In my inaugural message to you in our fall 2021 newsletter, I shared that "we are at the beginning of a large-scale investment in the future of the MSU chemistry enterprise, with the hire of 10 faculty members over the next several years."
By January 2024, we will have completed this ambitious goal! Through an extraordinary investment of more than $35 million by Michigan State and the steadfast commitment to growth by our department over the past two years, we have hired 10 tenure-stream faculty members who range from assistant professors starting their independent careers at MSU to emergent leaders with national and international accolades.
Guided by Aaron Odom, chemistry associate chair, renovations for new faculty and student offices and research laboratories are ongoing on essentially every floor of the Chemistry Building. The Facility for Rare Isotopes is funding a radiochemistry suite in the west wing of the basement that has enabled our advanced undergraduate laboratories to move up to the first floor of the building. Elizabeth McGaw and Steven Hurney (MSU Ph.D.s) join us as teaching specialists for these upper-level undergraduate laboratories.
Our faculty members and specialists continue to impress. Angela K. Wilson served as the 2022 American Chemical Society (ACS) president, the world’s largest scientific society. In 2023, Marcos Dantus received the prestigious Ahmed Zewail ACS Award in Ultrafast Science and Technology, and Dantus and colleague Elad Harel received MSU’s first-ever W. M. Keck Foundation Award to revolutionize optical microscopy and its potential to observe life in motion. And in 2024, James McCusker will receive the Josef Michl ACS Award in Photochemistry.
We also have extraordinary student groups whose work enhances our sense of community, including the Chemistry Graduate Student Organization, which hosts a variety of professional development and social activities; Women in Chemistry at MSU, a supportive, welcoming community for chemists to grow personally and professionally; the Research Safety Team; and the undergraduate Chemistry Club, which promotes community and helps students explore the benefits of undergraduate research.
We say goodbye to several faculty, specialists and staff members who retired. Professors John Frost, Paul Hunt, Katherine Hunt and John McCracken have all retired over the past two years along with specialists Kathy Severin and Tom Carter. And longtime staffer Brenda Minott retired after 47 years at MSU, the last nine of which she served as the lead administrator in chemistry.
From participation in career panels with graduate students to donations that have enabled the establishment of endowed professorships, we appreciate the different ways that our alumni contribute to the success of the newest members of the Spartan chemistry community. Recognizing this critical connection, the hiring of communications manager Connor Yeck will enable us to launch a digital news-in-review to be shared with Spartan chemists every quarter. Keep an eye on your inbox this holiday season!
Strong as one, we are extraordinary together. Go Green, Go MSU Chemistry!
Morton Panish, M.S., chemistry; '52, Ph.D. chemistry '54, received his Ph.D. studying under Professor Max Rogers in 1954 and retired from Lucent Technologies.
Laurine A. LaPlanche, Ph.D., chemistry, '63, is enjoying her retirement in Las Cruces, N.Mex. She is a member of ARTE (Art, Research, Travel, Education) and ALR (Academy for Learning in Retirement) at New Mexico State University and is currently enjoying reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus for her American Association of University Women book club.
Jack B. Carmichael, Ph. D., '64, received three response letters from the President of the United States this summer and early fall, one of which recognized Carmichael’s recent undercover assignment as a volunteer consultant to the FBI.Charles J. Yowler, M.D., chemistry, '73, has been appointed Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Case Western Reserve University following his retirement as director of the Burn Center at MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio. He was formerly director of the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship in the Case Western Reserve Integrated Surgical Residency.
Alexander Scheeline, chemistry, '74, is the author of Bandwidth (recently released by World Scientific Publishers), a book that views societal dynamics in the language of quantitative science and engineering. The book is available from the publisher or on Amazon.
Alyssa Raterink, chemistry, '19, is a Forensic Technician with the Michigan State Police.
Emily Thomas, M.S., chemistry '21, was awarded tenure at Black Hawk College in Moline, Ill.
Ronald Goldsberry (M.S., chemistry '66; Ph.D., chemistry, '69) received the 2022 MSU Distinguished
Alumni Award. An MSU Research Foundation Emeritus Board Member, Goldsberry was recognized
for a lifetime of leadership and excellence and his continued stewardship of MSU.
Goldsberry addressed doctoral recipients at the spring 2022 commencement and was awarded
an honorary doctoral degree.
