, Pouya Bahrami, Nanor Bedrosian, Justina Gorgy, Akemi Hinzer and Joie Yuson have been given departmental awards for excellence in their academic and research endeavors. Graduate student Osma Gomez has also been given the graduate student teaching assistant award. Congratulations to all the awardees - the department is very proud of your accomplishments! |
April 30, 2021: Drs. Andersen, Eller, Kelson and Miao have each been awarded a RSCA minigrant! Each minigrant is worth either 3 units release time or $5,000, to be used during the 2021-2022 academic year. Congratulations to all of you! |
February 1, 2021: Profs. Teprovich and Boulesbaa have received an additional $30,000 in funding through their ongoing contract with DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) for a project titled "Nanocomposite Spectroscopy Characterization for Solar Batteries.” Congratulations, Joe and Aziz! |
January 10, 2021: Congratulations to Jane Odango, who was awarded the prestigious Crellin Pauling Student Teaching Award at the virtual CSUPERB Symposium! The award, which includes a $2000 scholarship, celebrates her work as a teaching assistant in our lower division Chemistry labs. A story about Jane and her award can be found in CSUN Today. Congratulations, Jane! |
January, 2021: Dr Eller has been awarded a research grant from the Semiconductor Research Corporation! The grant, worth $83,500, is to support his proposal, titled "Nano-projectile SIMS for evaluating molecular homogeneity in ultra-small domains". Congratulations, Dr Eller! |
2020 News
December 11, 2020: This semester four of our graduate students successfully presented their thesis research and completed their degrees. Jonathon Benson and Misael Sanchez earned MS Biochemistry, and Matthew Ledesma and Parijat Sharma earned MS Chemistry degrees. Congratulations to all of you! |
December 7, 2020: The Crowhurst lab has published an article in the journal BBA Proteins and Proteomics with former graduate students Marlyn Widjaja and Jonathon Benson and former undergraduate student Jafaeth Gomez. The research paper, titled "Detection of key sites of dimer dissociation and unfolding initiation during activation of acid-stress chaperone HdeA at low pH" is available online and will be formally published in the February 2021 issue of the journal. |
October, 2020: The Boulesbaa lab has been awarded a $50,000 BUILD PODER pilot project grant for a project titled "Evaluation and research on utilization of targeted nanoparticles for use as cancer therapies". Congratulations to Aziz Boulesbaa! |
September 20, 2020: Dr. Miao, along with collaborators at CSUN as well as in Buffalo and China have published a review article, titled "Chemistry under high pressure" in Nature Reviews Chemistry. The article is now available online. |
July 20, 2020: Dr Boulesbaa has published his first paper with CSUN student co-authors, in collaboration with a lab at Auburn University. The article, titled "Ultrafast dynamics of exciton formation and decay in two-dimensional tungsten disulfide (2D-WS2) monolayers" is published online in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. Chemistry graduate student Zeynep Eroglu is the first author, and chemistry undergraduate Olivia Comegys as well as physics graduate student Leo Quintanar are co-authors. Congratulations, Boulesbaa lab! |
July 15, 2020: Drs Abrol and Crowhurst have published a collaborative paper, with former students Sayuri Pacheco, Marlyn Widjaja and Jafaeth Gomez as co-authors. The paper, titled "The complex role of the N-terminus and acidic residues of HdeA as pH-dependent switches in its chaperone function" will be published in the September issue of the journal Biophysical Chemistry. They were also asked to provide cover artwork for the issue. |
