Kathryn Allen, Ph.D.
Dr. Allen’s research interests fall in the area of polymer chemistry, in particular environmental remediation and renewable resources. Presently, the group is focusing upon plastics. While plastics are generally condemned for their destruction of the natural environment, Dr. Allen’s group hopes to create biodegradable polymers that are able to replace traditional LDPE and HDPE in plastic bottles and grocery bags. Polyhydroxyalkanoates are therefore being modified with aryl substituents and H-bond donors and acceptors. These modifications to the polymers are intended to increase the tensile strength of the otherwise very brittle systems, as well as improve their thermal properties. Of particular interest is what the effect of each modification will be upon the polymer viscosity and elasticity.
​
Dr. Allen joined the Chemistry Department as a tenure-track faculty member in August 2015. At Columbia University, Dr. Allen worked to compatibilize macromolecules with small molecule materials. At USC, Dr. Allen was the recipient of the WiSE Merit award for excellence in postdoctoral research for her work on BODIPY dyes. After working as a visiting assistant professor for the 2014-2015 academic year at Millersville University, Dr. Allen was offered the tenure-track position in polymer chemistry.
​
Dr. Allen is currently serving as the faculty advisor for ADSE SUPER at Millersville University; she is a faculty member of the Chemistry department and prioritizes normalizing mental health and promoting LGBTQ rights and women in science.
Assistant Professor
Millersville University
Devon L. Graves, Ph.D.
Devon Graves is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education, Kinesiology, & Social Work at California State University, Stanislaus. Devon serves in the Department of Advanced Studies in Education where he teaches in the educational leadership doctoral program. He teaches courses in the community college studies specialization and advises doctoral students through the dissertation process. Prior to joining Stan State, Devon served as a Research Fellow at the Success Center for the California Community Colleges. His research focuses on community colleges, financial aid, and race and racism.
​
In addition to his research, Devon has served on two of California’s higher education governing boards. From 2013-17 he served as a gubernatorial appointee on the California Student Aid Commission, the state agency that administers $2 billion in state financial aid programs. In this role Devon chaired the commissions’ Student Impact committee, which had direct oversight of the Cal Grant, Dream Act, and Middle Class Scholarship programs. In 2017, Devon was appointed the 44th Student Regent on the University of California Board of Regents. As a regent, Devon served as chair of the Regents’ Special committee on Basic Needs and vice chair of the Regents’ Public Engagement and Development committee.
Devon is a proud product of California’s public higher education system. He received his B.A. from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and M.A. and Ph.D. from UCLA.
Assistant Professor
California State University,
Stanislaus
Assistant Professor
University of Maryland, College Park
Osvaldo Gutierrez, Ph.D.
Osvaldo was born in Mexico and raised in Sacramento, California. He attended Sacramento City College and transferred to UCLA in 2006 where he worked as an undergraduate at the laboratories of Prof. Houk. He obtained his B.S./M.S. in 2009 and completed his Ph.D. in 2012 (UC Davis) under the guidance of Prof. Tantillo. From 2012-2016 he worked as a postdoc with Prof. Kozlowski at the University of Pennsylvania where he used computational and experimental tools to study transition metal-catalyzed processes. He is now at the University of Maryland College Park where his research combines computational and experimental approaches to advance our understanding of iron- and photo-catalyzed reaction mechanisms.
Matt Kayhoe
During the past 30 years, Matt Kayhoe has consulted to all levels of management on organizational leadership, organizational change, innovative cultures, individual effectiveness, and building cooperation across organizations and communities. He works with management teams to develop and clarify strategy, accelerate its implementation, and align their organizations to achieve critical goals. His involvement delivers new practices and mindsets that contribute directly to individual and organizational success.
Matt’s has consulted to clients in most business, non-profit, and government sectors. He now focuses on three types of organizations: science-based, social sector/nonprofit, and startup/early stage. He has extensive experience in Biotechnology, Healthcare Delivery, Pharmaceutical, Environment and Environmental Health, Animal Welfare and Protection, and Affordable Housing. He is typically involved with two or three start-ups, as a thinking partner for the Founder, an advisor to the senior team, or as a Board member. Matt also works directly with individual leaders in organizations, as a thinking partner, coach, and advisor. He helps people to think differently, to engage in challenging situations with a fresh perspective, and to focus their energies on what is critically important. He brings an expertise in the use of emotional intelligence (EI) in all of his work, and is known for making EI an accessible, practical, and positive experience.