Jared Piper (B.S., chemistry, '97) was chosen as American Chemical Society (ACS) “Heroes of Chemistry”
for 2022. Piper is director of process chemistry at Pfizer and is recognized for his
role in the development of Paxlovid, the first oral antiviral pill for COVID-19.
Carl Iverson (Ph.D., chemistry, '99) was chosen as American Chemical Society (ACS) “Heroes of
Chemistry” for 2022. Iverson is a team leader for isotope production at Los Alamos
National Laboratory and is honored for his previous work at Dow on the development
of Elite and Innate—linear, low-density polyethylene resins that significantly reduce
carbon dioxide emissions from transportation.
Philipp Roosen (M.S., chemistry, '11) received the ACS Award for Team Innovation, which recognizes
teams with innovative ideas that have become a commercialized product. Roosen is a
principal scientist at Pfizer where he was part of the team that developed the Pfizer-BioNTech
COVID-19 vaccine.
James (Jim) L. Dye, a University Distinguished Professor of chemistry at Michigan State University for
more than 60 years, passed away on Oct. 8, 2021. Dye was a member of MSU’s emeriti
faculty in the College of Natural Science and began teaching at MSU in 1953. Though
he retired in 1994, he continued to conduct research and mentor undergraduate students.
Dye was one of MSU’s most influential and successful researchers and teachers. A pioneer
in chemistry, he is best known for his work with alkali metals, earning him recognition
as the “discoverer of alkalides and electrides.”
John Frost, University Distinguished Professor, retired on January 1, 2021. Frost joined MSU
in 1994, where his work centered on green chemistry that sought alternatives to the
use of BTX (benzene toluene xylene) in industrial applications. Among Frost’s many
honors are the Presidential Green Chemistry Frost Challenge Award, as well as an Outstanding
Faculty Award from MSU’s College of Natural Science.
Katherine Hunt, University Distinguished Professor, entered a working retirement on June 16, 2022,
after 44 years of service. Hunt was department chair from 1998-2002 and is the recipient
of numerous honors including a Research Excellence Award from the International Conference
of Computational Hunt Methods in Science and Engineering. Hunt’s quantum mechanical
work on intermolecular interactions will continue as she mentors MSU graduate students
and pursues several ongoing research projects.
Paul Hunt, Professor Emeritus, retired on March 18, 2022. Hunt had been a faculty member of
the Department of Chemistry since 1979, where his research was centered on nonequilibrium
thermodynamics and molecular scattering. Most recently, he also served as senior associate
vice president for Hunt MSU’s Office of Research and Innovation. In this role, he
led the creation of the University Research Organization and the Bioeconomy Institute,
among other achievements.
John McCracken, Professor Emeritus, retired on Jan. 1, 2023, after 33 years of service. McCracken’s
research focused on innovative approaches to electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy
and the chemistry occurring at metal centers. He served as department chair from 2002-2010
and received numerous honors from the MSU College McCracken of Natural Science, including
Distinguished Faculty and Teacher-Scholar Awards.
Brenda Minott retired on May 31, 2022, after 47 years of service. Over the past nine years as chemistry’s
lead administrator, the department benefited immensely from her professionalism and
polish and her commitment to going above and beyond in a variety of roles. We appreciated
the partial appointment she held in the training
Minott of new employees.
Kathy Severin, senior academic specialist, retired on July 1, 2022, after 25 years of service as
the analytical and physical undergraduate laboratories coordinator. An MSU Ph.D. alumna,
Severin had an enormous impact on chemistry’s undergraduate and graduate programs,
and also worked closely with MSU’s Severin local American Chemical Society sections,
including Women in Chemistry.
Mary C. Andorfer joined as an assistant professor. The Andorfer group focuses on developing biocatalysts
for producing value-added chemicals from abundant feedstocks, such as CO2 and hydrocarbons.
Andorfer received her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow
at Andorfer MIT before coming to MSU.
Melanie Chiu joined as an assistant professor. The Chiu group examines physical organic approaches
to polymer synthesis, with a particular interest in polymerization systems modulated
using external stimuli such as light. Prior to MSU, Chiu was an assistant professor
at Stoney Brook University and Chiu completed her Ph.D. at the University of California,
Berkeley. .
