News
Stephanie receives the inaugural Physical Sciences Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Excellence award!! We are so proud of Steph for working hard for EDI!
Prof. Vicki Grassian was selected as a honoree of the Inclusive Excellence Award from UC San Diego!
2024
April 1 - Congratulations Pazinah Bhadha on receiving a TRELS Award for Spring quarter 2024.
March 31 –The Grassian group is excited to have undergraduate students Justin Wang, Alicia Krueger, Siena Quinn, Dylan Schmidt and Pazinah Bhadha continue research in the Spring 2024 quarter.
March 13 - Congratulations to Hannah Castro for passing the Second Year Exam!
February 29 - Congratulations to Adriane Tam for passing the Second Year Exam!
January 28 - Congratulations to Prof. Vicki Grassian for being selected to receive 2024 Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award. The award reception and symposium will be held on Feb 25th and 26th, respectively, at Pittcon 2024 at the San Diego Convention Center!!
January 23 - - Welcome graduate students Jenille Cruz, Vanessa Valdez, and Benjamin Lee to the Grassian group , we are excited to have you join!
2023
December 4 - Congratulations Dr. Stephanie Mora Garcia for successfully defending her PhD!!
September 25 - Welcome Jennie Lee, a new graduate student!
September 1 - Welcome Kedong Gong, a new postdoctoral scientist!
August 17 - Congratulations to all of the Grassian group members who presented their work (oral and poster presentations) at the ACS meeting in San Francisco!
August 10 - Audrey and Anne did a great job in presenting their posters at the CAICE summer poster session.July 26 - Congratulations Dr. Deborah Kim for successfully defending PhD!
July 26 - Congratulations to Dr. Deborah Kim for defending her Ph.D. dissertation!! We wish Deborah good luck in her new job!
June 24 - Welcome new summer undergraduate students Anne and Audrey who join a large number of summer undergraduate researchers in the Grassian group including Samantha, Viet, Alicia, Manal and Justin.
June 24 - Welcome to Jenille Cruz - incoming first year graduate student!
June 15 - Congratulations Jinxu Zhou on graduating with a B.S. degree in Nanoengineering. Jinxu will stay on as a M.S. student in the Materials Science and Engineerign program!
May 8 - Congratulations Justin on receiving the Dean's Undergraduate Summer Research Award!
April 12 - Welcome Hannah Castro, a first year graduate student!
April 1 - Congratulations Karla on recieving the prestige NSF-GRFP!
February 22 - Welcome graduate student Adriane Tam to the Grassian group!!
February 8 - Grassian group welcomes Alicia to the group!
February 8 - Congratulations to Karla on passing her 2nd year exam!!
January 10 - Welcome to undergraduate student Viet!
January 9 - Jane passed her second year exam! Congratulations Jane!!
2022
December 2 - Congratulations to Deb for being awarded the department's 2022-2023 Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship!
December 2 - Congratulations to Dr. Kyle Angle on successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis!!!
November 23 - Cholaphan Deeleepojananan passes her candidacy exam – great job Cholaphan!
November 18 - Izaac Sit successfully defends his Ph.D. dissertation – congratulations Dr. Sit!!!
September 16 - Prof. Vicki Grassian has been selected to receive the 2023 Geochemistry Division Medal! The medal ceremony will be held at the National ACS Spring meeting in Indianapolis.
August 4 - Congratulations to Eshani and Stephanie for being recognized for Leadership in the Promotion of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect on the ACS website. Way to go!!
July 1 - Congratulations to Kyle for receiving a Teddy Traylor Award! Great job!!
June 23 - The group extends a warm welcome to all of the undergraduates joining us this summer! We are excited to work with SURP students Jennie Lee and Mauricio Agurcia, ENLACE students Gilberto Partida and Montse Palacios-Puga, and UCSD undergrad Justin Wang!!
June 15 - Congratulations to Deborah for being selected as a 2022 Chemistry & Biochemistry Inclusive Excellence Award recipient!! Thank you for your important efforts and achievements in this area!
May 4 - Congratulations to Chris Nowak and Gordon Peiker for receiving the 2022 Joseph E. Mayer Award!! This award is given to undergraduates with outstanding achievements in research!
May 2 - Congratulations to Izaac for receiving a DOE's Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program award!! Izaac will be performing geochemistry research at Sandia National Laboratory to fulfill critical DOE missions and advance discovery and innovation!
April 27 - Congratulations to Stephanie for receiving the inaugural Physical Sciences Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Excellence Award!! Thank you Stephanie for your great work advancing equity for underserved communities!
April 4 - Huge congratulations to Jane Sedlak and Gordon Peiker as well as undergraduate alumnus Heidi Busse for receiving National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards!! Amazing work!!
March 20 - The Grassian group gives a total of 15 presentations at the ACS Spring National Meeting and Exposition!
February 28 - Congratulations to Stephanie for receiving the Dean's Academic Recognition Fellowship!! This prestigious award is given for academic achievements and working for advancement in equity & inclusion!
January 3 - The group warmly welcomes new graduate students David, Karla, Jane, Hannah, and Alexis to the group!! We are excited to work with so many talented researchers!
2021
December 15 - Stephanie passes her third year exam! Great job Steph!!
December 10 - Congratulations to Liora for successfully defending her thesis!! Wonderful work!
December 9 - Deborah Kim passes her third year exam! Way to go Deb!!
December 3 - Congratulations to Erin for passing her Departmental Exam and obtaining her Coursework Master's! Great work!!
November 30 - Congratulations to Kyle for being selected as a recipient of the 2021-2022 Carol and George Lattimer Award for Graduate Excellence! Nicely done!!
November 22 - Congratulations to Chris and Gordon for receiving the 2021-22 UC San Diego Physical Sciences Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence!! Awesome job!!
November 19 - Congratulations to Mike for successfully defending his thesis!! The group is proud of all his outstanding contributions to science!
October 10 - Congratulations to Kyle for being chosen as an Achievement Reward for College Scientists scholar. Great job!
September 29 - Congratulations to Izaac for passing his senate exam!! Way to go!!
September 1 - The Grassian group is now Gold certified from the Green Labs Program!! This certification reflects positive sustainability practices the group has been implementing and the group continues to strive to utilize the best environmentally-friendly approaches in all aspects of research.
August 23 - Congratulations to Mike for being awarded the NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship!! Mike proposed research on the environmental organic chemistry of indoor gases and surface films as well as EDI work under guidance of Allen Goldstein at Berkley.
August 8 - The Grassian group wishes Liz Coward the best as she starts her position at Illumina!
June 30 - The Grassian group warmly welcomes all our summer researchers - graduate students David Gonzales and Jane Sedlak, and undergraduates Aakash Davasam, Israel Gutierrez, Chris Nowak, Gordon Peiker and Hannah Primiano!!
May 27 - Chris Nowak won the Physical/Analytical poster award at the 15th annual ACS-SA Undergraduate Research Symposium. Great work Chris!!
May 20 - Congratulations to Mariana for passing her second year exam!!
May 8 - Eleanor, Gordon, and Chris give research presentations at UC San Diego's Undergraduate Research Conference. Way to highlight some group science!!
May 6 - Kyle Angle passes his third year exam. Way to go Kyle!
April 30 - Cholaphan Deeleepojananan passes her second year exam. Congratulations Cholaphan!!
April 22 - Gordon Peiker receives the 2021 Undergraduate Summer Research Award, congratulations to Gordon!
April 15 - The group wishes the best to Liubin Huang on the last day of his several year postdoctoral fellowship with the group. Best of luck on your future endeavors!
March 22 - Stephanie gets featured in the MPS Division of the NSF website as part of their monthly graduate student profiles! Check it out: https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=302326&org=MPS&from=news
March 19 - Congratulations to Dr. Man Luo for successfully defending her thesis and earning her Ph.D.!!
March 11 - Congratulations to Kyle for receiving the Spring 2021 Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship!!
January 8 - Congratulations to Dr. Irem Ustunol for successfully defending her thesis and obtaining her Ph.D.!!
