Celebrating Women Chemists
Lunch Series

The monthly Celebrating Women Chemists lunch seminar series provides a forum for networking across the various subdivisions of chemistry and fosters a sense of community among participants. 

These presentations are an opportunity for women chemists to share information about their unique career paths in a way to help inform students and postdocs in our department on the variety of opportunities they can pursue.

Additionally, to help prepare for the Graduate Student Research Symposium ,  students in their 3rd or 4th year are invited to deliver a short presentation on their research to their peers. Mentoring opportunities are facilitated by informal interactions among students and faculty in this friendly non-research environment. 

If you would like to present a seminar, contact Raihana Afroz.  

Past Speakers:

2024-2025 Schedule

• Sept 13: Dr. Kade Head-Marsden, Assistant Professor, UMN Chemistry

• Oct 23: Dr. Zijie Beryl Xia, Director of Analytical Services, Claros Technologies

• Nov 20:  Dr. Kyle Bantz, Associate Professor, UMN Chemistry

• Feb 20: Dr. Hannah Kenagy, Assistant Professor, UMN Chemistry

• Mar 27: Dr. Melissa Ramirez, Assistant Professor, UMN Chemistry

2023-2024 Schedule

• Sept 29: Dr. Jessica Hoover, Assistant Professor, UMN Chemistry

• Nov 8: Dr. Jodi Ogilvie, Lab & Research Safety Manager and Chemical Hygiene Officer, UMN Health, Safety, and Risk Management

• Feb 2: Dr. Jorden Johnson & Dr. Alina Zdechlik, Patent Agents, Mueting Raasch Group

• Mar 15: Dr. Kim Ha, Associate Professor of Chemistry, St. Catherine University

2022-2023 Schedule

• Oct 25: Dr. Samantha Houchlei, Assistant Director of General Chemistry, UMN Chemistry

• Nov 8: Dr. Annabelle Watts, Managing Director, NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers

• Feb 15: Dr. Kimberly Shultz, Researcher and Product Developer, 3M

• Mar 8: Dr. Peg Lonnquist, Assertiveness Workshop

• April 25: Dr. Laurie Fink, Chair of Science, Science Museum of Minnesota

2021-2022 Schedule

• Sept 23: Dr. Gwen Bailey, Assistant Professor, UMN Chemistry

• Oct 29: Dr. Sapna Sarupria, Associate Professor, UMN Chemistry

• Nov 19: Dr. Danielle Watt, Director of the Office of Biomedical Graduate Research, Education and Training (BGREAT) at the University of Minnesota, Medical School 

• Feb11:  Dayeeta Saha, Product Specialist/Engineer at Bruker Nano Inc. 

• Mar 8: Dr. Sarah Wegworth, Content Specialist, Alchemie

• April: 3rd Year Practice Talks

2020-2021 Schedule

• Nov 19: Transferable Skills Workshop, Whitney Moore, CSE Career Center

• Jan 20: Jessica Lamb, UMN, Professor

• Feb 15: Yangguang Ou, University of Vermont, Professor

• Mar 16: Trisha Miller, Sandia National Labs, Systems Research Analyst

• April 30: Janaya Sachs (Tonks group), Margaret Clapham (Frontiera and Douglas groups), Celina Harris (Penn group), U of M, Graduate Student Research Symposium Practice Talks

• May 7: Cecilia Douma (Bowser group), Eliza Herrero (Buhlmann group), Yoon-Jung Jang (Hillmyer group) U of M, Graduate Student Research Symposium Practice Talks

• June 25: Xin Yi See, , Eastman Chemical Company, Research Chemist

2019-2020 Schedule

• Sept 17: Courtney Roberts, UMN, Professor

• Oct 17: Jennifer Strehlau, Medtronic, Senior Chemist

• Nov 14: Audrey Meyer, Boston Scientific, Senior Process Engineer

• Jan 23: Nicole Bousu, H.B. Fuller, Senior Scientist

• Feb 20: Sarah Wegwerth, Alchemie, Content Specialist

• Postponed: Hannah Bearinger, BRIGHT Research Partners, Clinical Research Consultant

2018-2019 Schedule

• Sept 12: Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran, UMN, Professor

• Oct 22: Sally Hed Dahlquist, ImmunoChemistry Technologies, President & Chief Manager

• Nov 14: Christine Luscombe, Uni. Washington, Seattle, Professor

• Jan 16: Laura Babcock, Minnesota Technical Assistance Programme (MnTAP), Director

