Skip to main content
Group photograph of the APDC members.
Photograph of the APDC members as of May 2024. Left-to-right: Neumiah Massenat, Tracey Nelson, Hara Priya Sriramakrishnan, Gaurav Mitra, Liz Cote, Ness Tabaru, Lucyne Grigorian.

About the APDC

The Association for Professional Development in Chemistry (APDC) at UMass Amherst is a student-run organization whose purpose is to facilitate and support activities that provide networking and professional development opportunities to graduate students in Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. We organize and host ResearchFest, an annual Chemistry Department symposium featuring posters and oral presentations by graduate students, a vendor show, a career panel discussion, and a keynote address by a department alumnus. We also host several Pizza Parleys each semester, providing a forum for graduate students to present their most recent results, or to prepare for upcoming presentations. Speakers receive feedback from other graduate students in a low-pressure, supportive, and collaborative setting. We host coffee hours with visiting speakers from department seminars held in chemistry and other departments, while our Student-Hosted Seminar Series brings highly distinguished speakers onto campus to present their science and meet with students.

Current APDC Office Bearers

  • Co-President: Liz Cote
  • Co-President: Tracey Nelson
  • Co-Vice President: Ness Tabaru
  • Co-Vice President: Lucyne Grigorian
  • Co-Secretary: Arpan Ghosh
  • Co-Secretary: Trisha Brady
  • Co-Treasurer: Neumiah Massenat
  • Co-Treasurer: Hari Priya Sriramakrishnan
  • Chair of ResearchFest: Gaurav Mitra
  • Chair of Teaching Development: Nick Baker

Interested in joining the APDC?

If you are interested in learning more about or getting involved with APDC, visit our website, or send us an e-mail. You can also reach out directly to one of our members or just stop by one of our meetings. We are always recruiting new graduate student members and would love to have your participation in continuing to organize impactful networking and professional development programming for UMass Chemistry graduate students.