2020
December 7 - Congratulations to Sarah for winning the 2020-21 Physical Sciences Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence!! Sarah has performed a lot of research in our group and has been creating awesome bioengineering educational videos!
November 24 - Irem was highlighted by the International Students & Programs office, check out her interview here!
November 13 – Cheers to Prof Vicki Grassian for receiving the 2020 Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization Award!!
October 12 - Congratulations to Mike for passing his third year exam, great job!!
August 14 – Congratulations to Prof Vicki Grassian on receiving the 2021 American Chemical Society National Award in Surface Chemistry!!
June 13 – We are so proud of the Grassian group seniors – Duyen, Heidi, Masiel and Tongshan. Congratulations to all of you on your graduation from UC San Diego. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors!
May 21 - Congratulations to Gordon for winning a research poster award at the 14th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium! Great job showing off our science!!
May 11 - Congratulations to Sarah for being selected as recipients of the Harold C. Urey award for excellence in chemistry. Nicely done!!
May 11 - Congratulations to Duyen, Heidi, and Tongshan for being selected as recipients of the 2020 Mayer Award for outstanding achievement in undergraduate research!!
April 23 - Congratulations to Prof Vicki Grassian on her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences!!
March 31 - Congratulations to Deborah Kim for being an Honorable Mention for the NSF-GRFP award!! Way to go!!!
March 9 - Congratulations to Izaac for winning a Best Poster award at PAN-NANO 2020!!
March 6th - Irem and Izaac both gave TED-like talks and presented posters for their research at PAN-NANO 2020 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
March 12 - Congratulations to Kyle for passing the oral defense of his departmental examination!!
March 6 - Congratulations to Stephanie for passing the oral defense of her departmental examination!!
March 5 - Congratulations to Deborah for passing the oral defense of her departmental examination!!
February 24 - Congratulations to Amber for passing the oral defense of her departmental examination!!
February 4 – Congratulations to Stephanie, Deborah, Amber, and Kyle for passing the written portion of their departmental examinations!!
January 9 – Sarah is featured in a UCSD Physical Sciences news article! Read it here: https://physicalsciences.ucsd.edu/media-events/articles/2020/connecting-to-student-success-through-chemistry.html
2019
December 2 – Congratulations to Dr. Ellen Coddens on successfully defending her thesis!!!
November 26 - Congratulations to Heidi Busse on her selection as one of the three 2019-20 Division of Physical Sciences recipients of the very prestigious Selma and Robert Silagi Award for Undergraduate Excellence!! This is one of UC San Diego’s most prestigious undergraduate honors!!
November 22 - Congratulations to seniors Heidi Busse and Duyen Dang for being selected to receive the 2019-20 Physical Sciences Dean's Undergraduate Award for Excellence!!!
November 12 - Irem, Izaac, and Haibin all presented posters at the 8th Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization Conference, co-chaired by Dr. Grassian! Congratulations to Irem for receiving a student award!
October 4 - The group communicated a lot of science at the 2019 CAICE annual meeting! Dr. Grassian led the photochemistry technial session, while six group members gave poster and/or oral presentations!
August 29 - The Grassian group has made an impact at the Fall 2019 ACS National Meeting! Group members presented over a dozen posters, and Dr. Grassian gave four key talks, spoke opening remarks for the GSSPC, and had a multi-day symposium held in her honor!!
July 31 - Prof Grassian gave a talk to ENLACE studens on aerosols, nanomaterials, and indoor surfaces. She packed in a lot of exciting research in a short amount of time and even had time for some great questions from the audience!
July 29 - The Grassian lab is now green lab certified! Thank you to the people from The Green Labs program for giving us signs, stickers, and other items to encourage our continued sustainability practices!
July 1 - The group says goodbye and good luck to Michael Sullivan as he begins a new job at a startup in the Bay Area!
June 24 - The Grassian group warmly welcomes three new summer undergraduate student researchers: Carlos Diaz, David Gonzales, and Sayuri Sagisaka!!
May 29 - Congrats to Victor for passing his third year exam!!!!!!!
May 21 - Congrats to Man for passing her third year exam!!!!!!!
May 10 - Stephanie won the Winter 2019 Teaching Assistant Excellence Award for General Chemistry Lab!! Amazing work!!
April 12 - Masiel won the 2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Award from the Department of Physical Sciences! Way to go!!
April 8 - Prof Vicki Grassian has been awarded the Nichols Medal by the New York Section of the American Chemical Society for significant original contributions to chemistry!!
March 27 - Heidi won the 2019 Summer Undergraduate Research Award from the Department of Physical Sciences! Awesome job!!
March 25 - Ellen represented the group and UCSD atmospheric chemistry with a lightning talk at the University of California Chemical Symposium! The title of her presentation was "Control of Aerosol pH Through Droplet Coalescence".
March 18 - Congratulations to Mike A. for receiving the Teaching Assistant Excellence Award for Environmental Chemistry!! Well done!!
March 1 – Prof. Vicki Grassian received the Inclusive Excellence Award from UC San Diego, an award honoring outstanding contributions in the areas of inclusion, equity, diversity. Amazing work!!!
February 28 – Mike passed his second year department exam! Congratulations!!!
February 14 – Today we bid farewell to Nina, visiting graduate researcher from the University of Innsbruck, we wish you the best of luck!!
February 12 – Prof. Vicki Grassian has been selected as an awardee of the IUPAC 2019 Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering, an initiative created to acknowledge the excellence and work of women chemists/chemical engineers worldwide!
February 7 – Andrew passed his second year department exam! Congratulations!!!
January 30 – A recent indoor chemistry publication by the Grassian lab has been selected as the ChemSci pick of the week, which comes with another handy infographic! Check out the full paper here.
January 30 – Congrats to Michael Sullivan for winning the Best Poster Presentation at the UCSD Postdoc Symposium!! Luibin gave an oral presentation and Prof. Vicki Grassian was the keynote speaker, way to go!!
January 7 –The Grassian group welcomes new graduate students: Kyle Angle, Deborah Kim, Stephanie Mora Garcia, and Amber Rose!!
2018
December 19 – Congratulations to Irem for passing her senate exam and advancing to candidacy!!! Way to go!!
November 10– Irem Ustunol received 1st place in the “Nano Pitch” contest at the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organnization meeting held in Alexandria, Virginia. She was able to explain her poster and research in 100 seconds to the Nano Pitch judges and they were very impressed with what they heard. Congratulations Irem!!
October 11 – Prof. Vicki Grassian is named Fellow of the American Physical Society for her research on the physics and chemistry of environmental interfaces!!
September 11 –Congratulations to Haibin for passing his senate exam and advancing to candidacy!!!
August 19 –Prof. Vicki Grassian, Natalia, and Haibin gave their talks and poster presentations at the 256th ACS National Meeting & Expo - Nanoscience, Nanotechnology & Beyond in Boston! Way to go!!
August 8 – Congratulations to the now Dr. Zhenzhu Xu, Dr. Yuan Fang, and Dr. Jonathan Trueblood for successfully defending their PhD thesis's!!!!!!!!!!!
August 1 – The Grassian group welcomes new postdoctoral fellow Dr. Michael Sullivan!!
August 1 – Congratulations to Victor Or on receiving an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholarship. ARCS Scholarships reward excellence in research. Great job Victor!!
August 1 – Grassian group welcomes graduate student Deborah Kim, a first year graduate student, doing research this summer in the Grassian lab. It is great to have Deborah join us as she did undergraduate research with Dr. Juan Navea’s, a former postdoc in the Grassian group and a current CAICE PI!
July 27 – Prof. Vicki Grassian presented her talk "Chemistry of indoor surfaces: Adsorption of organic compounds, formation of organic thin films, and deposition of organic particles" at the Telluride Science Research Center: Organic Particle Workshop. Yuan and Victor gave their talks on surface chemistry at the Indoor Air 2018 conference. Way to go indoor chemistry!
July 16 – Graduate student Kyle Angle, a first year graduate student, joins the Grassian group to do summer research. Welcome Kyle!
