Seminars

SPRING 2025

FALL 2024

All activities take place in Keyes 105 from 3:00-3:50 PM unless otherwise noted.

September 6: Organizational Meeting

September 13: Dr. Tarini S. Hardikar, “Experiments and Theory: My Path in Science“ (qBraid)

September 20: David Ding “Stem Initiatives at DavisConnects” (Colby College)

September 27: Professor Greg T. Drozd “Guiding Prometheus out of the Labyrinth: Molecular insight into photochemistry of wildfire emissions and effects on climate and health” (Colby College)

October 4: Professor D. Whitney King “Geochemistry of the North Pond Alum Addition” (Colby College)

October 11: Professor Christina Goudreau Collison ’97,  “Bradford P. Mundy Memorial Seminar” (Rochester Institute of Technology)

October 18: Professor Christopher Lapointe ’09, (Fred Hutch Cancer Center)

October 25, Student Presentations: Victoria, Sage, Will, and Mason

November 1, Student Presentations: Deirdre, Mel,  Dimitri, and James

November 8, Student Presentations: Sophia, Myles, Juvelisse, and Bailey

November 15, Student Presentations: Rachel, Drew, Ashley, and Hans

November 22, Student Presentations: Paul, Cole, Kirsten, and Owen

December 6, Student Presentations: Michelle, Dong, Selina, Sarah, AJ, Emily, Sophie, and Josh

SPRING 2024

All seminars take place in Keyes 105 from 3:00-3:50 PM unless otherwise noted.

Feb. 9: Chemistry Department Research Poster Session, Location: Grossman Atrium

March 1: Prof. Ida Piedmonte: “Shining a Light on Fundamental Chemistry” (Bates College)

March 8: Prof. Amy Weeks (University of Wisconsin, Madison)

March 22: Justin Amaral and Kris Rolleston, Chemistry Careers: “The use and application of chemistry in modern brewing”

April 5, 1pm Olin 1: Chemistry/Biology joint seminar, Prof. Juvenal Lopez (Wheaton College) “Killing and defending in the bacterial world”

April 12, 1pm: Student Presentations: Allen, Sophie X., Ghailan

April 12, 3pm: Brad Mundy Memorial Seminar: Dr. Chris Mundy (Pacific Northwest National Lab)

April 19, 1pm: Student Presentations: Harry, Alex, David 

April 19, 3pm: Student Presentations: Anna, Tate, Jonathan

April 26, 1pm: Student Presentations: Lucinda, Misia, Charlotte

April 26, 3pm: Student Presentations: Su, Sid, Maya

May 2 (CLAS) Time 9;10:45 Diamond 141: Student Presentations: Sarah, Alison, Katie, Kevin, Muna, Cole, Alex 

May 10, 3pm: Student Presentations: Sophy H., Mikayla, Devin 

FALL 2023

All activities take place in Keyes 105 from 3:00-3:50 PM unless otherwise noted.

Sept. 8: Organizational Meeting

Sept. 15: Dr. Casey O’Connor, “NMR Investigation of Opioid Receptor Activation” (Postdoctoral Research Associate, Colby College)

Sept. 22: Oral Presentation Workshop 

Sept. 29: Prof. Kana Takematsu “Moving protons to harness light energy” (Bowdoin College)

Oct. 6: Prof. Alicia McCarthy “The guilty, the innocent, and the exonerated, a tale of one rewarding career in the field of forensic science” (Thomas College)

Oct. 13: Prof. Jojo Joseph “Mechanistic Insight into the Development of Small-Molecule Chemical Probes and Therapeutics” (Fairmont State University)

Oct. 20: Joseph Forzano, Colby Chemistry ’19 “Development of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase-Activated Photosensitizers for Targeted Photodynamic Therapy” (University of Illinois)

Oct. 27, Student Presentations: Mikayla, Sophie, Allen, Misia

Nov. 3, Student Presentations: Kevin, Alex B., Katie, Sarah

Nov. 10, Student Presentations: Lucinda, Su, Devin, Sid

Nov. 17, Student Presentations: Ghailan, Anna, Alex R., Alison

Dec. 1, Student Presentations: Jonathan, Cole, Sophy, David

Dec. 8, Student Presentations: Charlotte, Harry, Maya, Tate, Muna

SPRING 2022

All seminars take place in Keyes 105 from 3-3:50pm unless otherwise noted.

