The Gassengang
The group received a new NSF grant with Co-PI Jonathan Sczpanski a rockstar assistant professor at Texas A&M doing innovative biomaterial-based research with complex RNA systems. This is a very exciting and our first funded collaboration with an Aggie!
Departing rockstar chemist, Hamilton Lee, has a paper in Chemical Science that made it into the popular media! A university press release and an accompanying snapshot of the highly photogenic team of Arezoo, Olivia, Laurel, et al. (Hamilton was busy starting the first week of his training at his new job right out of grad school.) You can read various media takes on our work here and here and you can watch this very nice video Chemical Science made for us as a ‘Pick of the Week’ as well as enjoy the cover art we received.
Welcome (left to right) Laurel Hagge of Texas and Yalini Wijesundara (යලිනි විජේසුන්දර) of Sri Lanka! The two have hopped into hot projects and (as of this writing) already putting their names on drafts for publication! A record for a new incoming class!
Drs. Raymond Welch and Hamilton Lee (not pictured because he was already at his new job at Merrill Lynch!) were hooded as PhD numbers FOUR and FIVE. Collectively they put out 10 papers (maybe more).
Jeremiah began his first day as an Associate Professor with Tenure on September 1. This is great and everything but the real credit goes to the brave…maybe crazy…students that join an assistant professors lab. I mean, I didn’t even HAVE a lab when I started. I didn’t have a lab for nearly six months. But somehow I think Zhuo, Shaobo, Madushani, and Anna and then Raymond (and Hamilton and Candace) came along. Then Michael, who came along in year 3 before I had any money and rumors that I wasn’t going to make it started to swril… Then $5 million, 23 papers, a few patent applications, a spin off company, and … well, suffice it to say that’s all neat stuff for a CV but that isn’t why i’m happy, I guess, that I get promoted… It’s the students that have made this job worthwhile. This promotion just affords me the privilege to work with folks like Arezoo, Olivia, Jenica, Nima, Tahmid, and Fabian a while longer…and some new folks that come along the way.
Congratulations to Olivia Brolin and Michael Luzuriaga, who received the Mei Lein fellowship and the Julia William Van Ness Scholarship respectively! In addition to some sweet money, they get a fancy new line on their CV! Michael was also the recipient of the David Daniel Thesis Award quiet recently. Outstanding recognition by some outstanding people!
We are very grateful to the Welch Foundation for supporting our research through a 3-year renewable grant. These grants are one of the most exciting parts of doing chemistry research in Texas. A very special thank you to Olivia Brohlin, who helped write this one. One of the first proposals I’ve ever written with a student, and it was funded!
Michael Luzuriaga and Daniele Berry’s (Smaldone Lab) work in producing 3D printing microneedles using FFF printing has landed the cover of PC Magazine. The article covers the latest developments in 3D printing in the medical world and was the digital cover for the magazine. The work was also reported on in more detail in Digital Trends and other media outlets. The original article on drug delivering 3D FFF printed microneedles can be accessed here. This was a joint project between our group and the Smaldone group.
Welcome (starting top left and going clockwise) Hamid Firouzi, Jenica Lumata, Fabian Castro, and Tahmid Faisal, born and raised in the nations of Iran, Philippines, Mexico, and Bangladesh and all bringing their brilliance here to America and, in particular, Texas…