July 2 – Grassian group welcomes graduate student Stephanie Mora Garcia and undergraduate student Sabrina Calzada, both will be doing research this summer in the Grassian lab.
June 25 – Grassian group welcomes summer undergraduate researchers Karla F. Alonso and Vanessa Olvera-Castro from ENLACE program and Rafael De La Zerda and Heidi Busse from CAICE REU program
June 16 – Our heartfelt congratulations to Cynthia and Dillon on graduating from UC San Diego this weekend. It was great fun going out to dinner with you at BJs – a Grassian group tradition started last year with Luke. We wish both all the best!!!
May 25 – Irem received 2nd place in the best poster award at the 2nd Annual NanoXpo in the Department of NanoEngineering. She was judged on research impact, oral presentation, ability to respond to questions and poster aesthetics. This event was a platform for graduate students to showcase their research to faculty, industry representatives, and fellow students. Way to go!
May 18 – Two great happenings at the ACSSA Undergraduate Research Symposium: Dylan received the Mayer Award for his undergraduate research and Cynthia presented a poster on titled "Multiphase reactions of sulfur oxidation and the influence of iron and organics".
May 7 – Professor Vicki H. Grassian has been selected to receive the 2018 Chemical Pioneer Award by the American Institute of Chemists. Professor Grassian has been selected for this award for her significant contributions to the area of heterogeneous atmospheric chemistry and the emerging area of the environmental and health effects of nanomaterials. Her award addressed entitled “The Physical Chemistry of Environmental Interfaces” will be presented at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia on May 10, 2018.
Apr 13 – Sarah was awarded a scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation!! Congratulations!!!
Apr 3 – Liora received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! Congratulations!!!!
Mar 19 – Prof Vicki Grassian gave a several talks and Sarah presented a poster of her work on indoor surfaces at the 255th ACS National Meeting & Exposition!!!
Mar 5 – Liora, Mike, and Victor participated at the CAICE outreach activity as volunteer and demonstrator during the 2016 San Diego Science and Engineering Festival Expo in Petco Park in Downtown San Diego. Over 25,000 people attended on the Expo Day, how cool is that?!
Feb 26 – Zhenzhu and Ellen have been selected to receive the Fall 2017 Teaching Assistant Excellence Award. This award recognizes superior performance by a teaching assistant. Way to go!!!
Feb 26 – Man passed her second year department exam! Congratulations!!!
Feb 21 – Liora passed her second year department exam! Congratulations!!!
Feb 19 – Prof. Vicki Grassian has been elected Chair-Elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Chemistry Section!
Feb 7 – Victor passed his second year department exam! Congratulations!!!
Jan 30 – Irem's team got the first place in Social Innovation Sprint, Climate Change. SIS partnered with the Climate Science and Policy program and the Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and SanDiego350. They developed a system like Airbnb for composting to prevent the food waste on UCSD campus and San Diego to reduce climate change effects. And as a prize, got $12,500 value of business development consultation and mentoring for the project! Way to go!!
Jan 23 – Prof. Vicki Grassian's TEDx talk is now available, check it out here!
Jan 7 – The Grassian group welcomes new graduate students: Mike Alves, Andrew McDonald, and Renee Tam!
2017
Oct 29 – Prof. Vicki Grassian receives a 2018 ACS-CEI Award for Incorporation of Sustainability into Chemistry Education. She will be presenting her award talk at the American Chemistry Society National Spring Meeting in New Orleans.
Oct 15 – Ellen Coddens received departmental teaching award for her teaching of Environmental Chemistry in Winter 2017. Congratulations Ellen!
Oct 15 – Liora Mael selected as departmental GAANN fellow for AY 2017/2018. Congratulations Liora!!
Oct 15 – Grassian group welcomes new postdoctoral fellow Dr. Kristin Julianne Wall and graduate student Izaac Sit!
Oct 14 – Prof. Vicki Grassian gives a breathtaking talk at TEDxSanDiego 2017 !!
Sep 7 – Catch Prof. Vicki Grassian's talk at the 2017 TEDxSan Diego on Saturday, October 14th at Copley Symphony Hall!
Aug 25th – We wish our summer undergraduate students, Jimmy and Neyen good luck for the next academic year.
Aug 23rd – Zhenzhu Xu wins the outstanding student poster award from the Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division at the 254th ACS National Meeting & Exposition! Amazing Zhenzhu!!
Aug 18th – Sarah Schwab presents her summer research at the 2017 Summer Research Conference at UC San Diego
Aug 13th – Jon Trueblood teaches students in Mexico about the research involved in CAICE, way to go JON!
Jul 31th – Dr. Armando Estillore leaves the Grassian group to begin his work as a scientist at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg, Germany. Good luck Armando!! You are a superstar and we will miss you!!
Jul 18th – The Grassian group welcomes new postdoctoral associate, Dr. Liubin Huang!
Jul 1st – The Grassian Group welcomes summer undergrad research students: Neyen Romano, Sarah Schwab, and Jimmy Ge!
Jun 30th – The Grassian Group welcomes graduate student Michael Alves!
Jun 15th – The Grassian Group returns to BJ's to bid farewell to undergrad rockstar Luke Kisaichi. We wish you the best, and we will miss you!
May 19th – Luke Kisaichi receives the Mayer Award which recognizes outstanding research in chemistry by a graduating senior, way to go Luke!
May 12th – Prof. Vicki Grassian is featured as a segment guest on NPR's Science Friday podcast! Listen to her talk here.
May 11th – A new paper of the group led by Rich Cochran and Olga Laskina is on the cover of Chem. Congrats to all co-authors!
April 25th – Prof. Vicki Grassian shares her career journey during the "Women Prosper in STEM” held at Women's Museum in California in San Diego.
April 12th – Congratulations to our former REU student and future UC San Diego graduate student Mike Alves for receiving a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship! Nice work Mike!!
April 12th – Congratulation to Brittany Givens on successfully defending her M.S. Thesis!! We wish her great success in her Ph.D. research at the University of Iowa with Professor Ali Salem.
April 5th – Jon achieves second place in the final round of the GradSLAM, a true rockstar!
March 7th – Jon advances to the final round of the GradSLAM, what a rockstar!
February 21st – Jon the rockstar moves onto the semifinal round of the GradSLAM, way to go Jon!
January 29th – The Grassian group goes on their first group hike at Old Mission Dam!
January 9th – The Grassian group welcomes new graduate students: Man Lou, Liora Mael, and Victor Or!
January 1st – Armando had a party with special performance of Jon the rockstar!
2016
December 9th – The Grassian group breaks bread together at BJs restaurant to bid farewell to one of our postdocs, Dr. Yaping Zhang before she returns to China. We wish you all the best and we'll miss you, Yaping. Keep in touch!
December 8th – Aruni's paper is on the cover of Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts as part of the themed collection: Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts Recent HOT Articles. Congrats Aruni and co-authors.
November 14th – Jon Trueblood conducted lecture to high students in Westview High about CAICE research. You're a rockstar Jon!
November 12th – Cynthia Wong presented her dissolution studies at the Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) held at University of California, Riverside. Way to go Cynthia!
September 16th – Congratulations to Brittany for passing her comprehensive exam!!
August 25th – We wish our summer undergraduate students good luck for the next academic year. We will especially miss Meagan and Mike who will be going back home to Virginia and Minnesota, respectively.
August 24th – Mike presented a poster of his summer research outputs at the conclusion of the SURF program at the Martin Johnson House in Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Grassian group went to support him.
August 18th– Vicki Grassian named Associate Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at UCSD.
August 5th – Good luck to our high school students Grecia and Isabella! We wish you the best in your senior year.
August 1st – Dr. Gonzalez-Pech teaching her workshop "Nano: the potential of small things" to high school and undergraduate students in Xalapa, Mexico. During Clubes de Ciencia Mexico summer 2016.
July 27th – Dr. Mingjin Tang leaves to start his new faculty position at Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, China Academy of Science. We wish him much success in his new position!!