Katharina Domnanich joined as an assistant professor with a dual appointment in FRIB. Domnanich’s research
explores the harvesting and application of rare by-product radionuclides. She received
her Ph.D. from the University of Bern and was most recently a research associate at
MSU’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.
Joseph Gair joined as an assistant professor. The Gair group is focused on synthetic methods that
fne-tune structural motifs prevalent in drug discovery and catalyst design. He received
his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard
University.
Alyssa Gaiser joined as an assistant professor with a dual appointment in FRIB. Gaiser’s group examines
radiotherapy isotopes and f-block elements in the context of the energy crisis and
the storage of spent nuclear fuel. She received her Ph.D. from Florida State University
and was most Gaiser recently a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Anika Harden joined as a professional aide for the department’s front office before transitioning
into working with the chemistry business office as finance assistant in 2023. She
attended Eastern Michigan University and is currently completing her degree in Harden
criminal justice/administration.
Steven Hurney joined as an academic specialist and co-coordinator of the Analytical/Physical Chemistry
Laboratory. He focuses on the innovative and hands-on education of undergraduates
in analytical chemistry. Hurney previously earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from
Hurney MSU, after which he worked in the pharmaceutical industry and the State of
Michigan Public Health Lab.
Dan Isaacson joined as a maintenance technician. Isaacson received his B.A. in broadcast communications,
and a bachelor’s degree in business communication from Ottawa University. Prior to
MSU, he spent 11 years as a professional wrestler before starting Isaacson a full-time
position in the custodial department in 2011.
Elizabeth McGaw joined as an academic specialist and co-coordinator of the Analytical/Physical Chemistry
Laboratory. McGaw brings more than a decade of expertise and passion in teaching analytical,
physical and McGaw inorganic chemistry. She received both her master’s and Ph.D. degrees
at MSU before completing her postdoctoral work at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology. McGaw was most recently an associate professor at Adrian College.
Chantal McWillie joined as an Office Assistant III, coming from MSU’s Veterinary Medical Center. Prior
to MSU, McWillie was a registered health information technician and a direct care
worker, working closely with the elderly community. In chemistry, she oversees all
McWillie administrative responsibilities associated with the general chemistry program.
Tian (Autumn) Qiu, joined as an assistant professor. The Qiu group explores the chemical basis of environment-host.microbe
interactions with a focus on the microbiome-gut-brain axis. Qiu was most recently
a Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow and postdoctoral research associate at the
Qiu University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously, she received her Ph.D.
from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Tuo Wang joined as the Carl H. Brubaker Endowed Professor of Chemistry. The Wang group focuses
on the applications of sensitivity-enhanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance
to biomaterials. Prior to joining MSU, Wang was an associate professor at Louisiana
State University. He earned his Ph.D. from MIT, where he was a postdoctoral research
associate.
Weiwei Xie joined as an associate professor. The Xie group utilizes a diverse range of approaches
to design, predict and synthesize new materials, with a particular focus on non-molecular
inorganics. Xie received her Ph.D. from Iowa State University and the Ames National
Laboratory before completing her postdoctoral work at Princeton University. She was
most recently an assistant professor at Rutgers University.
Connor Yeck joined as comms manager for the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology. Yeck completed his undergraduate degree at MSU before receiving
his Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Cincinnati. Yeck With a background
in editing, teaching and public writing, he’ll help share departmental stories.
With plans to start a new revolution in the way we use optical microscopes to understand the living world, chemists Marcos Dantus and Elad Harel have received $1.3 million from the W. M. Keck Foundation—the first time that scientists at Michigan State University have claimed the prestigious award.
Harel’s and Dantus’ research will push the limits on what light-based or optical microscopes can see and is poised to deliver huge impacts on our understanding of health and disease by revealing what life looks like in motion.
"Below a certain point, what we know is based on static pictures and simulations,” Dantus said. “There are parts of the machinery of life that are hidden by size and timescale. That’s what we’re trying to make available."
The new technology would also be able to record movies of biological processes with a high frame rate. This means researchers could record things such as viruses assembling, then watch replays in slow motion to better understand what’s happening and how.
“Going from our eyes to the first microscope—that opened up a whole new world people hadn’t seen before,” Harel said. “That’s the kind of change we’re going for.”