Matt has served as Director of Organizational Development and Training for The Main Street America Group. He has also held positions in Human Resources, Information Technology, and Materials Management in the commercial printing and insurance industries. Matt serves on the faculty at Georgetown University in the Organizational Consulting and Change Leadership Program when time allows. His education includes postgraduate programs in organizational theory and development at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and the NTL Institute. He has undergraduate degrees in Philosophy from Antioch College, and in Management from Southwestern New Hampshire University. He has served on the boards of many non-profit organizations - currently the Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering, and the Peer Learning Network.
Matt is a resident of Washington, DC and stays busy with his wife exploring the wooded areas, cycling routes, and cultural richness of the city. His spare time is also filled by the dozens of foster animals that work their way through their home and on to new families.
Director
Kayhoe Consulting
Associate Professor
University of Maryland
Alisa Morss Clyne, Ph.D.
Alisa Morss Clyne is currently an Associate Professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland. Prior to joining the University of Maryland in January 2019, she was an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Clyne is director of the Vascular Kinetics Laboratory, which investigates integrated mechanical and biochemical interactions among cells and proteins of the cardiovascular system. She is particularly interested in how endothelial cell mechanotransduction changes in a diseased environment, and how fluid shear stress and substrate mechanics affect glucose metabolism and transport.
Dr. Clyne received her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 1996. She worked as an engineer in the GE Aircraft Engines Technical Leadership Program for four years, concurrently earning her Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. In 2006, she received her Doctorate in Medical and Mechanical Engineering from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. In 2014, she completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering (ELATE) program.
Dr. Clyne received the NSF CAREER award in 2008, an AHA National Scientist Development Grant in 2010, and the BMES-CMBE Rising Star award in 2011. She has received research and educational funding from NSF, NIH, AHA, Department of Education, the Nanotechnology Institute, and the State of Pennsylvania, and she has published in diverse journals including Lab on a Chip, Journal of Biomechanics, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Tissue Engineering, Biophysical Journal, PLOSOne, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Circulation. She is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Heart Association, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. She is also a member of ASEE, BMES, NAVBO, and SWE. Her teaching focuses on engineering applications in biological systems, and she founded several programs to enhance diversity within engineering.
Emily Pentzer, Ph.D.
Emily Pentzer is an Associate Professor in the department of chemistry and the department of materials science and engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. She received a BS in chemistry from Butler University (2005) and PhD in organic chemistry from Northwestern University (2010), where her thesis work focused on metathesis routes for preparing and polymerizing unsaturated medium-sized lactones and lactams under the direction of Professor Sonbinh T. Nguyen. She then worked with Professor Todd Emrick in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at UMass Amherst where she focused on the synthesis and assembly of electronically active materials for organic photovoltaics as part of a DOE EFRC on Polymer-Based Materials for Harvesting Solar Energy. In 2013, Dr. Pentzer joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University in chemistry and received a secondary appointment in macromolecular science and engineering in 2015.
Dr. Pentzer and her lab moved to Texas A&M in the summer of 2019, as part of both the chemistry and materials science and engineering departments. Her research uses organic synthesis to access new materials and assemblies as a route to understand structure-property-application relationships and access functions not possible with current state-of-the-art systems. Dr. Pentzer regularly participates and organizes events aimed at the professional development of graduate students and facilitating the transition of graduate students and post-docs to successful and vibrant STEM careers. She has received several awards including the NSF-CAREER award (2016), the PMSE Young Investigator Award (2017), and the CWRU Faculty Diversity Excellence Award (2019). She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the RSC journal Polymer Chemistry and was elected as Alt. Councilor for the Polymer Division (POLY) of the American Chemical Society in 2020.
Associate Professor
Texas A&M University
Richmond Sarpong, Ph.D.
Richmond Sarpong is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley where he and his group specialize in synthetic organic chemistry. Richmond became interested in chemistry after seeing, firsthand, the effectiveness of the drug ivermectin in combating river blindness during his childhood in Ghana, West Africa. Richmond described his influences and inspirations in a TEDxBerkeley talk in 2015 (Face of Disease in Sub-Saharan Africa – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIsY87-zkXA). Richmond completed his undergraduate studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN and his graduate work was carried out with Prof. Martin Semmelhack at Princeton. He conducted postdoctoral studies at Caltech with Prof. Brian Stoltz.
​
At Berkeley, Richmond’s laboratory focuses on the synthesis of bioactive complex organic molecules, with a particular focus on secondary metabolites that come from marine or terrestrial flora and fauna. These natural products continue to serve as the inspiration for new medicines. It is Richmond’s hope that through the work in his laboratory, he and his coworkers will uncover methods and strategies for synthesis that may contribute to more efficient ways to prepare bioactive compounds that may inspire new medicines.