July 5th – Dr. Mona Shrestha and Victor Or join the Grassian group. Mona is a postdoc working on CAICE projects. She finished her PhD in Chemistry from Northwestern University in the group of Prof. Franz Geiger. Victor is a prospective grad student rotating in the Grassian group.
June 20th – Welcome to our summer undergraduate and high school students - Mike Alves, Meagan Marciano, Luke Kisaichi, Cynthia Wong, Isabella Bobadilla and Grecia Amparano
May 12th – Congratulations to our second year students - Deokhyeon, Ellen and Sanjaya!!!
May 1st – We welcome Dr. Natalia Gonzalez Pech as a new postdoc in the Grassian group. Natalia finished her PhD in Chemistry from Rice University under the guidance of Prof. Vicki Colvin.
April 15th – Aruni is now officially Dr. Aruni Gankanda after she successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis! Aruni joins as a postdoc in the group of Prof. David Cwiertny in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in U of Iowa. Congrats Doc!
April 8-11th – CAICE researchers across the country including our very own Jon and Armando attended the CAICE annual meeting at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine led by CAICE Director Kim Prather and co-director Vicki Grassian to discuss recent research successes in the center and future directions for research. Also present in the event were CAICE external science advisors: Prof. Alison Butler (UC Santa Barbara), Dr. Susannah Burrows (PNNL), Prof. Veronica Vaida (U Colorado, Boulder), Dr. Bruce Garrett (PNNL), Prof. Robert Duce (Texas A&M). Workshops on professional development and diversity were attended by CAICE students and postdocs.
March 31st – Imali leaves for her job at Cabot Microelectronics. Imali worked with many grad and undergraduate students at Iowa. For all of them we say – thank you and wish her the best of luck in her new position!!!
March 25th – Review article by Mingjin Tang entitled “Interactions of Water with Mineral Dust Aerosol: Water Adsorption, Hygroscopicity, Cloud Condensation, and Ice Nucleation” in Chemical Reviews (Chem. Rev. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00529) is published!!!
Mar 13th-17th - (Left) Vicki Grassian and Juan Navea (former postdoc) with four of his undergraduate research students from Skidmore at the ACS meeting in San Diego. (Right) Juan was recently featured in a photo in C&EN for his development of dual teaching/research equipment opportunities at undergraduate institutions.
Mar 13th-17th - Armando and Jon gave talks in the Physical Chemistry of Complex Environmental Interfaces" session chaired by Vicki Grassian and Gil Nathanson (UW-Madison) of the 251st ACS National Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, CA. Former Grassian Group members: Rich Cochran (Director of ECAL, UCSD); Hind Al-Abadleh (Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada) and Andy Ault (U of Michigan) were also present to gave talks of their respective independent reseach in the same session.
Mar 5th - Armando participated in a CAICE outreach activity as volunteer and demonstrator for cloud in a bottle experiment during the 2016 San Diego Science and Engineering Festival Expo in Petco Park in Downtown San Diego. Over 25,000 people attended on the Expo Day.
Jan 1st - Rich Cochran is now the Director and Senior Development Engineer of the Environmental Analysis Laboratory of CAICE based in the University of California San Diego. Congrats Rich!!!
2015
Oct 12th-16th - Rich and Armando attended the 34th Annual Conference of the American Association for Aerosol Research in Minneapolis, MN. Rich gave a talk on partitioning and selectivity of molecules in nascent sea spray aerosol while Armando presented a poster on the hygroscopic properties of organosulfates.
Oct 1st - Vicki Grassian's invited guest commentary about Particle Chemistry in the Environment: Challenges and Opportunities is now published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Aug 22nd - Armando, Aruni, and Rich participated in an outreach activity during the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.
Aug 16th - 20th - Jon Trueblood presented a poster of his research work during the 250th ACS National Meeting and Exposition in Boston, MA. Vicki Grassian gave a talk in the session "30 Years of Langmuir: Looking Back and Forward."
Aug 4th - Armando Estillore completes 8-week summer workshop on mentoring the next generation of scientists.
Aug 2nd-7th - Rich Cochran and Mingjin Tang attend Gordon Research Conference: Atmospheric Chemistry In Waterville Valley, NH. Vicki Grassian is one of the speakers in the confab.
July 30th - Dr. Rich Cochran, postdoc, travels to New York to attend the 13th Atmospheric Chemistry Colloquium for Emerging Senior Scientists (ACCESS XIII) held at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Rich is one of the 25 participants selected from a poll of applicants across the globe to attend ACCESS and the GRC in Atmospheric Chemistry, which will be held at Waterville Valley Resort, Waterville Valley, New Hampshire on August 2-7, 2015. Congrats Rich!
July 29th - Nina Diklich (left) and Zhen Qin (right), REU summer students, presented posters of their work during the 10th Annual UI Summer Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC). SURC highlights the work of more than 140 of UI's most talented undergraduate student researchers.
July 10th - Today we bid farewell to Tao, visiting professor from China. We will miss you Tao!
June 26th - Josh Grandquist successfully defended his master's thesis. Congratulations Josh!
June 21st-26th - Dr. Imali Mudunkotuwa, postdoc, travels to West Dover, VT to present her work in the Gordon Research Conference: Environmental Nanotechnology.
June 2nd - Welcome Nina Diklich from Aquinas College who will be doing summer undergraduate research at the University of Iowa. She is joined by undergrad Zhen Qin who will also be doing research this summer in the Grassian group.
May 22nd - We wish Olga all the best as she leaves Iowa to move to Philadelphia. We will miss you Olga!
May 18th - CAICE researchers published a new paper in ACS Central Science that describes a chemical process that directly links ocean biology and aerosol chemistry. Jon and Olga are the co-authors from Iowa. Read the press release here and here (C&EN).
May 15th - Zhenzhu (Jenny) Xu is now officially a PhD candidate in Chemistry after passing her comprehensive exam. Congratulations Jenny!
May 13th - Yuan Fang successfully passed her Ph.D. comprehensive exam! Congratulations Yuan!
May 1st - Congratulations to Jon Trueblood for passing his Ph.D. comprehensive exam!
April 28th - Olga Laskina and Betsy Stone (Chemistry Faculty) receive the 2015 Graduate Research Excellence Award in Biology, Life, Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Early Career Scholar of the Year Award, respectively, during the Celebrating Excellence: Discovery and Innovation Awards Ceremony hosted by The Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development which recognized research and innovation excellence among UI students, faculty, and staff. View the press release here.
April 24th - Olga Laskina officially joins the rank of PhDs after she successfully defended her dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Olga!
April 8th - Zhen Qin, an undergrad, presented a poster during the 11th Annual Spring Undergraduate Research Festival.
February 7th-13th - Aruni Gankanda took a break from the cold winter in Iowa to present poster of her work at the GRC: Chemical Reactions at Surfaces in Ventura, CA. Vicki Grassian gave a talk and served as one of the discussion leaders at the meeting!
January 29th - Dr. Mingjin Tang joins the group as a new postdoctoral fellow! Welcome Mingjin to Iowa!
January 28th - Olga's paper published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A Mario Molina Festschrift is selected as one of the ACS Editors' Choice. Her work, alongside Holly Morris (Tivanski group), Josh Grandquist, Zhen Qin, Dr. Betsy Stone, Dr. Alexei Tivanski, and Dr. Vicki Grassian, is also featured in the website of the department's recent news and on CAICE's Facebook page and Twitter. Congratulations!!!
January 19th - Dr. Tao Yang of Hebei University in China joins us as a Visiting Professor! Welcome Tao to Iowa!
January 15th - Dr. Richard Cochran joins us as a new postdoctoral fellow working on CAICE project in collaboration with the Stone group!
2014
December 26th - Congratulations to Olga, Josh and Holly, their CAICE collaborative paper "Size Matters in the Water Uptake and Hygroscopic Growth of Atmospherically Relevant Multi-Component Aerosol Particles" to be published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Mario Molina Festschrift has been selected to be featured in ACS Editors' Choice!!
December 10th - Welcome new graduate students – Ellen Codden, Sanjaya Dilantha and Deokhyeon Kwon – to the Grassian group.