One of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations, the W. M. Keck Foundation encourages creativity by funding ambitious or risky projects. With this support, Harel and Dantus now take on the challenge of delivering what they’ve proposed: inventing a laser-based system that can sidestep the diffraction limit—the barrier in traditional microcopy that causes light to spread out in space and lose its magnifying power.
To overcome this hurdle, the researchers decided to bypass limitations in space by instead focusing on measurements in time, something that can be done with incredible resolution. To make their measurements, they’ll use lasers that can send out 80 million pulses of light per second, with each pulse lasting about 10 quadrillionths of a second. By measuring and analyzing when certain parts of the pulses strike certain parts of a sample, the researchers believe they can show what the sample looks like with unprecedented clarity.
This approach draws inspiration from one piece of everyday technology: MRIs. Although they don’t use light, MRIs rely on similar thinking to reveal living biology at a level that once seemed “too small” for their magnets and radio waves.
The researchers are hoping that one day their new idea will join the ranks of MRIs and other imaging technologies that are so common, they’re almost taken for granted. It’s a lofty goal, but Dantus and Harel are clearly up for the task as they take the first ambitious steps of this new journey.
“The really exciting part for me is the collaborations that we could form with experts in different areas, asking, ‘Now that I have this ability to zoom in, what can I do with it?’” Harel said. “If we can show our idea can solve real problems, we give people something to build off of, drive further and help develop to its full potential.”
"Welcome! You are a Spartan!"
To this day, Mat Joyce (B.S., chemistry/ teaching certificate, '81) recalls receiving the letter in the mail with those words that would help him rocket to success on his career path.
"I was always interested in chemistry. I built rockets as a kid, and I had a great chemistry teacher in high school," said Mat, who initially planned to attend a military academy. But when that did not work out, he applied to Michigan State University. And he was accepted.
"The chemistry and biochemistry departments were great. MSU prepared me for analytical chemistry and organic chemistry," said Mat, who retired from Lockheed Martin as vice president and general manager of Strategic and Missile Defense Systems.
While at MSU, he met his wife, Carol (B.A., political science/pre-law, '80; Honors College). Both lived in Holmes Hall dormitory.
"I had no idea what to expect when I got to MSU. It opened the world to me; so many people helped me along the way," Carol said. "MSU is where Mat and I met, made lifelong friendships and formed the foundations of our future careers."
In 2020, Mat and Carol established the Mathew J. and Carol Lanphear Joyce Endowed Scholarship in MSU’s College of Natural Science (NatSci). This year, they added $50,000 to double the amount of the fund.
"When we went to school here, we never imagined we’d be in a place to endow a scholarship," Carol said. "We want today's young students to know we did not walk in this way. I was a first-generation college student and Mat had to pay his own way through college. These are the types of students we want to help with our scholarship."
After graduation, Mat taught high school chemistry and biology, while Carol attended law school. Carol was then offered a position in San Francisco as an attorney, and Mat took a job with Lockheed Martin. He started out in a research lab then worked his way up to senior management and eventually vice president.
In 2012, Carol received a master's degree in political management from The George Washington University. During her career, Carol practiced maritime law, served as general counsel for a San Francisco nonprofit and practiced as a mediator and arbitrator in California and Florida.
Since retiring in 2017, Mat still does consulting work, and serves on volunteer committees for an athletic club that helps youth in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Carol continues to pursue her lifelong interest in politics—including running for city council and encouraging women to run for office. She recently served as the board chair for her local senior services organization.
"We worked so much to get through school," Mat said. "Today, it is even more difficult. So many graduates have a huge loan balance that anchors them for so long."
"I like the idea of students working, along with taking classes. But our endowment
can provide a balance and help take a little stress off," he added.
And that’s good news for the next cohort of students who receive the acceptance package
that reads: "Congratulations! You're a Spartan!"
Katharina Domnanich received a 2023 FRIB Achievement Award for Early Career Researchers. This award recognizes her ongoing research into isotope harvesting techniques— working with applications across a variety of fields, from astrophysics to cancer therapy.
Jetze Tepe received the MSU Innovation Center’s 2022 Innovator of the Year award for his ongoing study of proteasome activation and its role in combating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Tuo Wang received the Varian Young Investigator Award for his independent research into the structures and dynamics of carbohydrate-rich cell walls of living organisms using sensitivity-enhanced solid-state NMR. This award recognizes a single investigator for their accomplishments within 10 years of receiving their Ph.D.