​
Of all his professional accomplishments, Richmond is most proud of the students in his research group (http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/rsgrp/) and those with whom he has worked in the past that have gone on to their own independent careers. He enjoys teaching and was the recipient of the 2009 UC Berkeley Department of Chemistry teaching award and the 2016 Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Physical Sciences at Berkeley. Richmond’s research group has published over 110 papers and he has received numerous awards in recognition of his research including an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, ACS Cope Scholar Award, NSF Career Award, the 2015 Royal Society of Chemistry Synthetic Organic Chemistry Award, a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship, the ISHC Katritzky Award, and the Society of Synthetic Organic Chemistry Japan Mukaiyama Award for 2019.
Full Professor
University of California,
Berkeley
Assistant Professor
Northeastern University
Fernando Uribe-Romo, Ph.D.
Fernando was born and raised in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. He did his undergraduate studies at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (a.k.a Monterrey Tech), where he earned his LCQ degree (Licenciado en Ciencias Químicas) in 2006. He then moved closer to home to study graduate school at University of California Los Angeles, where he received a PhD in inorganic chemistry, under the supervision of Prof. Omar M. Yaghi, specializing in synthesis and powder diffraction crystallography of covalent-organic frameworks. Fernando became an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Central Florida in the Fall 2013. His research interests are focused on new applications for metal-organic frameworks with complex properties.
Senior Director
Research and Development
Apeel Sciences
Chuck Fraizer, Ph.D.
Chuck Frazier is the Senior Director of Research and Development at Apeel Sciences, where he's been since 2015. In his role at Apeel, Chuck oversees collaborative research efforts in Material, Chemical, Biology, and Analytical Sciences aimed at developing plant-derived technologies to extend the shelf life of fresh produce.
Chuck received his bachelor's degree in Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley in 2009. While at Berkeley, he conducted research in the lab of Prof. Matthew Francis, where he focused on synthesizing small molecule linkers between virus capsids and molecular probes. He received his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UC Santa Barbara under the tutelage of Prof. Javier Read de Alaniz. During his Ph.D., Chuck developed a variety of electrophilic amination methods utilizing highly reactive nitrosocarbonyl compounds. In addition to his research efforts at UC Santa Barbara, Chuck served as the president of Graduate Students for Diversity in Science, and was a co-founder of ADSE.
Assistant Professor
Northeastern University
Steven Lopez, Ph.D. Chairman
Steven is an ADSE co-founder and the current Chair of the Board of Directors of ADSE. He received his B.S. in Chemistry in 2010 from New York University and his PhD in organic chemistry in 2015 from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently an assistant professor of chemistry at Northeastern University and the faculty advisor for the ADSE@NU chapter.
The Lopez lab focuses on computational organic photochemistry and materials chemistry. His group is funded by the Office of Naval Research on a $500,000 Multi University Research Initiative (MURI) grant, National Science Foundation ($600,000) to use computational chemistry and machine learning techniques to design catalysts for organic photoredox reactions, and the Massachusetts Life Science Foundation ($750,000) to identify non-invasive alternatives to chemotherapy for site-specific cancer treatments.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
NATIONAL ORGANIZING BOARD
Arman Garcia, Chairman of the Board
Arman received his B.S. in Biochemistry in 2017. Shortly after he attended California State Los Angeles (Cal State LA) where performed research under the guidance of Dr. Matthias Selke. In 2019 Arman earned his M.S. in Chemistry for his work on cadmium-sulfur cluster and singlet oxygen. Arman is currently a Ph.D. candidate at University of Oregon in the Pluth group with a focus on host-guest complexes and reactive sulfur species. Arman attended the first Young Researchers Conference (2016) as an undergraduate research and co-found the UO ADSE chapter in 2020. In his free time he enjoys taking pictures of his cat.
Dr. Melissa Ramirez, Social Media Coordinator
Melissa was born in Los Angeles, CA and raised in Pasadena, CA. She is a first-generation Mexican American, and obtained her B.A. in chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. Thereafter, Melissa attended the University of California, Los Angeles where she received a Ph.D. in chemistry in 2021. Currently, Melissa is an NSF Ascend and Caltech Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Brian Stoltz. Her goal is to obtain a faculty position at an R1 institution after completion of her postdoc and train the next generation of diverse scientists.
Aidan W. Short, Website Chair
Growing up in New York City, Aidan developed an interest in biology watching insects in Riverside Park. This interest led him to Bowdoin College where he majored in biology and studied the diet of the invasive green crab. Aidan developed an interest in plant evolution as a Master's student at Guangxi University where he studied the cold stress response of mangroves. Aidan is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon where he studies monkeyflower adaptation and speciation in the Streisfeld Lab. As a member of ADSE, Aidan hopes to help increase student interest and involvement in scientific research.