Graduate Chemistry
Recent Student Highlights

April, 2006: Marisol Garcia (graduate from the Chemistry MS program, spring 2006) and Dr. F. E. Hernandez of the Chemistry Department recently received accolades in Chemical and Engineering News, one of the first times a UCF student and faculty member's research has been acknowledged by this publication. You can read the article online [See Article].

August, 2005: Katherine (Katie) Schafer (admitted to Biomolecular Sciences PhD fall 2001, graduating summer 2005) successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation in the Biomolecular Science program, making her the third student to graduate from UCF with a Ph.D. in Biomolecular Science. Katie completed her M.S. degree in Industrial Chemistry from UCF in 1999, and was coauthor of four papers resulting from her thesis that have been cited over 180 times. While waiting for the Biomolecular Science Ph.D. program to be approved, she worked as a research associate in Dr. Kevin Belfield's laboratory, contributing to research that resulted in another four papers that have already been cited over 40 times, including a first author paper for her. During her Ph.D. research, she has been a coauthor of ten papers that have been published or are in print during 2004-05, most of which have already been cited 3 or 4 times each.

March, 2005: Li Zhang (completed Industrial Chemistry MS in Fall 2004) was selected by the College of Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorable Mention for Outstanding Master's Thesis.

March, 2005: Michelle Alvarez (admitted into the Biomolecular Sciences PhD program fall 2002) was awarded the best in category winner at the 2005 Graduate Research Forum with her oral presentation in the Life and Health Sciences category titled, "Age Determination: The Identification of Newborns Using Messenger RNA Profiling Analysis." She and her mentor, Dr. Jack Ballantyne, were recognized at an awards breakfast later in the month where Michelle was presented with a certificate and a $250 cash award.

October, 2004: Amir Tal and research supervisor Prof. Stephen M. Kuebler (Chemistry and College of Optics & Photonics) were awarded two years of graduate student support through the UCF College of Optics and Photonics’ NSF-IGERT program. They are investigating the use of multi-photon three-dimensional microfabrication as a tool for creating integrated photonics structures and devices.

October, 2004: Britt Torrance (junior, chemistry and physics) and research supervisor Stephen M. Kuebler (Chemistry and College of Optics & Photonics) were awarded a UCF RAMP-UP Research Award. The award will partially support their research into the use of folded polypeptides as templates for directing the deposition of materials into targeted three-dimensional nano-scale forms.

April, 2004: Erin Hanson (completed Forensic Science Track of the MS in Summer 2003) was recently admitted into the Ph.D. in Biomolecular Sciences. Erin was selected by the College for the 2004 recognition of Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistant. She has also presented materials at the 54th, 55th, and 56th annual meetings of the American Academy of Forensic Science and has also published in the Journal of Forensic Science.

March, 2004: At the 2004 Inaugural Graduate Research Forum, Katherine Schafer (graduated from Chemistry MS program Fall 2001, admitted into Biomolecular Sciences Ph.D. program in Fall 2001) was selected Best in Category: Engineering, Computer Science, Optics, Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Simulation and Modeling for her oral presentation: "Flourescent dyes for multiphoton bio-imaging applications." Abstract available: www.graduate.ucf.edu/researchforum

January, 2004: 25 Forensic Science students took part in internships at local, state, regional and national laboratories.

August, 2002: Jinyu Huang (completed Industrial Chemistry MS program in Summer 2002) was accepted into the Ph.D. program in Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University.