Front Cover: Undergraduate Research
In the Integrated Sciences Building (ISB), the heart of the Chemistry Department’s teaching laboratories, rows of easels run along the first and second floor atrium. It’s late spring, a couple of weeks before classes let out, and time for the Chemistry Department’s annual Undergraduate Research Poster Session. Pinned to the easels are the giant 36x48 inch posters that are customary for displaying and presenting STEM research. For several hours, students stand alongside their posters, explaining their work to their peers, faculty, and passersby. Some, free for a moment, catch their breath and scamper off to listen to their friends’ presentations. While the products on display here are posters, a distillation of the research these students have done at UMass, what we can’t fully see is the value of the process that led to the product—the time students spent in lab, working out not only science, but considering how science and research might be involved in their future careers and lives.

Students get their first taste of hands-on lab work in the teaching laboratories housed in the south wing of the ISB. Students start with General Chemistry: it’s here that concepts like kinetics and acid-base chemistry become tangible with the first tinge of pink indicator during a titration, the fizz of antacids, and even the occasional shattering of a flask. Students then move on to Organic Chemistry lab to learn fundamental techniques like recrystallization, extraction, and distillation. Grignard and Wittig become experiments and not just names or reaction pathways to memorize. Our majors then continue through courses like Inorganic lab, where they spend some time in the middle of the periodic table—and make some beautifully colored products—and to courses like Analytical and Physical Chem lab, where

students collaborate with their peers, utilize sophisticated instrumentation, and use math to model the behavior of a system.
The time spent in the teaching labs not only crystallizes (chemistry pun intended!) concepts from lecture, but can help lay the groundwork for students to do independent research here at UMass. The role of undergraduate research in our department is pivotal, so much so that it’s a requirement for a BS degree in chemistry. Exploring open-ended research questions reveals that Chemistry is active, vibrant—so much more than a distilled collection of facts. Also, educational research shows that exposing students to real science leads to learning gains in transferrable skills. A large research university like UMass provides a myriad of opportunities for students to work in world-class laboratories. Students have a chance to pursue research in a field that is or could be interesting to them, in a bona fide, cutting-edge lab, where they will often be mentored by graduate students and faculty—and even have the chance to publish their work.
Often students make connections to their coursework via research that is interdisciplinary. Taras Nagornyy, one of the day’s awardees for best poster, is a graduating chem major who did research on covalent adaptable networks with the Fan Group (Chem Engineering Dept.) Nagornyy shouts out UMass’ “ample opportunities for exploration” and the ability to “take classes across various departments and pursue minor degrees in addition to your major.” Aron Korsunsky, a poster session awardee for his work researching molecular dynamics in the J. Chen lab, completed a physics major alongside his chemistry coursework. Kevin Alexander, a rising senior and a member of the Hardy lab, is a triple chemistry, math, and physics major.
Our students have the opportunity to dig deeper into a particular area of chemistry—to better understand the science, and also, perhaps determine if research or a certain branch of chemistry is something they would like to do in industry or in graduate school. More broadly, of course, the research process develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Events like our annual undergraduate poster session help reinforce how vital communicating science in a clear, accurate, and engaging way is. As Nagornyy says, “The deeper I’ve delved into research, the easier it has become for me to apply these generalizable skills to different projects.”
Graduating senior Anastasia Antropova, another winner at this year’s poster session, presented on research done in the DuChene lab. She first came to UMass as part of a CURE REU program the summer of her freshman year. “Since

I was attending Holyoke Community College during the early stages of the pandemic, it was not only my first research experience but also my first time in a lab setting ever,” Antropova says. She worked in the You lab, developing a tetrahedral RNA scaffold for Rev response element aptamers. “This project revealed to me how much I enjoyed the research process: planning experiments, figuring out what I could learn from my data, and redesigning research questions as I gained information.” Antropova transferred to UMass after completing her Associate’s at HCC. “I had found an intellectual home at UMass and wanted the opportunity to find my niche in chemistry through exploring the work of the dozens of research faculty here.”
Because students are encouraged to join research labs early, they often have time to see their work develop, evolve, or expand. Megan Yee, a rising senior in the department, has been a member of the Andrew lab since the beginning of her sophomore year. She’s working on the fabrication and assessment of coatings for optically-driven cooling and heating. “In the past year, I helped develop a synthesis process to make reflective coatings that affect cooling,” Megan says. “These cooling coatings utilize highly reflective crystal structures to reflect solar light and avoid warming from the sun, while allowing heat from underneath the coating to pass through and the atmosphere, into space.” Yee has expanded her research to polymer coatings that absorb sunlight to produce heat, with the aim to collaborate with assorted agencies to create an architectural façade to improve energy efficiency.

