Graduate Student Awards

We were thrilled to host our first annual Graduate Advance to Candidacy Research Symposium, a new departmental tradition dedicated to celebrating the achievements of our third-year Chemistry PhD students. Over the past year, these students have successfully defended their Original Research Proposal (ORP) and officially advanced to candidacy: an exciting, demanding, and highly meaningful milestone in the doctoral journey. This symposium honors their hard work, creativity, and perseverance as they step into the next phase of their graduate careers.

At this event, each newly advanced candidate delivered a 2–3‑minute overview of their current research, offering a snapshot of the innovative and wide‑ranging scientific questions being explored across our department. The symposium provided a unique space for students, faculty, and staff to come together in support of our researchers and celebrate their progress.

The symposium offered an invaluable opportunity for new graduate students to gain insight into what lies ahead: the ORP process, the transition to candidacy, and the evolving nature of independent research. Seeing peers further along in the program share their work helps illuminate the path toward candidacy and inspires confidence as first‑years begin shaping their own research trajectories. It also encourages collaboration and a stronger sense of community.

Overall, our inaugural symposium was both celebratory and energizing, a reflection of the talent within our department, and the supportive environment that helps our students thrive. We look forward to making this an annual tradition for years to come.

The Chemistry Department Ambassador Program supports graduate students in returning to their alma mater to deliver special seminars. Ambassadors will discuss both their research achievements and their experiences as chemistry graduate students at UMass Amherst to inspire others to pursue similar paths. This year's awardees are Shinja Chakraborty, Muhammad Aamir Hassan, Neumiah Massenat, and Daisy Pham.

Shinja Chakraborty in the Kaltashov group will present her research on the detection, identification, and quantitative profiling of blood biomarkers associated with activation of specific coagulation cascade pathways at St. Xavier's College in Kolkata, India. Muhammad Aamir Hassan, working in Rotello's lab developing advanced nanomaterial-based antimicrobial therapies using engineered bacteriophage systems and bioorthogonal drug-activation strategies for precise targeting of bacterial and fungal wound infections, will present his research to students at the Government College University in Pakistan. Neumiah Massenat in the DuChene group will give a talk about her research focusing on electrochemically extracting growth rates from colloidal procedures to design surfactant-free electrochemical synthesis procedures of shape-controlled gold (Au) and copper (Cu) nanoparticles at Florida International University. Daisy Pham in the Wu group will present her research on orthogonal RNA technologies, destabilization domains mDeg and pDeg, and minimally perturbative and multicolor imaging of individual RNA molecules in living cells, providing insights into their spatiotemporal dynamics and behaviors at the University of Delaware.

The university honored graduate student John Arigbede with the Commitment to Diversity Award during the 2026 Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. He was recognized for combining scientific research, service, and student leadership, including his work as Graduate Student Government president to improve graduate student life and foster belonging. His research in the Walsh group develops rare-earth-free magnetic materials and transition-metal carbide systems using high-pressure methods for sustainable energy and catalysis applications. Arigbede plans to establish a manufacturing and research company addressing sustainability, food insecurity, and community well-being. He has been selected for the UMass Amherst Leadership Fellows program, a competitive NSF-funded initiative designed to prepare STEM doctoral students for their inclusive academic leadership roles. 

Ranit Dutta, a graduate student who works in the Thayumanavan Lab, focusing on developing biomaterials for drug design and drug delivery, was selected to attend the 74th Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany. The event brought together 35 Nobel Laureates in chemistry and approximately 600 young chemists (referred to as “young scientists”) from around the globe for a week of scientific exchange. “Attending the Nobel Laureate meeting provided a unique opportunity to engage with leading minds in chemistry and build global collaborations that can advance drug design and delivery research,” Dutta expressed. “We spent a week learning from each other, sharing ideas, and talking about how science can help the world. It’s kind of like a super cool science camp, but with some of the greatest scientists alive!” 

Prachi Gupta in the Thayumanavan group describes her work and preparation for the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition: “Cancer is often treated with extremely powerful drugs that can also potentially harm healthy tissue, which is why more precise approaches are needed. My research focuses on making that process smarter through targeted delivery of PROTACs, which are molecules designed to selectively degrade disease-causing proteins inside cancer cells. I like to describe it simply as seal, scan, and deliver — a smart package for cancer: we seal the drug safely, scan for the right cellular target, and deliver the payload only where it is needed. The goal is to reduce harm to healthy tissue while improving how precisely we can attack cancer at its source. The package has its own special chemistry which can initiate drug release once it is inside the cancer cell. 

