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05/27/2011

Seven doctorate students receive fellowship awards

Seven of the Department of Chemistry's top doctorate students received 2011-12 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) program awards. Awardees are Zahid Ertem, Meng Jing, Yu-Shen Lin, Melissa Maurer-Jones, Sarah Page, Bo Wang, and Ligeng Yin. The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship program is a university-wide competition that supports top doctorate students in their final year of study. This year, 106 awards were made. Awardees receive an academic year stipend of $22,500, participate in a monthly seminar series, and present their research at an annual poster session.

Mehmed Zahid Ertem's research focuses on quantum chemical modeling of small molecule activation by transition metal based systems (Professor Christopher Cramer, adviser).

Meng Jing's research focuses on developing advanced electrophoretic separation techniques and methods in evolution of high affinity nucleic acid ligands to protein targets of great biological importance and interest (Associate Professor Michael Bowser, adviser).

Yu-Shen Lin's research focuses on critical considerations in nanotherapeutics (Associate Professor Christy Haynes, adviser).

Melissa Maurer-Jones' research focuses on employing sensitive analytical tools to fundamentally understand how titanium dioxide nanoparticles interact with immunolocially and ecologically relevant models (Associate Professor Christy Haynes, adviser).

Sarah Page's research focuses on studying the production pathways of hydroxyl radical from dissolved organic matter in natural water systems, including photochemical pathways and a previously unknown dark production pathway (Professors Kristopher McNeill and William Arnold, advisers).

Bo Wang's research focuses on developing new algorithms in combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical methods to study chemical processes in large systems, such as zeolites (Regents Professor Donald Truhlar, adviser).

Ligeng Yin's research focuses on the synthesis of macromolecular surfactants that contain semicrystalline polyethylene and characterization of the self-assembled nanostructures in water (Professor Marc Hillmyer, adviser).

The Department of Chemistry is part of the College of Science & Engineering (CSE). The CSE had a total of 37 graduate students receiving DDFs—the highest number of any college at the University of Minnesota.

Read the Graduate School's information on its website.

Pictured, front row from left, Melissa Maurer-Jones, Meng Jing, and Yu-Shen Lin. Backrow from left are Mehmed Zahid Ertem, Bo Wang, and Ligeng Yin. Not pictured: Sarah Page.