Feb 3: Poster Session, Faculty and Student research 

Feb 10: Buried biogeochemistry: investigating subsurface connectivity between urban streams and sewer infrastructure, Dr. Becky Forgrave (’14)

Feb 17: Not Just for Oxides! Sol-Gel Methods for Nanoparticle Assembly, Prof. Stephanie Brock 

Feb 24: Chemistry in Society: Chemical Diagnostics and National Defense, LTC Ian Hepburn

Mar 3: Applied Research: Bringing Learnings From a Public Health Emergency into Homes Across the US, Dr. Eric Roy (’04)

Mar 10: The Opioid Overdose Epidemic: Trends, Treatment and Harm Reduction, Dr. Kristen Silvia

Mar 17: Single-cell synchrotron x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (SXRF) of marine phytoplankton, Dr. Laura Sofen

Mar 24:  SPRING RECESS (No seminar)

Mar 30: IBM Lecture, DEI seminar and workshop (Thursday, March 30 7:30pm, Ostrove Auditorium ), Prof. Benny Chan

Apr 7 : Chemistry Careers: Biochemistry of Burn Surgery, Dr. Charlie Frank (’13)

CANCELLED: Apr 14: Atmospheric Nucleation, Prof. Coty Jen

Apr 21: 3pm Senior Presentations, Christo, Lily, Helen, Brooke

April 27: CLAS Honors Thesis Presentations (9am), Katherine, Danielle

May 5 1pm: Senior Presentations, Kate, Cole, Oliver, and Eda

May 5  3pm: Senior Presentations, Coy, Julia, Morgan, and Lydia

FALL 2022

Sept. 9
Orientation/ Syllabus /Expectations for the Year

Sept. 16
Environmental Consulting
Ranajit Sahu, Independent Consultant

Sept. 23
Physical Chemistry
Michael Ruggiero
Univ. of Vermont

Sept. 30
Environmental Microplastics
Charles Rolsky
Shaw Institute

Oct. 7
Workshop: Ethics in Science
Julie Millard
Colby College

Oct. 14
Ionic Liquid Mediated CO2 Reduction on Metal Oxide Cathodes: Nature of Proton Transfer and Consequence for Selectivity
Thabiso Kunene
Argonne National Lab

Oct. 21
Workshop : Creating an Introduction to a Research Talk
Whitney King
Colby College

Oct. 28
Workshop : Critiquing Presentations
Karena McKinney
Colby College

Nov. 4
“Building better biomaterials: Constructing DNA hydrogels from the ground up”
Nate Oldenhuis
Univ. of New Hampshire

Nov. 11
Probing the ultrafast electron and phonon dynamics of 2D materials on the nanoscale
Sarah King
Univ. of Chicago

Nov. 18
1) Kate Jensen 2) Helen Wang 3) Cole Premtaj
Student Presentations
Colby College

Dec. 2
1) Danielle Lucey 2) Julia Safarik 3) Katherine Brown 4) Christo Dragnev 5) Coy Tarbell 6) Morgan Selby
Student Presentations
Colby College

Dec. 9
1) Lily Chi 2) Eda Wright 3) Oliver Wen 4) Brooke Niemiec 5) Lydia Gargano
Student Presentations
Colby College 