Preparing for the 3MT has been a learning experience for me to improve my public speaking skills: translating complex chemistry into clear, everyday language, managing time carefully, and learning how to highlight the impact without complicating the idea. I’ve been fortunate to grow in an environment with strong support from the Chemistry department which constantly supports and inspires me with its exciting research. The most inspiring part of the event was meeting other graduate students from different departments and listening to their interesting research ideas. The 3MT community event at UMass Downtown was an opportunity for me to interact with the community and share my research. This process also reminded me that science is not just about experiments, but also about shared curiosity, collaboration, and storytelling that makes the invisible visible.

The College of Natural Science’s inaugural Graduate Research Symposium featured two poster sessions and a networking reception with CNS alumni. The goal of the event was to provide CNS graduate students with a supportive opportunity to strengthen their written, visual, and oral communication skills. Presenting their work for peers, faculty, alumni, and the broader UMass community was a collaborative effort to share, learn, and connect across disciplines. Three chemistry students, Jayashree Bhagabati, Neilgreib Nandi, and Hari Priya Sriramakrishnan won best poster awards.

Jayashree Bhagabati (Thayumanavan group): "Homolog-Selective BET Protein Degradation by PROTAC Linker Modulation. " Proteolysis Targeting Chimeras (PROTACs) degrade proteins rather than inhibit them, amplifying off-target effects, especially among protein homologs. We show that selectivity is not a fixed consequence of ligand choice, rather a configurable feature dictated by linker engineering. Novel BET-targeting PROTACs with varied linkers achieved selective, potent degradation in a cell-dependent manner. Despite slight potency loss, this strategy improves specificity and therapeutic window, establishing linker design as a key driver of selective protein degradation.

Neilgreib Nandi (Venkataraman group):  "Photo-Locked self-assembled monolayer network for stable Perovskite Photovoltaics." Our research addresses the intrinsic instability of halide perovskite solar cells by targeting losses at the buried hole-selective interface. Conventional phosphonic acid–based self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) suffer from weak anchoring, poor packing, and environmental degradation, leading to interfacial traps and non-radiative recombination. Here, we design covalently bonded SAM networks with improved binding and tunable energy levels to optimize band alignment, suppress recombination, and enable stable, high-efficiency perovskite devices under operating conditions.

Hari Priya Sriramakrishnan (You group): "Developing a covalent DNA-barcode approach for precise regulation of protein-protein interactions on living cell membranes." I am developing a new way to precisely control how proteins interact with each other on the surface of living cells.  These interactions play a major role in how cells communicate and respond to disease.  Our approach uses DNA as molecular barcodes that can be permanently attached to specific proteins on the cell surface.  Once labeled, matching DNA strands can be linked together, bringing the tagged proteins into close contact and strengthening their interaction.

Thanks to the generous support of our donors and foundations, Chemistry graduate students' research receives essential funding through fellowships and scholarships. All recipients are recognized for outstanding performance in their research. Additionally, students in specific research areas are considered for specialized awards. The PPG Fellowship supports students in materials science, while the Rausch Fellowship assists students pursuing research in organic or inorganic chemistry.

Isabella Jankowski (Thompson): My work involves performing hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry on the coupling protein CheW to understand its role in the signaling mechanism of E. coli chemoreceptors. 
 

Mitchell Willsey (DV): My work is focused on understanding doping mechanisms in organic semiconductors. We are currently working with a small molecule n-type dopant known as TAM, which was first promoted as a hydride donor in literature, but our research shows its role is much more complicated. 

Nicholas Baker (DuChene): My research focuses on the adaptation of colloidal metallic nanoparticle syntheses into electrochemical syntheses through the study of reaction kinetics and nucleation control. I use a variety of techniques such as Tafel analysis and multiphase galvanodynamic electrochemical depositions.

 

Mamie Mulder (DuChene): My research focuses on electrodeposition of platinum atoms following a square-wave potential. Using an electrochemical cell, we alternatively reduce and oxidize platinum atoms onto a substrate with the aim of understanding the fundamental rules behind the shape control of platinum nanoparticles for use in catalysis.

Kathryn Pierson (DuChene): My research focuses on optimizing the photochemical synthesis process of copper nanoparticles for better particle shape control. Controlled shapes allow for a better understanding of the electronic structure of copper nanoparticles and how they can be used in catalytic reactions.

 

 Anastasija Vasilijevic (DuChene): I investigate how anions, cations, water activity, and electrode surface structure modulate the electrode/electrolyte interface, and how these changes govern the competition between electrochemical nitrate reduction and hydrogen evolution reaction, with the ultimate goal of establishing rational electrolytes for selective ammonia production. 

