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05/06/2011

Graduate Student Research Symposium, Tuesday, May 17

Thirty-five third-year graduate students from the Department of Chemistry will be participating in the 10th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium, Tuesday, May 17. The students will be judged on their research presentations, and three winners will each receive a travel grant and other prizes. The day-long symposium begins at 7:45 a.m., and will be conducted in Kenneth H. Keller Hall (formerly the Electrical Engineering/Computer Science Building). Registration for the symposium is closed.

This year's participating students include Karen Beckman, Evgeny Beletskiy, Darren Ceckanowicz, Mohammadhasan "Hadi" Dinpajooh, Yuanyan Gu, Diane Johnson, Brynna Jones, Kyle Kalstabakken, Donghyuk Kim, Wei Li, Benjamin Manning, Kathryn McGarry, Audrey Meyer, Deanna Miller, Kaustubh Mote, Dawen Niu, Walter Partlo, Emilty Pelton, Nicholas Petkovich, Tom Pundsack, Yuqiang Qian, Brian Radak, Naveen Rondla, Joshua Speros, Thane Taylor, Jacqui Tehranchi, Rajan Vatassery, Bess Vlaisavljevich, Kelly Volp, Yen-Chih Wang, Patrick Willoughby, Jing Yang, Ke Yang, Christopher Zell, and Can Zhou.

Judges for the symposium include Assistant Professor Christopher Douglas, Professor Laura Gagliardi, Assistant Professor Andrew Harned, Assistant Professor Connie Lu, and Associate Professor Natalia Tretyakova. This year's distinguished judges include George Bodem, Ph.D., who obtained three degrees from the University of Minnesota—a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1962, a master's degree in 1972, and doctorate in chemistry in 1976; Kristi A. Fjare, Ph.D., who graduated from St. Olaf College with a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1979, and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1983; Clayton V. McNeff, Ph.D., who received his bachelor's degree from Augsburg College in 1991, and his doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1996; and Drew Williams, Ph.D., who received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Colgate University and his doctorate in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts.

This year's 10th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium Committee members include Assistant Professor Christopher Douglas, Professor Jiali Gao, Communications Coordinator Eileen Harvala, and Assistant to the Chair Christine Lundby. Special thanks to Department of Chemistry Technology Department, including Webmaster Eric Schulz and Information Technology Professional Mike Casey.