October 2026
Vikrantvir Jain, a PhD student in Dr. Anjali Sharma’s research group, is giving their final defense titled, “Rational Design and Engineering of Functional Dendrimers for Targeted Drug Delivery.”
Neetika, from Dr. ChulHee Kang’s research group, will present on “Biophysical Characterization of Protein-Protein Interactions Among Sorghum bicolor Flavonoid Biosynthetic Enzymes.”
Min Wang, from Dr. ChulHee Kang’s research group, will present on “Interactions Between Sorghum Cytochrome P450 Isoenzymes and Their Reductases.”
Kyle Lancaster grew up in Southern California, where he remained for his undergraduate study at Pomona College in Molecular Biology and his Ph.D. at Caltech with Harry Gray and Jack Richards in Bioinorganic Chemistry. An intended brief departure to upstate New York for a postdoc with Serena DeBeer evolved into a now permanent position in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University. Recently named as the Stephanie Czech Rader ’37 Professor in Chemistry, Kyle runs a research group whose interests span Bioinorganic Chemistry, Physical Inorganic Chemistry, and Main Group Chemistry. Key efforts comprise the elucidation of the primary metabolisms of ammonia oxidizing archaea and bacteria, the investigation of the electronic structures of transition metals in unusually high formal oxidation states, and the development of electronic structure principles for the prediction of catalytic reactivity by main-group metals.
Carl Brozek is an associate professor in the department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oregon. He earned his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under Prof. Mircea Dinca in 2015 and completed post-doctoral studies with Prof. Daniel Gamelin at the University of Washington prior to starting his independent career in 2018. His research focuses on charge transport through high surface area media, porous nanoparticles, membrane fabrication, interfacial redox, and energy capture. He has been recognized by the Cottrell Scholar, NSF CAREER, Dream Chemistry, and, mostly recently, Fulbright US Scholar Awards.
Tori Lee, PhD student in Dr. Jack Zhang’s research group, will present on “Fundamental Irradiation Studies and Emission Tuning in MOFs.”