Both Tim Warren and Thomas O’Halloran were honored at the 2022 All-University MSU Investiture for Endowed Faculty for their outstanding creativity and innovation in NatSci scholarship.
Angela K. Wilson was the recipient of the 2022 National Honorary Member Award from Iota Sigma Pi, the national honor society for women in chemistry. The award is the organization’s highest honor, bestowed triennially on an outstanding woman chemist for exceptional and significant achievement in chemistry. In 2022, Wilson also had the privilege of serving as ACS President.
Chemistry received numerous 2022-2023 NatSci Awards. Robert Maleczka, Outstanding Faculty; Angela K. Wilson, Outstanding Faculty; Kathryn Severin, Distinguished Academic Staff; Sheba Onchiri, Undergraduate Advisor Award; Tiphani Scott, Support Staff Award; Krystyna Kijewska, Faculty Teaching Prize.
Tuo Wang received a $1.9 million National Institutes of Health R01 grant to support the development of solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) technology that allows enhanced understanding of fungal cell walls. These walls—carbohydrate-rich armor covering the surface of fungal pathogens—represent an especially promising target for antifungal drugs.
By utilizing ssNMR techniques, the Wang lab will study living and intact cells in their native states to identify the mechanisms through which fungal pathogens rebuild their armor to survive available antifungal treatments This will help guide the search for new antifungal agents with improved efficacy and safety.
The three fungal pathogens targeted by Wang’s study—Aspergillus, Candida and Cryptococcus—currently cause more than 1.6 million life-threatening infections worldwide each year, with a high mortality of 20-95 percent even after treatment.
Melanie Cooper joined colleagues Kevin Haudek (biochemistry and molecular biology) and Rachel Henderson (physics) as recipients of a nearly $700,000 National Science Foundation grant to
examine Mathematical Sensemaking in Science (MaSS).
MaSS is the crucial ability of students to blend discipline-specific STEM knowledge
with broader mathematical concepts such as patterns and proportions. The team will
design innovative assessments that encourage undergraduates to consider mathematical
relationships in scientific processes.
The researchers’ project seeks to uncover data concerned with undergraduate science
problem-solving, and how students work their way through robust assessments. Their
findings will help reveal the role of MaSS in student thinking and improve the use
of mathematics across science curricula.
Timothy Warren, Lynmarie Posey and Melanie Cooper—alongside seven chemistry faculty serving in advisory roles—will lead efforts to implement a new evaluation system aimed at supporting teacher growth.
The Association of American Universities selected Michigan State University as one of five institutions to pioneer new and better approaches for evaluating teaching and learning in undergraduate STEM departments. Experts agree that the current methods used to assess teachers in STEM courses are fundamentally flawed.
In addition to setting a learning goal and assessing how well students reach that goal, teachers at MSU will now be asked to reflect, in writing, on what changes they can make to improve student performance. This new component is designed to support faculty as they become more engaged in the teaching process, giving them more agency in their development as instructors and mentors.
Researchers led by Michigan State chemist Selvan Demir have brought together famously challenging building blocks to push single-molecule magnets a step closer to their promising applications.
These single molecules work like ultra-tiny bar magnets and were first synthesized in the 1990s. Since then, researchers have been developing new types with the goal of pushing established magnetic technology— including hard drives—to a whole new level. Single-molecule magnets could also open new doors in emerging technologies, such as quantum computers.
In building their new single-molecule magnets, Demir and her team wanted to combine different atomic building blocks whose electron spins could interact or couple in a way that would yield molecules with tantalizing magnetic properties. Eventually, they settled on lanthanides and a bismuth radical anion—ingredients that earlier work hinted could be fertile ground for making single-molecular magnets.
While the team knew these cantankerous components could actually work together, progress
was hard-won because making the molecules presented obstacles in virtually every phase:
synthesis, isolation and purification.
"Realizing these molecules in a laboratory setting is extremely difficult," Demir
said. But this challenge has been met by Spartan Specifically, Demir and her lab recognized
the synergy that existed when stabilizing a radical anion with a lanthanide ion, and
that placing a bismuth radical in between lanthanides would result in effective magnetic
communication between the species.