Many of our undergraduate researchers, like Yee, do work that ultimately could feed into solving pressing, tangible issues that face our world. Yee says that the hope is that the coating will be “especially effective for vulnerable populations that may live in buildings where typical insulation methods cannot be used. Creating an affordable way to keep families comfortable no matter what their living situation is, would be invaluable and help address systemic inequality in housing.” The work students do connects to efforts to combat climate change, inequities in access to resources, and many other valuable causes. For example, Anastasia Antropova’s work in the DuChene lab studying mechanisms of shape control during the electrodeposition of cuprous oxide nanoparticles. Sounds specific, but, as Antropova points out, having control over the shape of nanoparticles allows them to be used as more selective catalysts to reduce carbon dioxide into usable feedstock chemicals. Some of our majors are also members of iCons (featured on page 30 and 33 of this issue), a program directed by Chemistry professor Scott Auerbach, that tasks students across majors to use their interdisciplinary skills to tackle the world’s scientific problems.
While it’s impossible to quantify and fully acknowledge all of the late nights and time our researchers spend in the lab, many students have been recognized for their work by the department and beyond. Megan Yee won an Undergraduate Research Award from the Center for Research on Families, and will be continuing her research this year in part with an award from the Roger G. Bates fund. Taras Nagornyy was named as a Rising Researcher by UMass’s Rising Researcher Program, and will be headed to graduate school this fall. Kevin Alexander was recently awarded a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship and plans to pursue a PhD in physical chemistry. He wants to teach, become a professor, and lead his own research group.


At the close of the poster session, students gather in a makeshift circle to hear the announcement of the winners. It’s incredibly hard for the judges to make their decisions—truly a testament to the caliber and breadth of the research being done by our students. Cheers and applause break out after the names of Anastasia, Taras, and Aron are read. Anyone who has taught a course or has spent time around our majors and minors has likely noted the bonds (pun also intended) our students have from the classes and experiments done alongside and sometimes with each other. Later, students will unpin and roll up their posters. While the poster might end up stashed under a dorm bed, the value of the research experience remains.
Editor's Note: Our poster session winners are also recipients of cash prizes from the Dr. Uche Anyanwu Memorial Fund. This award is just one of the many departmental honors our majors receive in recognition of their achievements. These awards help our students along their path to becoming doctors, professors, researchers, pharmacists—whatever they desire. Some of our alumni (David Adams, Juanita Bradspies, William Mahoney, Diane Stengle, Michael Tarselli, and others) even go on to sponsor their own research awards.
Back Cover: Mitra Delivers Community Speech at Inauguration

As the only graduate student selected to speak as a part of the power of community section at the inauguration of Chancellor Javier Reyes, the 31st leader of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and responsibility. It was a moment that signified not just personal achievement, but also the collective voice and aspirations of my fellow graduate students.
My journey to this moment began with my active involvement in the university's community. As the only graduate student member of the Chancellor search committee, I had the unique opportunity to engage in the pivotal process of selecting our new leader. My role allowed me to advocate for the interests and concerns of the graduate community, ensuring that our needs were considered in the decision-making process.
In addition to my contributions to the search committee, my engagement with the Graduate Student Senate as an executive committee member for the past three years, further solidified my commitment to service and leadership. Through various initiatives and collaborations, I worked tirelessly to enhance the academic and social environment for graduate students across campus.
My prior interactions with the Chancellor starting from his campus visit in Spring of 2023 and regular meetings of the senate leadership post his official arrival on campus in July 2023 gave me an opportunity to regularly interact with him firsthand. My track record of involvement and the support of my mentors propelled me to the forefront and prompted the Chancellor to nominate me for this great honor. The Associate Vice Chancellor for University relations Nancy Buffone reached out to me asking for my availability for the same and I gladly agreed to be a part of the inauguration speakers.
Standing at the podium on that significant day with all the dignitaries, I realized that my speech was more than just an address; it was a testament to the power of student involvement and community and the impact we can have on our university's trajectory. I spoke not only about our bright future but also about the collective achievements of the student body.
The experience was a defining moment in my academic journey, one that highlights the value of participation, representation, and the pursuit of excellence. It was an honor that I will carry with me, a reminder of the trust placed in me by my peers and the university community. It was a day of celebration, reflection, and anticipation for the great things to come.
- Gaurav Mitra, PhD candidate (Kittilstved group)
- Head's Message
- Cover Stories
- Faculty Highlights
- Graduate Student Awards
- Lab Notes
- Faculty: Promotions, New Faces, and Departures
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- Emeritus News
- Seminar
- ResearchFest
- PhD Defenses
- UMass ACS Club
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- Undergraduate Poster Session
- iCons
- Undergraduate Commencement
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- In Memoriam
- Friends of Chemistry
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