December 5th - Jackie Dowling joins the Grassian group again for a short stint while she is on break from Carleton College. Working with Jon Trueblood and Olga Laskina, Jackie is helping us identify the biological and organic components of sea spray aerosol. Great job Jackie - come back again soon!
December 1st - See Olga Laskina, Jon Trueblood and other CAICE students in the Science Nation Video Sea spray: Complex chemistry with big effects on climate with commentary from Kim Prather and Vicki Grassian and narrated by Miles O'Brien.
November 25th - RSC Publishing has collected the best research highlighting the importance of chemistry in climate change. Congratulations to Iowa and UCSD CAICE researchers for the selection of their Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics article ‘Raman microspectroscopy and vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy as probes of the bulk and surface compositions of size-resolved sea spray aerosol particles’
As stated by Professor Susan Solomon, USA Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry & Climate Science, MIT and Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts Advisory Board Member "In the lead up to the UN climate change conference in Paris in late 2015, it is timely to consider the importance of chemistry in climate science. This collection showcases the essential contributions of chemical science to understanding climate change. As the world weighs mitigation and adaptation options, chemists will be part of the search for solutions.”
November 14th - The 70th American Chemical Society (ACS) Midwest Award goes to Vicki Grassian. The award is given by the St. Louis Section of the ACS to publicly recognize outstanding achievements in chemistry in the Midwest region. See http://www.chem.uiowa.edu/news/dr-vicki-grassian-receives-acs-midwest-award for further details. (Vicki receiving the award on the left photo).
Aruni, Hayder, Alaa, Zhenzhu, Yuan, Olga, Josh and Armando presented posters on their work. Imali delivered a talk in the Physical Chemistry Session - good job everyone!!
Former group members: Andy Ault, now at University of Michigan; Hind Al-Abadleh, now at Wilfrid Laurier University; and Paula Hudson, now at California State University in Fullerton gave awesome talks about their respective group researches during the Midwest Awards Symposium organized by Professor Sarah Larsen.
November 5th - Welcome Brittany Givens to the Grassian Research Group!! Brittany is a Chemical and Biochemical Engineering joint student with Professor Jennifer Fiegel.
October 27th & 28th - CAICE Annual Meeting in San Diego a huge success. Jon, Olga, Josh and Armando presented posters on their work involving the chemical characterization, heterogeneous chemistry and hygroscopicity of sea spray aerosol - good job everyone!! CAICE advisors Bruce Garrett (PNNL), Veronica Vaida (UC Boulder), Alison Butler (UC Santa Barbara), Bob Duce (Texas A&M emeritus) and Susannah Burrows (PNNL) all provided great feedback on CAICE activites - thank you advisors!!!
October 9 - AWIS Magazine features the Grassian group and Vicki Grassian is on the magazine cover.
August 10-14 - Aruni Gankandana and Olga Laskina presented posters of their work at the ACS meeting in San Francisco. There was great interest from many of the attendees. Andy Ault, former group member now at the University of Michigan, co-organized a successful symposium with Jonathan Raff, Indiana University, on “Environmental Interfaces”. Former group member Hind Al-Abadleh, now at Wilfrid Laurier University, gave a nice talk in that sympoium. Vicki Grassian gave several talks at the meeting including one entitled “International Collaborations with International Impact: Chemistry for Global Change” which was organized by graduate students at the University of Washington. Nice going everyone!!
August 1 - Dr. Armando Estillore joins us as a new postdoctoral fellow - we welcome Armando to Iowa!!!!
June 23-August 1 - Olga Laskina, Jon Trueblood and Josh Grandquist go to San Diego to particpate in CAICE - IMPACTS. Great work done by all in this intense and amazing experiment!!
See the blog http://climatechem.wordpress.com
June 15 - Good bye and good luck to Dr. Charith Nanayakkara! Wishing you the best of luck in Texas!
June 15 - Congratulations and good luck to Whitney Larish in her new job here in Iowa!
May 17 - Congratulations to Matt Burian for receiving his M.S. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. Good luck Matt!
May 6- Vicki H. Grassian receives John Jeyes Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. See the RSC website for more details http://www.rsc.org/ScienceAndTechnology/Awards/JohnJeyes/
Apri 28 - Congratulations Dr. Charith Nanayakkara who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation. Nice job Charith!!
Apri 3 - Vicki Grassian and David Cwiertny (former Grassian group postdoc) receive 2014 Scholar of the Year Award and Early Career Scholar of the Year Award, respectively, in the inaugural event hosted by The Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development which recognized research and innovation excellence among UI students, faculty, and staff. See UI Press release for more details http://now.uiowa.edu/2014/04/faculty-staff-and-students-recognized-research-excellence
March 31 - Chemical and Engineering News Reporter Celia Henry Arnaud highlights the PittCon symposium co-organized by Kim Prather and Vicki Grassian in her article "Probing Aerosols One by One". The article references published papers by current graduate student Olga Laskina (J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 2013, DOI: 10.1002/jgrd.50494) and former postdoc Andy Ault (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2013, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1300262110 and J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, DOI:10.1021/ja407117x).
March 30 - Charith Nanayakkara receives second place in the Math, Physical & Engineering Sciences Division of the 2014 Jakobsen Graduate Conference – congratulations Charith! This continues a seven year Grassian group tradition of placing 1st, 2nd, or 3rd at the conference.
March 30 - Nanodays at the state capitol - another STEM Outreach success - congratulations to all!!
March 18 - Wondwossen Anbessie will be greatly missed by the Grassian Research Group
March 8 - Great STEM outreach event at the River Center in Davenport with 1100 Girl Scouts in attendance and 600 parents! Congratulations to grad sudents Josh Grandquist, Olga Laskina and Jon Trueblood along with Holly Morris and Thilina Jayarathne for reaching out to future scientists!
February 1 - RSC publishes first issue of Environmental Science: Nano
January 10-29 - Olga Laskina visits UC San Diego to participate in the CAICE mesocosm MART experiment with the Prather and DeMott research groups!!
January 22-23 - Vicki Grassian gives a talk at AirUCI 10th Anniversary Workshop at Laguna Beach, CA. Congratulations to Barbara Finlayson-Pitts and her colleagues on a job well done! Former group member Haihan Chen, now a postdoc at UC Irvine, gave a great talk at the workshop with her UC-Irvine colleagues.
2013
December 20 - Welcome to new graduate students Yuan Fang and Zhenzhu Xu who joins the Grassian research group.
October 17 - Imali Mudunkotuwa successfully defends her dissertation – congratulations Imali !!!
September 16 - Andy Ault's Talk at ACS Meeting appears in Chemical & Engineering News Concentrate "Sea Spray Aerosol Chemistry Clarified" by Jyllian Kemsley - See Article in Chemical & Engineering News, 91(37), September 16, 2013 [Science & Technology, Concentrates]. Way to go Andy!!!!
September 9 - American Chemical Society holds press conference to announce funding of the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and Environment (CAICE). See Vicki Grassian and CAICE collegues describe the goals and purpose of CAICE joined by former ACS President Joseph Francisco and NSF Division of Chemistry Director Jaquelyn Gervay-Hague for a discussion on NSF’s major support of efforts in studying chemistry and climate. A recording of the discussion and press conference at the ACS National Meeting can be viewed at:http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/38513985.
August 26 - Welcome to new Grassian group members Matt Burian and Zhen Qin who will be starting research this Fall semester.
August 15 - Good luck to Dr. Gayan Rubasinhege in his new position at St. Cloud State University!!
August 1 - Goodbye to REU student James Dillon, we wish him great success in his last year at the University of Pittsburgh
June 6 – Imali Mudunkotuwa wins best poster award at the Gordon Research Conference on Environmental Nanotechnology. Congratulations Imali on a job well done!!!
June 1 – Grassian group warmly welcomes new graduate students Alaa Al Minshid and Jon Trueblood and new undergraduate REU student James Dillon!!
May 31 – Grassian Group says goodbye to postdoc Dr. Andy Ault. Andy is starting a faculty position at the University of Michigan. We will miss him and wish him the best of luck as a new Assistant Professor!! The Grassian group after Andy's farewell lunch on the left.