Isabella Jankowski: Summary under Kuhn Fellowship

Gaurav Singh (Metz): I study the photodissociation of small molecules with a metal-carbon bond to determine the strength of that bond and to understand how the available energy is distributed among the different energy levels of the fragments.
 

Nicholas Baker: Summary under Mahoney Fellowship

 

Priyanka Bhattacharyya (You): I am studying development of DNA based probes for integrating intercellular tensile forces over time. The other goal is designing DNA based probes to regulate these forces to modulate downstream signaling pathways in different biological processes.

Xi Cheng (Lin): My research uses graph neural networks to predict geometry-dependent range-separation parameters for molecular systems. By capturing conformational sensitivity, this approach improves structure-specific ω prediction and enables efficient, geometry-sensitive electronic-structure calculations for optical property modeling.

 

Elizabeth Cote (Walsh): My work explores how extreme pressure can change chemical structure, revealing exciting material properties and novel structures that are otherwise inaccessible. By studying materials synthesis under these extreme conditions, this work aims to discover novel behaviors and expand our understanding of advanced materials.

Arnab Das (Metz): I investigate the interactions between transition metal cations and methane molecules through infrared spectroscopic measurements of mass-selected cationic complexes in the gas phase. Integrating experimental observations with DFT calculations, I am elucidating the landscape of C–H bond activation.

Badal Singh (Thayumanavan): My research focuses on selectively degrading disease-relevant cell surface proteins. Our platform, polymeric lysosomal targeting chimeras (PolyTACs), employs multivalency to internalize and degrade extracellular proteins without relying on the conventional lysosomal targeting receptors. This approach expands the repertoire of membrane protein degraders, which in turn could open new therapeutic avenues.

Mitchell Willsey: Summary under Kuhn Fellowship
 

Arnab Das: Summary under PPG Fellowship
Gaurav Singh: Summary under McEwen Fellowship

Anshu Anshu (Walsh): I work on optimization of hydrothermal synthesis of silver and copper delafossite-type ternary oxides, followed by high-pressure phase transition study. I also work on high-pressure crystallographic studies of magnetically frustrated systems.

Elizabeth Cote: Summary under PPG Fellowship

Tracey Nelson (Walsh): Transition metal carbides are a class of material used in extreme applications due to their robust properties. My research aims to expand the phase space of these materials using computational guidance and high pressure synthesis methods.

Albin Padikkaparambil (DV): Organic semiconductors power technologies such as thermoelectrics, transistors, and OLEDs, but require chemical doping to increase charge carriers. Unlike inorganic semiconductors, doping often disrupts charge transport. Our research systematically investigates and improves the performance and charge transport efficiency of doped organic semiconductors.

 

Soyal Sabu (DV): My research focuses on understanding and developing novel energy materials for next-generation solar cells, with a particular focus on perovskite photovoltaics. I aim to study how material chemistry, interfaces, and device architecture influence efficiency, stability, and long-term performance.

Subhayan Samanta (DV): My research pertains to the fundamentals of charge transport in conjugated polymers. Specifically, I am studying how different dopants, counterions and conjugated polymers interact with one another to change the density of states of the polymers after doping. 
 

Rianne Cooney (Farkas): In my research, I am developing chemical biology tools to track the expression and degradation of core proteins involved in circadian rhythms. These tools will elucidate interacting circadian proteins and examine how protein depletion affects oncogenicity using cancer cell models. 

 

Koustab Pradhan (DuChene): My work is focused on understanding the impact of particle size, shape and surface coverage of electrodeposited copper (I) oxide nanoparticles on their stability and product selectivity during CO2 reduction electrocatalysis and nitrate reduction photocatalysis.
 

Mohamed Adel Elanany (Farkas): Cryptochrome is a circadian regulator essential for cellular homeostasis. Elevated cryptochrome expression negatively impacts cancer prognosis and promotes metastasis. My research focuses on selectively degrading cryptochrome using PROTACs (proteolysis-targeting chimeras) and nanobody-based degraders to improve therapeutic outcomes.

 

Emmanuel Rivera Iglesias (Farkas): My research developes nanobodies as precision molecular probes to modulate and determine the role of protein-protein interactions that drive the rhythmic assembly of the mammalian circadian clock machinery.

 

Aimee Shen (Farkas): My research leverages immune cells as targeted carriers by covalently anchoring therapeutic cargo to the cell surface. Having evaluated various cell-surface modification strategies, we are currently investigating how modulating the negative charge or steric bulk of the cargo and its chemical linker impacts the stability of cargo retention.

back to top