2022 Graduates and Awards

Congratulations to our graduates and award winners for 2022. Commencement was last evening at the Joyce Center on the Notre Dame Campus after a two-year break (2020 no ceremony; 2021 limited socially-distant ceremony on our campus). As always, we are very proud of our students. We wish our graduates the greatest success in their careers and further study. Please stay in touch with us and come back to visit. As for the award winners who remain to finish their degrees, we look forward to seeing you in the fall and hope the summer break gives you a chance to renew your enthusiasm and drive. Have a great summer everyone!

 Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award
   Ryan Murphy

   Eric Nunez-Rodriguez
   Joel Rael
Undergraduate Award in Analytical Chemistry 

   Lucas Robinson
Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry
   Abigail Doorn
Student Excellence Award in Biochemistry
   Natalie Fox

   Michael-Dean Laffin

Student Excellence Award in Chemistry
   Naseem Alfadhl
Joseph H. Ross Seminar Award
   Natalie Fox
George Nazaroff Scholarship
   Elizabeth Pask

   Joel Rael
Gretchen Anderson Pathways Scholarship
   Precious-Gold Akpadija

   Zahra Aljuboori

   Hannah Gregor

   Abigael Ngoumape
Carolyn & Lawrence Garber Summer Research Scholarship
   Joel Rael

Welcome Adjunct Emily Stoler

Emily Stoler is the newest adjunct professor for our department. She began this spring semester teaching the freshman CHEM-C 102 Elementary Chemistry II course in the evenings. However, Stoler is not new to IU South Bend because she earned her Master of Business Administration from the Judd Leighton School of Business and Economics in 2021. Emily started off her education at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan by studying biochemistry and biomedical sciences. She then furthered her studies in analytical chemistry and earned an M.S. degree from the University of Notre Dame. Stoler's research at Notre Dame focused on developing a technique to measure metabolites in complex solutions such as bodily fluids using capillary electrophoresis coupled with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). Stoler uses her background in both chemistry and business to help the IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame commercialize faculty research. In her spare time, Stoler enjoys playing with her dog and working in her gardens.

Hasan Alsaymary win best poster award

Biology major Hasan Alsaymary won the award for Best Poster in the Natural Sciences division of the 2022 Undergraduate Research Conference on Friday, April 22. Although he is a biology major, Alsaymary opted to work on some organic chemistry with Dr. Kasey Clear during the summer of 2021 under a SMART grant. His poster titled "Studying the association of membrane permeable fluorescent probes with anionic lipids" described (i) the preparation of liposomes used to test two fluorescent probes that essentially differed only in what was the source of the cation on the probe (a zinc ion or a guanidinium group); and (ii) the binding affinity of the two probes to the liposome membrane based on fluorescent readings. Alsaymary also won the Freshman Chemistry Achievement award in 2020. Congratulations on a super performance at the Undergraduate Research Conference!