SUMMER 2025 HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FARM

IFSS Program

The Department of Chemistry kicked off the summer by welcoming 14 students from Bay Area high schools to the two-week Inspiring Future Scientists through Shadowing (IFSS) program. Since its inception in 2013, IFSS has immersed participants in the chemical sciences by pairing them with multiple graduate-student mentors across different research groups, offering a panoramic view of cutting-edge topics and techniques. Rather than focusing on a single project, the program broadens students’ curiosity by exposing them to several labs and scientific perspectives. The two weeks culminated in a showcase where participants presented what they learned.

Program Director and Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, Dr. Jennifer Schwartz-Poehlmann said, “It was wonderful to interact with such an excited and engaged group of high school students. They were eager to absorb the full experience and grateful for the opportunity to observe cutting-edge research firsthand with our graduate-student mentors.” She added, “This experience would not have been possible without the support of our graduate-student mentors and their labs, and the exceptional leadership of Andy Mitchell, Jordyn Nicole Strasberg Smith, and Hee Won Youn.” Mitchell is a sixth-year student in the Rotskoff Lab, researching important sampling techniques for molecular simulations, whilst Smith is a fifth-year student in the Fayer Lab, studying concentrated aqueous salt solutions, and Youn is a third-year student in the Dauskardt Lab, researching the fabrication of inorganic-organic mesoporous thin films.

Graduate-student mentors for the two-week summer program included: Julia Dressel (Waymouth Lab), Joshua Lui (Waymouth Lab), Meredith Nix (Gray Lab), Leon Katzengruber (Gray Lab), Robert Gipson (Solomon Lab), Thomas Lin (Solomon Lab), Laura Dynan Elmendorf (Solomon Lab), Maggie Brueggemeyer (Solomon Lab), Abigail Park (Rotskoff Lab), Alan Liu (Dauskardt Lab), Tristan Heck (Fayer Lab), Louis Diment (Karunadasa Group), and Jing-Jing Shen (Karunadasa Lab).

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship

In parallel, 13 undergraduates completed the 10-week Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, conducting intensive research alongside chemistry faculty and graduate-student mentors. The fellowship concluded with a poster session where fellows presented their findings and reflected on their journeys. Overseen by Professor Matt Kanan, the program proudly marked its 33rd year.

Andrew Chen, a rising junior who worked in the Burns Lab on a project titled “New Strategies in Ketone Formation via Single‑Atom Nitrogen Deletion,” offered his perspective on the program: “This summer, I conducted research in synthetic organic chemistry in the Burns Lab in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford. My work focused on methods development—reaction design—detailing the efficacy of a novel transformation of amides to ketones. Given the prevalence of amides in pharmaceuticals and other important chemical products, this transformation may be widely applicable in accessing new structures that are otherwise difficult to obtain.”

Chen continued, “As a member of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program, I gained valuable insight into life as a chemistry researcher. From reading the literature to setting up reactions in the lab, I came to appreciate many facets, both new and familiar. I also learned about interesting research across the department through the weekly Chalk Talks, which were a particular highlight of the program.”

The fellows in this year's programs were: Andrew Chen, Zhuorui (Jerry) Chen, Vedant Chittake, Kamal Elmallah, Karen Glenn, Beheshta Kohistani, Isabella McCormick, Max Scherer, Zara Thomas, Jonathan Tubb, Victoria Tuffour, Julian Wittig, and Asad (Asmani) Yamin.

Together, IFSS and the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship underscore the department’s belief that discovery is a shared endeavor. By opening lab doors to high school and undergraduate scholars, we cultivate curiosity, confidence, and the scientific proficiency that translates hypotheses into results. None of this would be possible without the mentorship of our graduate students, the generosity of our faculty and lab staff, and the steady leadership that sustains these opportunities year after year. As we wrap another season of community and learning, we also look ahead—to the scientific inquiries that have yet to be answered, the posters yet to be presented, and the scientists whose journeys these programs will help ignite.