May 28 – RSC Publishing announces new journal “Environmenal Science:Nano” and appoints Vicki Grassian as the Editor-in-Chief see journal announcement at http://blogs.rsc.org/rscpublishing/2013/05/28/rsc-launches-environmental-science-nano-journal/ and journal web pagehttp://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/en/staff.asp
April 9 – Aruni Gankanda wins second place in the Math, Physical & Engineering Sciences Division of the 2013 Jakobsen Graduate Conference – congratulations Aruni! This follows a six year Grassian group tradition with Olga Laskina and Induni Siriwardane winning second and third place last year and other winners in previous years include: Gayan Rubansinghege and Imali Mudunkotuwa (Second and third place in 2011), Gayan Rubasinghege (First place in 2010), Pragati Galhotra (First place in 2009) and Sherrie Elzey (first place in 2008).
April 3 – Congratulations Andy Ault and CAICE collaborators on the just published paper entitled Raman microspectroscopy and vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy as probes of the bulk and surface compositions of size-resolved sea spray aerosol particles by Andrew P. Ault, Defeng Zhao, Carlena J. Ebben, Michael J. Tauber , Franz M. Geiger, Kimberly A. Prather and Vicki H. Grassian Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2013,15, 6206-6214 DOI: 10.1039/C3CP43899F
Way to go team!
March 20 – Haihan Chen leaves for UC-Irvine where she will postdoc with Barbara Finlayson-Pitts. Good luck Haihan!!
February 1 – Gayan Rubasinghege and Vicki Grassian publish a feature article in ChemComm entitled “Role(s) of Adsorbed Water in the Surface Chemistry of Environmental Interfaces”. This article summarizes over a decade of research on the impact of water on the reaction chemistry of oxide and carbonate interfaces from the Grassian group. Great job Gayan! Role(s) of Adsorbed Water in the Surface Chemistry of Environmental Interfaces Chem. Commun., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C3CC38872G
2012
December 15 – Whitney Larish joins the Grassian research group – welcome Whitney!
December 3 – Andrew Ault, Haihan Chen, Olga Laskina and Gayan Rubasinhege did a great job at the Fall AGU meeting in San Francisco. All presented posters, way to go Andy, Haihan, Olga and Gayan!
November 29 – Collaborative research with UK scientist on protective coatings of historic monumenets, e.g. Yorkminster cathedral, from attack by sulfur dioxide and sulfate aerosols is highlighted. See Gary Galluzzo’s press release: UI researchers help find way to protect historic limestone buildings
November 14 – Review article by Haihan Chen and Charith Nanayakkara entitled “Titanium Dioxide Photocatalysis in Atmospheric Chemistry” published in Chemical Reviews (Chem. Rev., 2012, 112, 5919–5948 )is published!!! This article immediately made its way into the monthly top 20 most read articles – way to go Haihan and Charith on writing this timely review!
November 1 – Welcome Hayder Alalwan and Joshua Grandquist to the Grassian Research Group! Both Hayder and Josh are pursuing Ph.D. degrees in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering.
September 5th - See Vicki Grassian's Prized Science Video produced by the American Chemical Society.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFMpw8LzQ2U
Haihan Chen with Gregory Carmichael and Vicki Grassian
Induni Siriwardane on the Old Capitol steps
August 1st – Congratulations to Dr. Jonas Baltrusaitis on his new job as an Assistant Professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Jonas has been associated with the Grassian group for nearly a decade and he will be greatly missed. Best of luck Jonas !!!
July 12th – Congratulations to Haihan Chen for successfully defending her Ph.D. dissertation!!
July 9th – Congratulations to Induni Siriwardane for completing an M.S. with thesis – good luck to her!!
June 1st – The Grassian group welcomes Saralyn Ogden from Utah Valley University and Jacob Lyon from St. Ambrose University.
May 10th – Imali Mudunkotuwa receives the A. Lynn Anderson Research Excellence Award from the Department of Chemistry. Congratulations Imali!
April 20th – Haihan Chen receives the 2012 Kammermeyer Research Award from the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering. Congratulations Haihan on a job well done!
March 27th – Congratulations to Vicki Grassian for receiving the ACS Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology sponsored by ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry.
http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/news/2011/09/28grassian.shtml
http://portal.acs.org/portal/PublicWebSite/funding/awards/national/bytopic/CTP_004504
Vicki Grassian receives the 2012 ACS Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology from ACS President Bassam Z. Shakhashiri (left) and Mr. Henry Ramsey, Chair of the ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry (right). Image courtesy of ACS Cutts Photography.
March 24th – Olga Laskina and Induni Siriwardane win second and third place in the Math, Physical & Engineering Sciences (MPE) Division at the 2011 James F. Jakobsen Graduate Conference. Congratulations to both Olga and Induni for a job well done! This is the fifth year in a row a graduate student in the Grassian group has won a place (Gayan Rubansinghege and Imali Mudunkotuwa (Second and third place in 2011), Gayan Rubasinghege (First place in 2010), Pragati Galhotra (First place in 2009) and Sherrie Elzey (first place in 2008).
2011
11/1/11 – Andrew Ault and Vicki Grassian go to San Diego to participate in the CAICE intensive (Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment –http://caice.ucsd.edu/CAICE_Home/CAICE_Home.html). See what Vicki had to say in her blog: "What can we learn about atmospheric aerosols from this "Ocean in a Lab"?"
See what Andy had to say in his blog: "Single Particle Microscopy and Spectroscopy"
8/30/2011– Congratulations Vicki Grassian for joining the 2011 class of ACS Fellows see list of all 2011 Fellows athttp://pubs.acs.org/cen/acsnews/89/8932acs2.html
8/28/2011 – Nanomaterials and the Environment Workshop Report is complete and can now be downloaded on line at http://nsfenv–nano.chem.wisc.edu/
8/1/2011 – Congratulations to Thilini Rupasinghe for completing an M.S. with thesis
7/1/2011 – Congratulations to Dr. Gayan Rubasinghege for successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation. Nice job Gayan!!
6/28/2011 and 6/29/2011 – Vicki Grassian and Bob Hamers (Wisconsin) co–chair an NSF–funded workshop entitled "Nanomaterials and the Environment: The Chemistry and Material Science Perspectives" Participants and agenda for the workshop can be found at http://nsfenv–nano.chem.wisc.edu/. Look there for the workshop report which should be forthcoming!!!
5/23/2011 – REU student Caitlyn McGuire from Truman State University joins the Grassian group– welcome Caitlyn!!
5/17/2011 – Lahiru Wijenayaka passed his Ph.D. comprehensive exam – Congratulations to Lahiru!
04/25/2011 – Dr. Andrew Ault comes to the University of Iowa as a postdoc from Kim Prather's group at UCSD – welcome Andy!!
04/20/2011 – Our recent work on "An abiotic mechanism for the formation of N2O from ammonium nitrate" published in Environmental Science and Technology has been highlighted in Nature Chemistry.http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v3/n5/full/nchem.1040.html (page 339 on website).Nature Chemistry is a monthly journal dedicated to publishing high–quality papers that describe the most significant and cutting–edge research in all areas of chemistry. Link for the article on ES&T – http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es103295v
03/26/ 2011 – Gayan Rubansinghege and Imali Mudunkotuwa win second and third place in the Math, Physical & Engineering Sciences (MPE) Division at the 2011 James F. Jakobsen Graduate Conference. This is the forth year in a row a graduate student in the Grassian group has won a place (Gayan Rubasinghege (First place in 2010), Pragati Galhotra (First place in 2009) and Sherrie Elzey (first place in 2008)). Congratulations to both Imali and Gayan for a job well done!
03/26/2011 – 03/31/2011 – Gayan Rubasinghege and Imali Mudunkotuwa presented their research work in the 241st ACS National Meeting, Spring 2011.
