Eman successfully defended her thesis today. She worked for 1.5 years and made great progress on the synthesis of a monomer and its assembled cage. Congrats Eman!

Another piece of the saga of lock-arm supramolecular ordering-based organic ferroelectric crystals from Dennis’ ongoing graduate and postdoctoral project has been published in JACS. This time, the observation of two dimensions of polarization is presented alongside strong evidence for non-centrosymmetry.

Once again this summer we have a busy group. This year we welcome four fresh faces as part of an HHMI-funded Young Researchers program. Stella, Fernando, Nhu, and Hiywot will be with us for 10 weeks, studying organic chemistry and synthesizing aromatic compounds. Welcome!

Penny successfully defended her thesis today! Her interdisciplinary Honors project relied on her chemistry skills to determine the content of secretions made by harvestmen, better known as daddy long-legs. Penny’s findings have provided significant insight into the evolution of mating behavior. Congrats Penny!

Kellie Stellmach is a first-year who is joining the lab. She will be investigating the co-crystallization of complementary hydrogen-bonding partners, welcome Kellie!