Spring 2022

Feb. 4
3 p.m.
Research Meet and Greet, 3rd floor of Keyes
POSTPONED DUE TO SNOW

Feb. 11
11 a.m.
“How Do Small Molecule Drugs Bind Intrinsically Disordered Proteins?”
Professor Paul Robustelli
Dartmouth College

Feb. 18
11 a.m.
“Measuring antioxidant activity toward superoxide in natural waters”
Dr. Brian DiMento
Colby College
3 p.m.
Research meet and greet, 2nd floor of Keyes

Feb. 25
11 a.m.
Alumni Panel with Grace Uwase ’18, Danielle Smith ’18, Erika Smith ’18, and Jordyn Smith ’19

March 4
11 a.m.
“Solvent effects on tunneling reactions”
Dr. Tim Schleif
Ruhr Universitat Bochum

March 11
11 a.m.
“Tropone as a Platform for Complex Azapolycycle Synthesis”
Professor Dan Griffith
Lafayette College

March 18
11 a.m.
“Bridging Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis”
Dr. Abebu Kassie ’13
University of Michigan

March 31
3 – 5 p.m.
Ostrove Auditorium
Dr. Catherine Del Vecchio Fitz
Precision Oncology Consulting

April 8
11 a.m.
“Watching Electrons Couple to ‘Soft’ Vibrations in a Semiconductor in Real Time with Ultrafast Spectroscopy”
Dr. Mark E. Ziffer ’11
Columbia University

April 15
11 a.m.
Student Talks:
Colleen Donoghue
Emma Donigan
Deirdre O’Flynn

April 22
11:00 AM, Arey 5
Student Talks:
Zoli Nagy
Annie Muller
Brian Sanzone
3:00 PM, Keyes 105
Irfan Chaudhuri
Leon Vo
Bob Shue

May 6
11:00 AM, Arey 5
Student Talks:
Charlotte White
Caleb Jacques
Angie Liu
3:00 PM, Keyes 105
Jarret Mayo
Pegah Honarmand
Iz Varghese

Fall 2021
Here’s a document with some helpful tips for preparing a chemistry presentation.

Here’s a copy of the CH493 Syllabus for Fall 2021.

Sept. 10
11 a.m.
Organizational Meeting

Sept. 17
11 a.m.
Prof. Chan Kiat Hwa
Yale-NUS College, Singapore
“Peptide–Peptide Co-Assembly: A Design Strategy for Functional Detection of C-peptide, A Biomarker of Diabetic Neuropathy”

Sept. 24
11 a.m.
Dr. Tyler Schleicher ’08
Abbott Laboratories
“Molecular Mechanisms of Microbial Transmission”

Oct. 1
Prof. Jeff Katz
“The Chemist’s Code of Conduct”

Oct. 7
7 p.m.
Prof. Anna Krylov
University of Southern California
“Molecules and Light: A story of life, death, and our quest for knowledge”
Ostrove Auditorium

Oct. 15
11 a.m.
Dr. Tom Anderson
Colby College

Oct. 22
11 a.m.
Prof. Jerome Robinson
Brown University
“Rethinking Catalyst Design of the ‘Not So’ Rare-Earths to Address Challenges in Sustainability”

Oct. 29
3 p.m.
Prof. Lee Murray
University of Rochester
Keyes 105

Nov. 5
11 a.m.
Prof. Colleen Krause
University of Hartford
“Novel Ways to Detect Breast Cancer: Diagnostic Platforms for the Future”

Nov. 12
Student Talks
Angie Liu
Pegah Honarmand
Sarah Haynes

Nov. 19
Student Talks
Jarret Mayo
Iz Varghese
Caleb Jacques

Nov. 26
No Seminar – Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 3
Student Talks
Leon Vo
Robert Shue
Colleen Donoghue

Dec. 10
Student Talks
11 a.m., Davis 301
Irfan Chaudhuri
Brian Sanzone
Zoli Nagy
3 p.m., Keyes 105
Emma Donigan
Charlotte White
Deirdre O’Flynn
Annie Muller