July 10, 2020: Congratulations to our colleagues for their promotion successes! Dr Miao has been promoted to Associate Professor, while Drs. Abrol and Andersen have been promoted to Associate Professor and granted tenure. Additionally, Dr Schrodi has been promoted to full Professor. Congratulations again to you all! |
June 4, 2020: Dr Abrol has been awarded a NIH SCORE SC2 grant! The grant, titled "Probing the Structural Basis of Innate G Protein Specificity in G Protein-Coupled Receptor Signaling” is funded for 3 years and is worth $300,000 in direct funds to the lab. Congratulations, Ravi, on your first major grant at CSUN! We are sure it is the first of many. |
June 1, 2020: Congratulations to Rowen Jane Odango on being awarded one of the coveted College of Science and Mathematics 2019–20 Graduate Fellowships for Outstanding Research Promise in Science & Mathematics. She is also the co-recipient of the Leslie & Terry Cutler Scholarship! Both are much deserved. This is our acknowledgment of a tremendous talent and the hard work that she has put into her M.S. research projects. We expect great things of her in the future. This is a wonderful achievement and we are very proud of you! |
June 1, 2020: Our students were successful this year in competing for awards in the College of Science and Mathematics! Congratulations go to undergraduates Michael Peterson for being the 2019–20 recipient of the Gilbert and Jacki Cisneros Foundation Scholarship, and Alisha Holden for being awarded the college's Robert Nolan Scholarship! These are wonderful achievements and we applaud your success. |
May 18, 2020: Our department was quite successful in obtaining grants through the campus-wide Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (RSCA) program competition. Congratulations go to Drs. Andersen, Kelson, Miao and Ye, each of whom will receive either a $5,000 mini-grant or 3 units of release time for the 2020-2021 academic year! Well done. |
May 15, 2020: Congratulations to Dr Crowhurst for being awarded a Summer Grant through Research and Sponsored Programs! The grant provides $3,000 in summer salary to allow her time to develop and write a proposal for a large external grant. |
May 2020: A new research article has been published by Dr Ye, in collaboration with Dr Jack Eichler at UC Riverside, and with CSUN student co-authors Alex Gilewski, Emily Mallory and Mikhail Litvak. The paper, titled "The impact of coupling assessments on conceptual understanding and connection-making in chemical equilibrium and acid–base chemistry" can be found in the Journal of Chemistry Education Research and Practice. |
May 14, 2020: Congratulations to Alex Gilewski, whose MS Chemistry thesis has been selected as one of only four recipients of the campus-wide 2020 Outstanding Thesis/Graduate Project Competition! Alex's research advisor, Li Ye, is very proud of his accomplishment, as is the rest of the department! |
May 13, 2020: Congratulations to all of our undergraduates receiving their bachelor's degrees in Biochemistry or Chemistry this semester! It is too bad that we cannot be there in person to celebrate with our students; normally we have a reception to honor all our graduates. As a small way to mark their accomplishments Dr Garrett has recorded a video to honor everyone. Your hard work has finally paid off - we wish all of you the very best in the next stage of your careers. Be sure to stay in touch and keep us updated on your future endeavors! |
May 12, 2020: Undergraduate students Mario Aguirre Cardenas, Nicole Babayans, Kristine Bislamyan, Jesus Cruz, Nicole Gardon, Alejandro Leon, Joanna Mae Ohide, Mehrnaz Siavoshi and Derek Stavich as well as graduate students Hafridha Hadi and James Nguyen have been given departmental awards for excellence in their academic and research endeavors. Graduate students Jane Odango and Joseph Yoon have also been given the graduate student teaching assistant award. Congratulations to all the awardees - the department is very proud of your accomplishments! In lieu of our usual departmental reception, Dr Garrett has recorded a video to honor each student. |