Gayan Rubasinghege – Simulated atmospheric processing of iron oxyhydroxide minerals at low pH: Roles of particle size, light and oxyanion in iron dissolution. http://www.softconference.com/acschem/player.asp?PVQ=HGFE&fVQ=FHMJEE&hVQ=EFDKIKM
Imali Mudunkotuwa – Organic acid adsorption on engineered metal and metal oxide nanoparticles in aqueous suspensions.http://www.softconference.com/acschem/player.asp?PVQ=HGFE&fVQ=FHMIMK&hVQ=EFDKIKM (ACS link might only work for ACS members)
1/3/2011 – The Grassian group welcomes new graduate students Olga Laskina, Aruni Gankanda and Induni Siriwardane to the group. Welcome to all three!
2010
11/22/2010 – Haihan Chen passes her comprehensive exam! Congratulations Haihan on a job well done!
11/13/2010 – Imali Mudunkotuwa and Gayan Rubansinghege win first and second place poster presentation awards, respectively, at the NOBCChE Midwest Regional Conference. Congratulations to both Imali and Gayan for a job well done!
10/15/2010 – Wond Anbessie a graduate student in the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering program joins the Grassian group. Welcome Wond!
9/13/10 – Vicki Grassian named F. Wendell Miller Professor see http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/news/2010/09/13apps.shtml for more details.
8/25/10 – Dan Altman, Environmental Engineering, joins the Grassian group on a joint project with Professor Michelle Scherer's lab. Welcome Dan!
7/15/10 – Pragati Galhotra has successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation – congratulations Pragati!! She is now going to the SF bay area to work and to meet up with her husband who is already there. We will miss her and wish her good luck!!
7/01/10 – Award winning publication – the recent article Peters et al. on single particle analysis – size and composition – of particulate matter in an industrial facility that produces nanomaterials for fuel cell applications has recently received two best papers awards– David L. Swift Memorial Outstanding Aerosol Paper Award in 2009 and Michican Industrial Hygiene Society Best Paper Award in 2009. Congratulations to the team which includes Julie Park and Sherrie Elzey now former members of the Grassian group for their work on this award winning publication!!
6/15/10 – Welcome REU students Rebecca Lindquist, Patrick Kyei and José R. Rivera–Negrón to the Grassian group. We are glad you are here and hope you have a great summer and a great research experience!!
6/2/10 – A Physical Chemistry Perspective Article "Reactions on Atmospheric Dust Particles: Surface Photochemistry and Size–Dependent Nanoscale Redox Chemistry" by Rubansinghege, Baltrusaitis, Jayaweera, Elzey and Grassian has been published. Please see the journal article, cover art and video which describes some of our most recent studies on mineral dust and nanodust here:
Journal article: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jz100371d
Video: http://pubs.acs.org/page/jpclcd/vicki–video.html
Cover art: http://pubs.acs.org/action/showLargeCover?issue=347720576
5/15/10 – Sherrie Elzey has successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation "Applications and Physicochemical Characterization of Nanomaterials in Environmental, Health, and Safety Studies". Congratulations Sherrie on her accomplishments as a graduate student!!! We wish her well as she moves to the next step in her career
3/27/10 – Gayan Rubasinghege receives 1st place in the Math, Physical & Engineering Sciences (MPE) Division at the 2010 James F. Jakobsen Graduate Conference. This is the third year in a row a graduate student in the Grassian group has received first place (Pragati Galhotra in 2009 and Sherrie Elzey in 2008). Congratulations Gayan on a job well done!
1/1/10 – Grassian group wishes Dr. Hongbo Fu good luck and farewell as he returns to Fudan University in Shanghai, China.
1/3/10 – Vicki Grassian is elected to Vice–Chair of the Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. This is a three–year appointment with positions of Chair–Elect and Chair held in years two and three of the appointment.
2009
12/31/09 – Grassian group says goodbye and good luck to Dr. Julie Park who is going to Marquette University to do postdoctoral research with Dr. Adam Fiedler. We will miss Julie who has been at the University of Iowa for some time as a Ph.D. student and postdoc.
12/15/09 – Grassian group welcomes new graduate students to the group – Thilline Rupasinghe and Lahiru Wijenayaka.
8/15/09 – John Pettibone leaves for a NRC postdoctoral position at NIST – Good luck John!
8/1/09 – Juan Navea leaves Iowa to begin a position as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin
7/16/09 – John Pettibone defended his thesis! Congratulations, John!
7/7/09 – Grassian group welcomes a new postdoc Shaowei Bian from Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, who's graduate adviser is a former postdoc Dr. Weiguo Song
6/1/09 – Grassian group welcomes Summer undergraduate researchers: Robbie Lentz from University of Michigan, Jen Knapp from Wittenberg University, Springfield OH, Olga Laskina from St. Petersburg Technological Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia
4/2/09 – Undergraduate Tricia Abernathy has been chosen to do research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory this summer under the Department of Energy's Undergraduate Summer Research Internship Program to work on fuel cell research. Congratulations Tricia on receiving this highly competitive internship!!!
4/1/09 – Gayan Rubasinghege has passed his comprehensive exam and now moves to postcomp status. Congratulations Gayan!!
3/31/09 – John Pettibone has received an NRC postdoctoral fellowship to work at the National Institutes of Standards. Awardees are chosen through a national competition administered by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations John on receving this highly competitive fellowship!!!
3/28/09 – Pragati Galhotra is a poster award winner (1st place) in the Math, Physical & Engineering Sciences (MPE) Division at the 2009 James F. Jakobsen Graduate Conference. This is the second year in a row a graduate student in the Grassian group has received first place (Sherrie Elzey last year). Way to go Pragati!!
2/14/09 – Mini issue "Physical Chemistry of Environmental Interfaces" is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Guest Editors: Franz Geiger, Howard Fairbrother, Vicki Grassian and John Hemminger.
1/15/09 – Grassian group welcomes graduate student Chia–Ming (Allen) Wu.
2008
12/10/08 – Grassian group welcomes new graduate students Imali Mudunkotuwa and Charith Nanayakkara.
12/3/08 – Sherrie Elzey passes her comprehensive exam – congratulations Sherrie!
12/1/08 – Grassian group moves out of temporary labs and back into the IATL.
11/11/08 – Graduate College selects Vicki Grassian to receive the Outstanding Mentoring Award (see http://news–releases.uiowa.edu/2008/november/111108mentorawards.html)
10/15/08 – Haihan Chen finished her M.S. at Fudan University and now has joined the Grassian group to work on her Ph.D. Welcome Haihan!
8/1/08 – Jonas Baltrusaitis' Ph.D. dissertation wins University of Iowa thesis award!! Graduate College has selected his thesis for a Graduate Deans Distinguished Dissertation Award for 2008 – Congratulations Jonas!!
7/20/08 – Dr. Courtney Hatch leaves Iowa to begin her new faculty position at Hendrix College. Good luck to Courtney and her family!!
7/10/08 – Courtney Hatch's review article â'Applications of analytical techniques in laboratory studies of the chemical and climatic impacts of mineral dust aerosol in the Earth's atmosphere†by Hatch and Grassian has been published as a special 10th Anniversary Review in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring.
7/10/08 – Jennifer Schuttlefield defends her thesis – Congratulations Dr. Schuttlefield!!! She is now moving west to begin a postdoc position with Professor Bruce Parkinson.
7/7/08 – Visiting scholar Hongbo Fu from Fudan University comes to do the University of Iowa research on Fe–containing mineral dust aerosol. Welcome!
7/1/08 – The Grassian research group welcomes new postdoc Dr. James Zahardis who comes to the University of Iowa after finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Vermont.
6/12/08 – Grassian group evacuates out of IATL due to flooding of the caused by the Iowa River and moves to the Chemistry Building where they will be temporarily located.
6/8/08 – Claire Doskey from Knox College comes to Iowa to participate in research in the Grassian group through the NSF REU program hosted by the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at UI.
5/5/08 – Courtney Hatch has a new beautiful baby boy. Both mom and baby are doing great – congratulations!
4/17/08 – Pragati Galhotra passes her comprehensive exam. Congratulations Pragati on a job well done!!
