The research group was bigger than ever this year. New and returning folks; some preparing for graduate school while others getting their feet wet for the first time. For me, it’s always a learning experience in handling the group dynamics on top of organizing the work. But I think I struck gold with this group! Lots of perseverance and upbeat attitudes. Such a great experience to have people ready to come in, work hard, explore new science!
This year was the big transition year for me to turn the group from battery science into catalysis. I will likely lean back into batteries later, but I’m having fun! I’m continuing separate collaborations with my good friends Neil Tomson at Penn and Ewan Clark at Greenwich (England).
Andy Nguyen, Jennifer Vo, and Binh Nguyen worked together all semester to pull off an incredibly productive semester. Andy was a great mentor, and he capped it off with a terrific senior thesis presentation. Jennifer and Binh loved the work enough to continue with me this summer, making me one proud Lab Papa. Maya Vermeer and Ben Grear pushed the phosphorus catalysis forward, isolating two very important crystal structures in the process. Their Schlenk technique is top notch, and I can’t wait to see what else they cook up in lab!
The project with Neil will stay on life support: Binh will fit in experiments here when he has time. Then my organometallics course will pick it up during the semester as we look to finish the story. The rest of the group will be fully focused on the phosphorus catalysis and eventually relocate to Ewan’s lab for five weeks starting in July.
Epic photo dump incoming! And stay tuned for more excellent chemistry in the near future!