May 12, 2020: We hit a new record this semester: nine graduate students successfully defended their theses! Benjamin Azmon (Minehan lab), Adam Freund (Eloranta lab), Alex Gilewski (Ye lab), Kevin Ng (Minehan lab), Nazaret Rptchian (Kelson lab), Cal Weeks (Kelson lab) and Joseph Yoon (Schrodi lab) are receiving their MS degrees in Chemistry, while Dane Geddes-Buehre (Crowhurst lab) and Benjamin Cordova (Tamae lab) will earn their MS degrees in Biochemistry. In lieu of honoring these students at our annual departmental reception Dr Garrett has recorded a video to give them their due credit. Congratulations, everyone! |
May 11, 2020: Congratulations to Dr Miao, who has been awarded CSUN's "Preeminent Scholarly Publication Award" for 2020. The four primary dimensions of this award are Originality, Professional Recognition, Significance, and Clarity. Professor Maosheng Miao’s publication, “Reactivity of He with ionic compounds under high pressure,” published in Nature Communications in 2018, stands out in all four dimensions. Miao’s publication on the “nanny” role of helium is lucid, impactful, and well-recognized by the scientific community. |
May 11, 2020: Congratulations to Dr Nguyen-Graff, who has been awarded CSUN's "Extraordinary Service Award" for 2020. A faculty member in Chemistry and Biochemistry since 2006, Dr. Nguyen-Graff developed the Peer Learning Facilitators program for Chemistry 100 with 15 facilitators serving more than 300 students per semester providing small group discussion and problem-solving sessions. She also manages the chemistry tutoring center, and she spent spring break transitioning both programs online. An innovative and motivating instructor, she acts as a technology resource for her chemistry colleagues and has been recognized for her energetic embrace of technology by serving as a Canvas Insights early adopter. Dr. Nguyen-Graff has helped to organize Earth Day events at CSUN attended by elementary and middle school students. She has led chemistry workshops to prepare pre-credential students for the California Subject Examination for Teachers (CSET). She also works with the CSUN Science Learning Collaboratory, which offers summer institutes and monthly presentations for middle school and high school science teachers. |
May, 2020: Dr Abrol's lab has published its latest manuscript in the May issue of the Journal of Molecular Evolution. The article, titled "Pseudo‑Symmetric Assembly of Protodomains as a Common Denominator in the Evolution of Polytopic Helical Membrane Proteins" is co-authored by CSUN undergraduate student Alexander Tran. A figure from his paper was also chosen for the cover of the May issue of the journal. |
March 27, 2020: Many of our students participated in presenting their research at CSUNposium this year, which was held virtually. Our department can celebrate a few student participants in particular who won awards in their specific categories. Congratulations to graduate student Benjamin Cordova (Tamae lab) and undergraduate student Matthew Green (Teprovich group), who both won first place in their respective groups of 10-minute oral presentations! Second place honors were also given to undergraduate Nicole Babayans (Melikyan lab) in her 3-minute oral presentation group, undergraduate Akemi Hinzer (Crowhurst lab) for her poster, as well as graduate students Emily Mallory and Alex Gilewski (Ye group) for their joint poster. Congratulations to all of our students for their efforts! |
March 2020: Dr Melikyan has co-authored a chapter in the book "Cobalt Catalysis in Organic Synthesis: Methods and Reactions" with former student Elen Artashyan. Their chapter is titled "Ionic and Radical Reactions of pi-Bonded Cobalt Complexes". The book is available from Wiley in electronic and hardcover versions (as well as other booksellers). |