"The new molecules constitute the first single-molecule magnets containing bismuth radicals,” chemists for the first time." Demir said. "This is also the first time that a bismuth radical was isolated with any lanthanide or transition metal from the periodic table."
While more research and development will be required to bring these molecules to commercial technologies, this thrilling discovery creates new opportunities to reach that goal.
Nitrogen compounds play important roles in biology, whether they’re relaying signals in our own bodies, or effectively doubling the world’s food-growing capacity thanks to nitrogen-rich fertilizers. Of course, too much of anything can be bad, and nitrogen is no exception.
Recently, MSU’s Tim Warren published two reports in the high-profile journals Nature
Chemistry and the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) tackling nitrogen’s
core chemistry. These papers aim to unlock some of the fundamental secrets of the
nitrogen cycle—the process by which nitrogen compounds are broken down and transported
throughout nature.
"There’s the established dogma of how things work," said Warren, "but by digging a
little deeper and trying to go beyond that, we open up science to surprises."
Among these surprises was the discovery of a new pathway that nature may use to convert nitric oxide into nitrous oxide, shedding light on the ways ancient life might’ve fueled biochemical reactions. "It turns out nature was doing oxidation chemistry before the Great Oxidation Event and before photosynthesis kicked off," Warren said. "That means both nitric oxide and related nitrogen compounds were probably important oxidants in primordial life."
The group also studied the ways microbes convert nitrite to nitric oxide in a highly choreographed set of chemical interactions. By breaking apart this process into a stepwise, sequential affair, the findings will help chemists be more deliberate in designing catalysts that can do things like help break down fertilizer nutrients before they reach natural waterways.
"What we're doing is peering into molecules in new ways," Warren said. "These two studies provide fundamental new insights into the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle that’s critical for ecosystems to work and be healthy."
An unprecedented collaboration is underway within the Michigan State University Department of Physiology, blending the realms of neuroscience, pain perception and metabolism.
Sparking a firestorm of scientific conversation, MSU chemist Gary Blanchard and Ph.D. student Md. Iqbal Hossain discovered the piezoelectric effect in liquids for the first time.
Typically, a material is piezoelectric if it can hold an electric charge that’s released when stress is applied through compression, stretching or shearing. While it’s easy to test for piezoelectric properties in solids, the same can’t be said for liquids.
Stemming from an initial conversation with MSU colleague Greg Swain about unexpected electrochemical behavior in ionic liquids, the Blanchard team tried for years to reconcile their fndings with the behavior of normal molecular solvents. It was only when they observed a macroscopic charge displacement in ionic liquids that the piezoelectric effect came to mind.
In mid-2022, Blanchard and Hossain "hit a home run" when it was revealed that a variety
of ionic liquids definitively showed a voltage directly proportional to the amount
of force applied. Their discovery was eventually published in
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, attracting global attention.
Blanchard and Hossain are now considering the range of applications for this new phenomenon, including the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy without carbon redox chemistry.
Since its founding in 2022, the Chemistry Graduate Student Organization (CGSO) has become a leading voice for students in MSU’s Department of Chemistry. As a social and professional organization, CGSO has already greatly enriched the Spartan chemistry experience, helping deepen a sense of community between faculty, students and staff alike.
Students tapping into CGSO’s efforts will find a calendar filled with events and resources including popular professionalization workshops and panels featuring MSU alumni. These events seek to empower students to consider careers in academia, industry and beyond, and provide one-of-a-kind networking connections.
To strengthen MSU chemistry’s sense of community, CGSO also hosts year-round social gatherings. These have included poster sessions, monthly coffee hours with guest researchers and a department-wide picnic. The organization also plays a key role in the graduate orientation process, with incoming students getting the chance to attend CGSO-sponsored meet-and-greets and game nights.
"While much of our graduate school experience is allocated to research, we should also be dedicated to team building; fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion; and enhancing leadership skills for a successful career," said Michael Alowakennu and Atanu Ghosh, CGSO president and vice president, respectively. "Students who take part in our gatherings have seized valuable opportunities to cultivate and lead teams, improve communication skills and gain valuable insights from seasoned chemistry experts."
To broaden its reach, CGSO has teamed up with the MSU local chapter of the American Chemical Society. This connection will allow for more active involvement in local and national programs, and further CGSO’s mission to uplift students as they make a name for themselves as young Spartan chemists.