Advisor: Catherine J. Murphy
Future plans? In August, I will join the faculty of Concord University in Athens, West Virginia, as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry (tenure track). I will teach General, Analytical, and Inorganic chemistry while mentoring undergraduates in my research lab, where we will study controlled-release nanofertilizers.
Talk about your PhD research. I studied fundamental questions of organic ligand binding, conformation, and dynamics on gold nanoparticle surfaces. One of our cool findings was that certain types of ligand coatings with large gaps can still repel certain types of ions and prevent them from penetrating to the nanoparticle core. In a different study, we established how the backbone structure of a new class of gold nanoparticle ligands affects binding strength and nanoparticle etching.
What are the potential applications of your research? My research establishes principles that can be used when designing gold nanoparticles for applications. For example, when we discovered that shorter ligands on smaller gold nanoparticles have more dynamic motion, we envisioned a system where the ligand dynamics allows the nanoparticles to get past the cell membrane.
Awards: School of Chemical Sciences Inclusive Excellence Award - Honorable Mention (2024); Poster Award, Noble Metal Nanomaterials Gordon Research Conference (2024); Best Oral Presentation, Changwoo Park/Walter Klemperer Inorganic and Materials Allerton Conference (2024); YCC Peter Beak Travel Award (2024); Koehler Travel Scholarship (2024).
Activities outside the lab: Teaching English as a Second Language at the Wesley Foundation; Day Camp Coordinator 2023; Volunteered to serve as Teaching Assistant for CHEM 591 (first-year grad student orientation course). I loved getting to meet all the young students, to learn their names and a bit about them, and try to be a positive example of our community in the Illinois chemistry department.
How does it feel to reach this milestone? When I first tried on my regalia, I burst into tears! There were many times that I didn't think I would get here, and it is an amazing feeling to stand at this mountaintop. I can't help but be grateful for everyone who was with me along the way.
In 2021, I experienced a series of concussions from unrelated accidents that left me with a debilitating migraine condition. I had to take six months off of graduate school, struggled with physical and vision therapy for the next two years, and delayed my preliminary exams, which I did not pass the first time (I was deferred). Fortunately, even through years of low productivity and struggle, my advisor, Prof. Murphy, still made a place for me in her group, giving me time and space to heal and the continue working through research challenges. I did get through that struggle, and these last two years have resulted in at least three first-author papers and awards for my research work at both local and international conferences. I even secured a tenure-track Assistant Professor position, where I will start in August. I will always appreciate Cathy for giving me lots of grace even when it would have been easy to deny me the chance to continue. I hope that my struggles will carry me to become a more compassionate teacher and mentor to my future students.
Major highlight? I married my college sweetheart Michael Hatzis in 2023, and fifteen people from Illinois drove out to rural Northeast Ohio to celebrate with us. It was an amazing moment because we realized how strong and real the friendships we made out here are and how we have each other's backs both in the lab and in our lives as well.