• Feb 11: Microaggression Workshop v2, Lee Penn, UMN Professor

• Mar 12: Cora Leibig, Chromatic 3D Materials, Founder & CEO

• Apr 26: Emily Que, UT Austin, Professor

• May 7: Angela Carlson (Topczewski group), Monica Ohnsorg (Bates and Reineke group), Rebeca Rodriguez (Haynes group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

• May 14: Julia Early (Lodge group), Rachel Swedin (Blank group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

• May 21: Jiayi He (Haynes group), Cynthia Pyles (Massari group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

• June 25: Assertiveness Workshop, Peg Lonnquist, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Executive Director

2017-2018 Schedule

• Sept 21: Mona Minkara, Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Siepmann group)

• Oct 27: Sarah Reisman, Caltech, Professor 

• Nov 8: Greta Wegner, R&D Systems, Senior Director

• Dec 5: Graco Inc.

• Jan 12: Microaggression workshop, Lee Penn, UMN, Professor

• Feb 5: Kolby White, 3M, Senior Chemist

• Feb 28: Brenda Case, Leadership Alliance, Special Projects Manager

• Mar 13: Megan Fieser, Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Tolman group)

• Apr 6: Christine Thomas, Ohio State University

• May 8: Anna Luke (Tolman group), Kajari Bera (Frontiera group), Adeline Espinasse (Carlson group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

• May 14: Stephanie Mitchell (Carlson group), Beth Dewing (Mahanthappa group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

• May 21: Constance Anderson (Douglas group), Debmalya Ray (Gagliardi group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

• Jul 16: Leah Witus, Macalester College, Professor

• Aug 28: Elena Koltun, Revolution Medicines, Director of Medicinal Chemistry

2016-2017 Schedule

• June 22: Diana Mayweather, UMN, Senior Laboratory Services Coordinator

• July 20: Jennifer Henderson, UMN, CSP Director of Education, Outreach, and Diversity 

• Aug 15: Jodi Ogilvie, UMN, Public Health Specialist

• Sept 6: Mari Lee, Environmental Protection Agency

• Sept 28: Anne Hall, UMN, Office for Technology Commercialization

• Nov 4: Nicole Bechtold, 3M, Regulatory affairs

• Dec 21: Donde Anderson, Valspar

• Jan 11: Emily Pelton, UMN, Adjunct faculty

• Mar 15: Karen Beckman, Merchant and Gould P.C., Patent lawyer / Marie Vanderlaan, 3M, Patent attorney

• May 9: Courtney Elwell (Tolman group) / Xin Yi See (Tonks group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

• May 24: Bianca Ramirez (Lu group) / Zhe Tan (Reineke group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

• Jun 13: Letitia Yao, UMN, NMR facility manager

• Jun 29: Lisa Balbes, Technical writer and editor

2015-2016 Schedule

• Sept 21: Intel

• Oct 1: Lyndal Jensen, Ecolab

• Nov 4: Kathleen Shafer, 3M

• Dec 8: Susanna Remillard, WuXi

• Jan 12: Kari McGee, 3M

• Feb 3: Intel

• Mar 1: Anna Komor, U of M Chem, Science Mentors (Que group)

• Mar 24: Jacqui Tehranchi, Beckman

• Apr 27: Maria Miranda, 3M

• May 18: Hanna Macaranas (Tolman group) and Emily Keller (Frontiera group), 3rd-year practice talks

2014-2015 Schedule

• Sept 15: BASF

• Oct 27: Erin Carlson

• Nov 6: Jennifer Laaser (Lodge group)

• Dec 11: Vivien Feng (Augsburg College)

• Feb 24: Deirdre Manion-Fischer (Arriaga group)

• Mar 16: Sadie Otte (Douglas group)

2013-2014 Schedule

• Sept 24: Renee Frontiera

• Oct 29: Elizabeth Hill, Dow Chemical,  Work Life Effectiveness

• Feb 20: Sarah Pound (Douglas group)

• Mar 26: Sarah Wegwerth (Douglas group)

• Apr 17: Haley Phillips (Reineke group)

• May 29: Anna Komor (Que group)

2012-2013 Presenters

• Sep 14: Jodi Ogilvie (Douglas group)

• Oct 24: international research experiences

• Jan 17: Katie Hurley (Haynes group)

• Mar 2: Solaire Finkenstaedt-Quinn (Haynes group)

• Apr 18: Deirdre Manion-Fischer (Arriaga group)

• May 28: Jennifer Soltis (Penn group)

2011-2012 Presenters

• July 28: Kyle Bantz (Haynes group) - lessons from COACh

• Sept/Oct: Theresa Reineke

• Feb: Zahra Sohrabpour (Massari group)

