Awards Luncheon Offers Recognition for Outstanding Students

ALUMNI FIRST YEAR ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

These awards recognize  exceptional performance in laboratory and lecture work. Seven students awarded this year are Nithya Arun, Paul Brandfonbrener, Sreya Gutta, Alexandre Levashkevich, Hani Nasr, Caroline Shah, and Veronica Sikora.

ISABELLA KARLE MEMORIAL AWARD

The Department of Chemistry presents this award to a top graduating senior. It is named in honor of Dr. Isabella Karle, who earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry at U-M. Among her contributions to science is her work on the Manhattan Project, where she developed techniques used for the extraction of plutonium chloride. She was also a pioneer in the field of X-ray crystallography. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and received the National Medal of Science among numerous honors.

This year’s award went to Carolyn Suh. She was part of Assistant Professor Alison Narayan’s lab, working to develop biocatalytic methods for oxidative dearomatization. Her current project involves the chemoenzymatic synthesis of a natural product. Carolyn was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She will join the MIT PhD program in organic chemistry in the fall. Her hobbies include cooking, reading and listening to podcasts.

WALTER YATES AWARD

The Walter Yates Award is one of the top honors given to recognize excellence and scholarly achievement by a senior undergraduate chemistry or biochemistry major.

Allison Batka [not pictured] works in Nicolai Lehnert's lab on the synthesis and testing of copper catalysts for the production of nitric oxide on demand. She will be continuing her work in the Lehnert lab as a Master's student next year, and she will be applying for chemistry PhD programs in the fall. She plans to pursue a career in academia. Outside of lab, Allie's interests include ice cream, Pokemon, and hanging out with friends.

2^nd year Award: Mark Whitton just finished his second year as a biochemistry major on a pre-health track. He is a huge ice hockey fanatic that has played the sport for a total of 13 years. He plans on attending medical school in the future and ultimately training in the field of anesthesiology.

3^rd year: Jenna Manske is a Junior working towards an Honors B. S. Chemistry degree. She has a passion for chemistry, mentorship, and education and is involved in the SLC as a course leader and facilitator for CHEM 210. She  helped re-design the CHEM 211H course, which was successfully implemented this past fall. She is a founding member of the Undergraduate Research Committee that planned the first campus-wide multidisciplinary undergraduate symposium. She has been an undergraduate teaching assistant for multiple Organic lab courses. She is a mentor through the Michigan Mentorship Program and serves as the Vice President of the Pre-Professional Chemistry Fraternity. Through each of these roles, she strives to create welcoming environments and promote learning and community. In John Wolfe’s research lab she works on the synthesis of 2,3-dihydroquinazolinone derivatives in collaboration with the Ramamoorthy group. These compounds are used to increasing understanding of Alzheimer’s and type II diabetes. Her future plans include attending graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry and master’s in education with the goal of entering academia to make an impact on the field of chemistry through research and education.

Senior year: Vivek Nair is a Biomolecular Science and Spanish double major, with a minor in Writing. His hobbies include weightlifting, running, writing, and watching movies. He also volunteers with a local hospice organization and at a Spanish-language Saturday school. He is currently working in a biomedical research lab at U of M’s Cancer Center. In J. Chad Brenner’s lab, Nair’s project involves the use of combination therapies in the treatment of head and neck cancer. He will be starting medical school this summer.

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTS AWARD

The American Institute of Chemists Awards are one of the top recognitions for our graduating seniors. The awards recognize student excellence in ability, character, and academic achievement.

Biochemistry: Jack Twarozynski majored in biochemistry. For the last three years Jack has worked in Dr. John Traynor's pharmacology lab. The focus of their study is on opioid drugs. Specifically, over this last year Jack has been working to characterize new fentanyl analog compounds. This is important as these drugs pose a serious problem with the current opioid epidemic, and there is currently little information on them. As for his future plans, this summer Jack will be applying to medical school. In his spare time he enjoys running and reading.

Chemistry: Carrie Yu
Chemistry major Carrie Yu graduated in May 2019. During her years at the U-M, she worked in a Theodore Goodson III’s research group, using a nonlinear two-photon absorption methodology to elucidate the binding mechanisms of small-molecule fluorophores to RNA. She is also a peer facilitator in the Global Scholars Program, encouraging first-year student engagement as interculturally competent global citizens. Her passions for science and community-building come together in her pursuit of a Doctor of Pharmacy at the University at Buffalo, beginning this fall.

The American Chemistry Society awards recognize outstanding work in each of these areas: Analytical, Inorganic, Organic and Physical Chemistry. This year's awardees from (l to r) Sara Alektiar, Ammar Ibrahim, Jin Yi Tan, and Michael Riehs.

Adam Eckburg graduated with a major in chemistry and a minor in Business Administration. He worked in the Chen lab for the last two years studying the structure and orientation of surface-immobilized antimicrobial peptides using circular dichroism spectroscopy. On campus he was a tour guide for the admissions office and for four years was a Science Learning Center facilitator for Adam enjoys fishing and golfing. From Rockford, Illinois, he will be working and volunteering at various hospitals in Chicago while applying to medical school.

MERCK INDEX AWARD TO OUTSTANDING SENIORS

Hannah Wang is from Kalamazoo, MI, and her hobbies include baking and playing the violin. This coming fall Hannah will be attending pharmacy school at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy.

SEYHAN N. EGE—WISE AWARD

Seyhan N. Ege was one of the founders of the University of Michigan’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program. Each year, the Program recognizes outstanding achievement by an undergraduate student from a group that is traditionally underrepresented in the chemical sciences.

Jenna Menard is a senior studying Biomolecular Science with a minor in Medical Anthropology. At U-M, she has been involved with the Science Learning Center, the Pre-Veterinary Club, Alpha Chi Omega, and a variety of volunteer organizations. During her sophomore and junior years, Jenna was a lab assistant at the Castro/Lowenstein Brain Tumor Biology and Therapeutics Lab where she aided Vivek Yadav, Ph.D, with his research on treatments for malignant brain tumors. Jenna will be spending her next four years at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine where she will obtain her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and pursue a future in small animal specialty medicine.         

VANKO AWARD

Two Chemistry students are recipients of the Vanko Award from the U-M Honors College, named for Rogeer B. Vanko, an Honors College student killed in his junior year. His parents, teachers, and friends established this award in his memory.

Suzie Kim pursued a degree in Honors Biochemistry and a minor in Spanish, and she will be starting medical school in the fall. For the past three years, she has done research with the Yang Lab in the Biophysics Department. Her honors thesis investigated a novel method to obtain extracts derived from zebrafish embryos to emulate the cellular environment with the goal of elucidating the biological oscillator behind the cell cycle. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends, playing the ukulele, and traveling

Ethan Curtis has been working in the Zimmerman lab since he was a freshman, and is currently using computations to understand the thermodynamics and kinetics of the Schlenk equilibrium for thiophene Grignards. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in theoretical and computational chemistry, starting at Stanford in the fall. When Ethan is not doing chemistry, he can usually be found playing board games with friends, playing computer games without friends, or doing math homework.