March 2020: Congratulations to Profs. Teprovich and Boulesbaa for their recent award of almost $68,000 over one year to work with Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) on a project titled "Nanocomposite Spectroscopy Characterization for Solar Batteries.” |
February 3, 2020 |
January 18, 2020 |
2019 News
December 2019 |
Fall 2019 |
December 10, 2019 |
November 25, 2019 |
October 24, 2019 |
October 15, 2019 |
September 27, 2019 |
September, 2019 |
August, 2019 |
August 15, 2019 |
August, 2019 |
July 1, 2019 |
July, 2019 |
June 19, 2019 |
May 17, 2019 |
May 17, 2019 |
May 10, 2019 |
May 1, 2019 |
April 26, 2019 |
April 4, 2019 |
February 28, 2019 |
February 13, 2019 |
February 6, 2019 |
January 5, 2019 |
2018 News
December 11, 2018 |
October 29, 2018 |
October 24, 2018 |
October 16, 2018 |
October 2, 2018 |
September 12, 2018 |
September 1, 2018 |
August 14, 2018 |
July 11, 2018 |
July 11, 2018 |
July 1, 2018 |
July 1, 2018 |
June 28, 2018 |
June 15, 2018 |
June 13, 2018 |
May 21, 2018 |
May 19, 2018 |
May 19, 2018 |
May, 2018 |
May 11, 2018 |
April 30, 2018 |
April 6, 2018 |
March 14, 2018 |
February 16, 2018 |
February 8, 2018 |
2017 News
December 8, 2017 |
November 29, 2017 |
October 31, 2017 |
September 29, 2017 |
September 17, 2017 |
August, 2017 |
July, 2017 |
July 1, 2017 |
June 9, 2017 |
May 31, 2017 |
May 22, 2017 |
May 22, 2017 |
May 9, 2017 |
May 8, 2017 |
May 3, 2017 |
April 29, 2017 |
April 27, 2017 |
April, 2017 |
April 7, 2017 |
April 5, 2017 |
March 27, 2017 |
January 7, 2017 |
January 6-7, 2017 |
2016 News
December 27, 2016 |
December 15, 2016 |
December 12, 2016 |
December 7, 2016 |
November 29, 2016 |
November 25, 2016 |
November 1, 2016 |
September 15, 2016 |
September 7, 2016 |
August 24, 2016 |
August 22, 2016 |
August, 2016 |
June 27, 2016 |
May 22, 2016 |
May 13, 2016 |
May 5, 2016 |
May 2016 |
May 1, 2016 |
April 22, 2016 |
March 25, 2016 |
March 24, 2016 |
March 11, 2016 |
2015 News
December 23, 2015 |
December 13, 2015 |
December 2, 2015 |
November 19, 2015 |
October 22, 2015 |
September 30, 2015 |
September 3, 2015 |
August 18-20, 2015 |
August 17, 2015 |
August 2015 |
June 5, 2015 |
May 18, 2015 |
May 8, 2015 |
May 1, 2015 |
April 28, 2015 |
April 24, 2015 |
April 11, 2015 |
April 9, 2015 |
April 3, 2015 |
April, 2015 |
March 30, 2015 |
March 6, 2015 |
February 13, 2015 |
January 22, 2015 |
January 4, 2015 |
2014 News
December 23, 2014 |
September 6, 2014 |
September 2, 2014 |
August 8, 2014 |
July 31 2014 |
July 26 2014 |
July 2014 |
May 21, 2014 |
May 12, 2014 |
May 12, 2014 |
May 9, 2014 |
March 24, 2014 |
March 14, 2014 |
Feb 3, 2014 |
Jan 20, 2014 |
2013 News
Dec 17, 2013 |
Dec 2, 2013 |
Oct 1, 2013 |
August, 2013 |
August 3, 2013 |
July 10, 2013 |
June 28, 2013 |
June 27, 2013 |
June 25, 2013 |
May 21, 2013 |
May 21, 2013 |
May 10, 2013 |
April 26, 2013 |
April 10, 2013 |
April 9, 2013 |
February 15, 2013 |
February 14, 2013 |
January 15, 2013 |
January 14, 2013 |
2012 News
December 14, 2012 |
August 20, 2012 |
July 11, 2012 |
May 30, 2012 |
May 23, 2012 |
May 22, 2012 |
May 22, 2012 |
May 22, 2012 |
May 11, 2012 |
May 11, 2012 |
May 3, 2012 |
May 2, 2012 |
March 14, 2012 |
March 12, 2012 |
2011 News
December 16, 2011 |
November 1, 2011 |
September 12, 2011 |
July 22, 2011 |
July 7, 2011 |
July 1, 2011 |
June 27, 2011 |
June 15, 2011 |
June 15, 2011 |
June 6, 2011 |
June 2, 2011 |
June 2, 2011 |
May 2011 |
May 24, 2011 |
Spring 2011 |
May 11, 2011 |
May 2, 2011 |
April 28, 2011 |
March 23, 2011 |
March 18, 2011 |
March, 2011 |
March 1, 2011 |
February 18, 2011 |
January 3, 2011 |
2010 News
Fall 2010 |
December 15, 2010 |
October 20, 2010 |
September 18, 2010 |
August 2010 |
August 2010 |
August 2010 |
July 2010 |
June 21, 2010 |
June 11, 2010 |
June 11, 2010 |
May 23, 2010 |
May 18, 2010 |
Spring, 2010 |