3/29/08 – Sherrie wins first place at Math, Physical, and Engineering Sciences Division at the Jakobsen Graduate Conference for a poster presentation and paper, titled "FTIR Study of the Selective Catalytic Reduction of NO2 with Ammonia on Nanocrystalline NaY and CuY". Great job Sherrie!!!
2/10/08 – Pradeep M. Jayaweera from Department of Chemistry University at Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka joins Grassian group – welcome Pradeep!
2/1/08 – Julie (Heaweon) Park joins the Grassian group – welcome Julie!
01/26/08 – Gayan Rubasinghege and his wife welcomed a baby boy 7 1/2 lbs
01/15/08 – Welcome new Postdocs Larissa Stebounova and Asif Rahaman
2007
12/1/07 – Min Huang (Chemical and Biochemical Engineering), Gayan Rubasinghege (Chemistry) and Ryan Wright (Chemistry) join the Grassian research group. Min is co–advised by Professor Greg Carmichael. Welcome to all three!!!
11/15/07 – Sherrie Elzey puts together a new tandem nano–DMA apparatus for her research on nanoparticles. Nice going Sherrie!
9/24/07 – Vicki Grassian gives a tutorial at AAAR entitled â'Inhalation Toxicology of Nanomaterials†in Reno, Nevada.
9/15/07 – Jonas Baltrusaitis and Jenny Schuttlefield get Inside Cover Art posted on the PCCP website, seehttp://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/CP/Gallery.asp. The paper can be found here:http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/CP/article.asp?doi=b705189a
8/15/07 – David Cwiertny leaves to start his faculty position in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California–Riverside. Good luck to David in his new position!!!
6/27/07 – Jonas Baltrusaitis successfully defends his dissertation entitled "Experimental and Theoretical Studies of the Adsorption of Atmospherically Relevant Gases on Metal Oxide and Carbonate Surfaces". Nice job Dr. Baltrusaitis!
6/15/07 – Drs. Paula Hudson and Dan Curtis move to southern California to start their new positions at Cal State Fullerton and UCLA, respectively. Good luck Paula and Dan in your new positions!
6/1/07 – Jason Bone joins the Grassian group for summer undergraduate research. Welcome Jason!
4/23/07 – Praveen Mogili successfully defends his dissertation entitled "Heterogeneous Chemistry and Optical Properties of Mineral Dust Aerosol". Congratulations Dr. Mogili!
4/20/07 – Lizzie Gibson successfully defends her dissertation entitled "Mineral Dust Aerosol Chemistry and Climate". Congratulations Dr. Gibson!
4/15/07 – Sherrie Elzey is named a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Awardee. Way to go Sherrie! Seehttp://news–releases.uiowa.edu/2007/may/050407engineering–fellowship.html
3/1/07 – Schuttlefield, Al–Hosney, Zachariah and Grassian article is highlighted on the cover of the Journal of Applied Spectroscopy. See
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/00037028
3/1/07 – Article by Baltrusaitis, Usher and Grassian in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics on sulfur dioxide reactions on carbonate surfaces is designated as Hot! See http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/CP/Hotindex.asp
2/22/07 – Vicki Grassian named Collegiate Fellow. See:
http://news–releases.uiowa.edu/2007/february/022207clas–fellows.html
2006
2/12/06 – Dr. Courtney Hatch comes to Iowa from CU–Boulder to work with Professors Vicki Grassian and Gregory Carmichael on a joint project with Kim Prather's group at UCSD. We're glad to have her!
12/15/06 – Graduate student Pragati Galhotra joins the Grassian research group. Welcome Pragati!
10/26/06 – Gibson, Hudson and Grassian feature article is highlighted on the cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A.http://pubs3.acs.org/acs/journals/toc.page?incoden=jpcafh&indecade=0&involume=110&inissue=42
9/10/06 – Sustainability and Chemistry Workshop report "Chemistry for a Sustainable Future" is now available athttp://www.chem.uiowa.edu/research/sustainability/index.html
8/24/06 – Vicki Grassian named Director of the new Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at the University of Iowa
7/21/06 – Postdoc Dr. Juan Navea from Baylor University joins the Grassian research group to work on a joint project with Professors Charlie Stanier and Mark Young. Welcome Juan!!
7/1/06 – Postdoc Kevin Knagge leaves for a job with Bruker Instruments – good luck Kevin!
6/12/06 – Vicki Grassian receives the Regents Award for Faculty Excellence see press release athttp://itsnt166.iowa.uiowa.edu/unsarchives/2006/june/061206faculty_awards.html for further details.
6/01/06 – Undergraduates David Cox and Jacyln Schwarz join the Grassian research group.
5/30/06 – Vicki Grassian co–chairs with Gerald Meyer (Johns Hopkins University) a National Science Foundation Workshop on Chemistry and Sustainability. Look for the workshop report soon to be posted on the UI and NSF websites.
5/01/06 – Lizzie Gibson is awarded a was awarded a 2006 GCEP Graduate Research Environmental Fellowship from the Department of Energy.
4/15/07 – New AFM arrives from Asylum and is installed. Courtney Usher is working on getting the environmental chamber working and using phase and polarization capabilities of the new instrument to study surface reactions on environmental interfaces.
4/01/06 – Dan Curtis and collaborators (Mark Young and Paul Kleiber) finish laser scattering apparatus to measure angle resolved scatter of the components of mineral dust aerosol.
3/15/06 – Jonas Baltrusaitis gets student travel grant to attend the GRC on Chemistry at Interfaces
2/15/06 – Jennifer Schuttlefield finishes the design, construction and implementation of a flow cell quartz crystal microbalance for making simultaneous ATR FTIR Spectroscopic and QCM Measurements to quantify water uptake on clays and other components of mineral dust aerosol. Way to go Jenny!
01/28/06 Lizzie (Johnson) Gibson is pictured in the latest 2006 winter issue of Chemistry, a publication of the American Chemical Society (seehttp://acswebcontent.acs.org/chemistry/index.html). Lizzie was photographed (three times!) talking to several Nobel Prize winning chemists at the 55th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany.
2005
12/16/05 Ann Zachariah and Joanna Sciegienka graduate with Honors in Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, respectively Congratulations and good luck to both of them as they continue on with their studies.
12/10/05 Welcome new Grassian group members graduate students – Sherrie Elzey (Chemical Engineering), Kelly Gierlus (Chemistry) and Gordy Hunter (Chemistry)
12/01/05 Shannon Stout submits the final draft of her M.S. Thesis entitled â'Adsorption/Desorption and Oxidation Studies of 2–Chloroethyl Ethyl Sulfide on Nanocrystalline Zeolites†to the Graduate College.
11/01/05 MAARS (Multi–Analysis Aerosol Reactor System) has been tested and works. The instrument is now being used to study the heterogeneous chemistry, optical properties, hygroscopic growth and CCN activity of mineral dust aerosol and reacted mineral dust aerosol. Nice going Paula and Lizzie!
11/01/05 Despite problems with delivered equipment, Kratos Ultra Axis XPS system begins to crank out high quality data!!! Nice going Jonas!.
10/30/05 Grassian elected Fellow of AAAS (see news release at http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/2005/october/102705aaas–fellows.html)
10/15/05 Welcome Dr. David Cwiertny to Iowa. David joins us from Johns Hopkins University and will work on a joint project with Professor Michelle Scherer, Environmental Engineering.
10/05/05 Good news! A paper "Heterogeneous uptake and reactivity of formic acid on calcium carbonate particles: a Knudsen cell reactor, FTIR and SEM study" by Hashim A. Al–Hosney, Sofia Carlos–Cuellar, Jonas Baltrusaitis and Vicki H. Grassian has been published (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2005, 7(20), 3509). The figure from the paper became cover art for the same issue of the journal. Check it out online at:http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/CP/Gallery.asp
07/19/05 Group is left to starve to death during tomorrow's group meeting, cause Jonas was busy editing groups web page
07/11/05 Hashim Ali defended his Ph. D. thesis. Now he is out of here!