Emily Eikey grew up outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and she received her B.S. in Chemistry from Allegheny College in 2016. During her undergraduate career, she conducted research in multiple areas. At Allegheny College, she studied the thermodynamics of RNA hairpins under the supervision of Professor Martin Serra. She also participated in two summer research experiences, one at the Pennsylvania State University studying metal-lipid interactions under the advisement of Professor Paul Cremer and another at Duquesne University using computational tools to optimize metal complexes under the direction of Professor Jeffrey Evanseck. After exploring many areas of chemistry, Emily decided to complete her graduate work in the field of nanomaterials. Currently, she is a fourth year NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Professor Jill Millstone’s group. Her interests lie in re-imagining the richness and diversity inherent in defining, controlling, and leveraging material composition and atom position in ternary metal chalcogenide nanoparticles and activelycollaborates with an electron microscopist at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the Millstone laboratory manager, in charge of ordering supplies, maintaining finances, and ensuring the safety of lab members. Emily enjoys spending time with family and friends, attending concerts, and taking her pup Maci for walks.

Paige Moncure is from Wilmington, Delaware and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She conducted undergraduate research in Professor Jill Millstone’s lab exploring size and shape control of copper chalcogenide nanoparticles. She decided to stay at the University of Pittsburgh for her Ph.D. and initiated a collaboration between Professors Jill Millstone and Jennifer Laaser.She is in her third year, and her current research uses the interferometric scattering microscope she built in Professor Laaser’s lab to study material dynamics at the nanoscale. Specifically, she is interested in colloidal nanoparticle nucleation kinetics and confined diffusion of nanoparticles in hydrogels. Paige is a volunteer at the Carnegie Science Center, helping with the various scientific outreach events they host. Outside of the lab, Paige enjoys participating in triathlons, hiking, going to operas with her boyfriend, and playing with her dogs, Molly and Hazel.

Michael Cowan grew up in a small town in upstate New York before completing his B.S. in Chemistry at Binghamton University. While there, he studied photocatalytic nanomaterials under the guidance of Professor Wayne Jones Jr. After graduating in 2015, Michael moved on to complete his M.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from the University at Buffalo where his research focus shifted towards the use of computational tools. Under the direction of Professor Edward Furlani, he collaborated with local industry to model the flow of an industrial clay extrusion process. The work led to employment in 2016, where Michael spent his time split between studying clay extrusion and co-developing a software plugin for the company. Michael returned to school in 2017 at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently a third year Ph.D. Chemical Engineering student under the advisement of Professor Giannis Mpourmpakis. In his current work, he utilizes Density Functional Theory calculations to develop structure-property relationships for ligand-protected metal nanoparticles. He served as the 2018-2019 Vice President of the Pitt Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association – co-organizing volunteering and social events. Michael enjoys working on personal coding projects, running, and playing guitar.

Eric Lopato was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and obtained a B.S. in Chemistry from St. John’s University in New York City. He started conducting inorganic chemistry research under the supervision of Professor Richard Rosso producing novel N-heterocyclic carbene ligands for ruthenium-based catalysts. During a summer at the Washington State University Laboratory for Atmospheric Research, he worked with Professor Brian Lamb on atmospheric chemical modeling involved in development of AIRPACT-5. Currently, he is a second year graduate student pursuing his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University under the advisement of Professor Stefan Bernhard. His current research focuses on mass parallelized screening of photocatalytic systems for the generation of fuels and energy storage materials from abundant materials or industrial waste products. In this work, Eric has worked in collaborations within chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, computer science, and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University as well as with the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.

Zoe Simon is from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and received her undergraduate degree from Emory University, where she majored in Chemistry and Philosophy. During her undergraduate career, she conducted clinical research for Dr. William Reisman, the Chief of Orthopedics at Grady Hospital, Dr. Patrick Kelly, a vascular surgeon, and Dr. Nicholas Fletcher, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. She then opted to pursue biomedical research and spent her remaining two years at Emory studying the role of anti-RNA autoantibodies in the progression of lupus under Dr. Ignacio Sanz. She is currently a second year Ph.D. student at the University of Pittsburgh under the supervision of Professor Jill Millstone, where she studies the role of prenucleation species in the formation of bimetallic nanoparticles. As someone who enjoys interdisciplinary research pursuits, she has sought opportunities to collaborate and is currently involved in a project with Professor Stefan Bernhard’s group at Carnegie Mellon University. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends, and hanging out with her dog, Lucy.

Sydney Brooks grew up in New Mexico before going to West Virginia University (WVU) for her undergraduate education, receiving her B.S. in 2018. She started out as a Forensic Chemistry major, but after a summer of analytical chemistry research under Professor Suzanne Bell, she changed her major to Chemistry. During her undergraduate career she also conducted research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology under Dr. Amanda Forster. At WVU she was a co-founder of and held leadership positions in the Undergraduate Research Association, an organization with the goal of connecting undergraduate students involved in research. In the summer of 2018, she joined Professor Nathaniel Rosi’s lab at the University of Pittsburgh for her graduate work. She is currently in her second year, working on amino acid modifications for affecting the structure and assembly of gold nanoparticle double helices. Sydney is the head of the Pitt Phi Lambda Upsilon Chemistry Outreach Program, tasked with organizing visits to elementary and middle schools in the Pittsburgh area. During these visits, chemistry graduate students perform fun and educational science experiments with the students. In her spare time, Sydney enjoys anything outdoors: running, hiking, or just hanging out with friends.