Charlie came by to say hi and present his group's research. 

Alexis and Elizabeth join previous grad students as new members of Iota Sigma Pi. 

Stephanie shows Loyola how studious she's been in lab for the last year. 

Spring break gave way to peace and a new look. Razzle Dazzle really makes the lab pop in the white hallways. Good thing it's not Baker-Miller Pink.

We might be running out of chairs, but where there's a will there's a way. We welcome Demi Brown as our brand new Master's student. 

No Florida Man, AVS is not for vacuums that clean the floor. The group went to Tampa, Florida to see what's new in the world of vacuum science and to see some old friends. 

Alexis went to boil in Phoenix, AZ by herself. Some lab members have also become founding members of the Loyola SACNAS chapter. Alexis as Secretary, and Elizabeth joined as Treasurer. 

Charlie Campbell dropped by to say hi and present his research at the 2024 Denkewalter Poster Show. Alexis also won best poster!!

What better way to show how amazing of a group we are than to debut our new grad students to the surface scientists of the Champaign, IL area. 

We have officially taken a photo of all current lab members for the spring 2024 semester, hoping for warm days and good research!

Dan, Max, Allison, and Arved went to Portland, OR for the 69th annual AVS meeting. Excitingly, Dan became a fellow at this meeting and we are all so happy for him!

After Faith finishes her master's in a few weeks, she's moving across the pond to join our friends in Vienna at TU Wien. 

Dan and Faith travelled a hop, skip, and a jump to Indianapolis for this years ACS meeting. Faith even gave an oral presentation for the first time (by herself). All around, it was fun to catch up with previous lab members (hi Rachael), and with collegues, and to hear and learn about new ideas. Now time to finish the spring semester back at Loyola.

Group Members traveled to Pittsburgh, PA for the annual international AVS conference! When there everyone presented, saw previous group members, networked, and had a lot of fun!

Through the undergrad research program we were able to find Stephanie who was a great addition to the lab.

The lab went to the 82nd Physical Electronics Conference, hosted by Loyola University Chicago and UIC. There graduate student Maxwell, and undergrad Christina presented posters. While Liz, was a Nottingham Prize finalist and presented an oral presentation. Overall it was a very fun conference! 

In May, there were many labmates graduating this year! 

Christina and Faith both graduated with their Bachelors degrees and Liz graduated with her doctorate. Christina is taking a gap year before applying to graduate school. Faith will be continuing at Loyola to earn her Masters of Science in Chemistry. 

Congratulations to all!  

In April 2022, Liz Jamka successfully defender her PhD IN PERSON! It was a great day to celebrate Liz! Dr. Rachael Farber served as her outside committee member! Liz will continue to be in lab for the summer while she figures out her next opportunity! 

The spring is seeing new things.  Liz and Dan traveled to San Diego to present at the ACS meeting in the “Bridging Surface Science to Catalysis” sessions.  Maxwell, Faith, and Christina did some Chemistry demos at Senn HS, alum Rachael Farber came to visit, Christina & Faith gave a talk at the ISP research seminar at Lewis University, we stopped out where the first nuclear reactor is buried, escaped a dinosaur infested room.

Recent PhD graduate, Marie Turano will receive the 2021 Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Scholarship from the AVS at AVS 67 this fall.  This is one of the named national student awards, and come with a cash prize and a certificate.  In a non-CoVID year, she would also get a free trip to the symposium.  Marie also accepted a position at Bureau Veritas.  Congratulations, Marie!

Although the 67th AVS Symposium was a virtual event thanks to &$%@ CoVID, a few of the local Chicago folks got together to celebrate its conclusion as well as one of the AVS Graduate Award winners, Michael Brann, from The University of Chicago.  Then, a week later, we had the first group dinner in quite some time, along with a few special guests!

Although a while since the last update, the group is resuming ‘normal’ operations, and Marie successfully defended her dissertation.  Congratulations Dr. Turano!

In other news, Liz will be a 2021-22 Teaching scholar, congratulations, Liz!

In October 2019, the group travelled to Columbus, OH for the 66th AVS International Symposium and Exhibition.  Dan was the vice-program chair (and will be program chair for the 2020 meeting in Denver), Marie gave a talk, and Maxwell presented a poster.

Dan spent the summer in Alec Wodtke’s lab in Göttingen, Germany. 

Marie and Dan attended the 2019 Dynamics at Surfaces Gordon Research Conference in Newport, RI.  Marie presented a poster on CO oxidation on Rh(111) and Dan gave an invited talk on the group’s recent work.  A great meeting, and we got to catch up with friends of the lab and meet new folks.

Edvin Lundgren stopped by to say hi in March.  So we took him to The Angry Crab to overindulge on seafood.

The group attended the 65th AVS International Symposium in Long Beach, CA in late October. A good time was had by all.

Summer adventures with friends 

Loyola’s own Sr. Jean came to visit the lab and get the tour from Rachael and Marie.

Rachael won the Dumbach Medal for best dissertation and Marie won the best TA award for 2017-18!  Congratulations!

Rachael was the 2018 Anna Louise Hoffman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Research winner!  Iota Sigma Pi is the national honor society for women in Chemistry, and one award is given per year.  This is a remarkable achievement!

Rachael successfully defended her dissertation in March.  Congratulations, Rachael!

She will be leaving in May to start a postdoc with Steve Sibener at The University of Chicago.

AVS 64 was a big success for Rachael and the group.  Rachael won the Morton M. Traum Surface Science Student award and the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award, a top-level AVS wide award.  EXCELLENT, Rachael!

We completed 5 days studying O on Ag(111) at APS.

Rachael, Marie, and Dan attended the 2016 AVS International meeting in Nashville, TN, from Nov. 7-11; Marie presented a poster and Rachael and Dan each gave talks. 

Congratulations to Victor and Marie for graduating from Loyola! Be sure to come back.

Congratulations, Jon, for successfully defending!

Rachael was awarded the 3rd place prize for best poster at the 2015 AVS Prairie, held at Notre Dame, Jon gave a talk about the O/Ag(111) system, and Marie presented a poster.