Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Enjoy the bold flavors of Louisiana with a menu featuring Chicken Étouffée, Seafood Gumbo, Cajun Popcorn Shrimp, Blackened Tofu, Cajun Chicken Pasta Bake, and more—a delicious mix of classic Cajun dishes and modern twists, hosted by Dining Services.
Join the Foley Institute as we welcome Shankar Narayan, former director of the Technology and Liberty Project at the ACLU of Washington. Narayan will discuss how AI and Big Tech reshape rights, equity, and justice.
Phong Huynh, from Jack Zhang’s research group, will present on “Conventional and Modern Approaches in Iodine Adsorption: Mechanisms and Host–Guest Interactions.”
John was born in Wisconsin and obtained an A.B. from Ripon College (WI) as a double major in Chemistry and History. John was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend a summer in the lab of Hairong Guan at the Univ. Cincinnati for a 10 week crash course in synthesis. John continued studying the coordination chemistry of polydentate sulfur ligands with transition metals under the guidance of Mas Iimura until he departed for Lafayette, IN and graduate school at Purdue University. At Purdue, John worked almost exclusively with the actinide elements and obtained his Ph.D. under Suzanne Bart. Their work focused on utilizing redox-active ligands to perform multi-electron bond cleavage reactions. After Purdue, John relocated to Ypsilanti for a post doctoral appointment at the Univ. Michigan under Nate Szymczak where he investigated intramolecular boron Lewis acids to promote bond activation reactions. In 2021, John accepted a position at Drury University (PUI) as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. His lab studies the fundamentals of hydrogen bonds tuning through adjacent redox events.