• Mar: Allison Dzubak (Gagliardi group)

• Apr: Makenzie Provorse (Gao group)

• May: Charuta Palsuledesai (Distefano group)

2010-2011 Presenters

• Sep 30: planning meeting

• Nov 18: Mallory Richards (Hoye group)

• Feb 17: Penny Beuning, Northeastern University

• Mar 10: Melissa Maurer-Jones (Haynes group)

• March spring break: Jenny Schuttlefield, SHARK

• Apr 21: Bess Vlaisavljevich (Gagliardi group)

• May 10: Katie McGarry (Douglas group)

2009-2010 Presenters

• Sep 21: Judith Giordan, ACS tour speaker

• PDFs of Judy's slides on  Mentoring and  Women Leaders and Entrepreneurs

• Oct 14: Rita Majerle, visiting professor from Hamline

• Nov 3: Connie Lu

• Jan 13: Grayce Theryo (Hillmyer group)

• Mar 18: Sarah Page (McNeill/Arnold group)

• April: Susan Brown (Hoye group)

2008-2009 Presenters

• Sept. 24: Mari Titcombe (Roberts group) - Mari's Stoves for Njombe project

• Nov 18: Parent Panel

• Dec 11: Jane Wissinger

• Feb 4: Laura Gagliari

• Apr 23: Susie Emond (Hoye group)

• May: Britt Peterson (McNeill group)

2007-2008 Presenters

• Oct: 9 Valerie Pierre

• Nov 7: Kristi Curry Rogers, in combination with the IT Pizza Lunch

• Dec 13: holiday event

• Feb 28: Elizabeth Lugert and Lee Penn, Adobe tutorials

• Mar 19: Jennifer Lowe (Hillmyer group)

• Apr: 29 Nicole Settergren (Buhlmann group) and Chekesha Liddell, IT Distinguished Woman Speaker

• May 19: Katie Maerzke (Siepmann group)

2006-2007 Presenters

• Oct: 19 Katy Splan (Musier-Forsyth group)

• Nov 16: Lynn Weyer (Forsyth group)

• Dec 12: Emily (Skowronek) Resar (Bowser group)

• Feb 15: Chunze Lai (Buhlmann group)

• Mar 20: Amanda Bialke (Hoye group)

• May 10: Kelly Anderson (Siepmann group)

• May 30: The Gender Chip Project movie screening

2005-2006 Presenters

• Christy Haynes

• My Vo (Musier-Forsyth group)

• Jasmine Erbs (Penn group)

• Betsy Edhlund (McNeill group)

• Elizabeth Lugert (Buhlmann group)

• Alicia Peterson (McNeill group)

2004-2005 Presenters

• Anne Boreen (McNeill group)

• Kari McGee (Mann group)

• Yini Wang (Hoye group)

• Leila Albers (DiStefano group)

• Julia Phillips, Donaldson lecturer

• Angie Eder (Arriaga group)

2003-2004 Presenters

• Amy Anschutz (Penn group)

• Jia Liu (Hsung group)

• Amanda Nienow (Roberts group)

• Angela DeGreeff (McNeill group)

• Kathleen Schreck (Hillmyer group)

2002-2003 Presenters

• Sarah Schmidtke (Blank group)

• Karen Switek (Hillmyer group)

• Jamie Klappa (McNeill group)

• Laurie Breyfogle (Tolman/Hillmyer groups)

• Ann McNally (McNeill group)

2001-2002 Presenters

• Tamara Kale (Distefano group)

• Mary Engler (Forsyth group)

• Anne Reynolds (Tolman group)

• Carolyn Brauer (K. Leopold group)

• Nicole Boaen (Hillmyer group)

• Jessica Allen (Ellis group)

2000-2001 Presenters

• Sherri Hunt (K. Leopold group)

• Hollie Lewis (Hoye group)

• Bethany Kormos (Cramer group)

• Lakshmi Devi Kesavan (Gao group)

• Dongfeng Qi (Distefano group)

• Abbey Rosen (Musier-Forsyth group)

1999-2000 Presenters

• Maria Nagan (Cramer group)

• Amy Dounay (Forsyth group)

• Lauren Kaune (Munson group)

• Donna Staarup (Gladfelter group)

• Heather Sklenicka (Hsung group)

1998-1999 Presenters

• Michelle Douskey (Munson group)

• Kirsten Granum (Hsung group)

• Penny Beuning (Musier-Forsyth group)

• Feben Gobena (Que group)

• Denise Fiacco (K. Leopold group)

• Rebecca Michelsen (Roberts group)