Congratulations to all our graduates!
On June 12, 2025, the UW Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry honored our newest graduates with a joyful ceremony at the Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. We celebrated students earning baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral degrees, surrounded by family, friends, and faculty.
Chairs Munira Khalil (Chemistry) and Justin Kollman (Biochemistry) led the celebration, joined by faculty from both departments.
A special thank you to our student speakers Tristan Jafari and Abdul Elhassan, who shared thoughtful reflections on their undergraduate experiences. They highlighted one of the most important lessons we hope our graduates carry forward: how to solve a problem—with curiosity, creativity, and persistence—is more valuable than the solution itself.
We’re proud of how our graduates have grown and look forward to all they’ll achieve next!
If you missed the ceremony—or want to revisit your favorite moments—watch the recording on YouTube.
DOCTORAL DEGREES AWARDED
Summer 2024, Autumn 2024, Winter 2025, and Spring 2025
Adilijiang Ali, PhD Chemistry
Super-resolved Optical Imaging, Reconstruction, and Spatial Analysis of Whole Mouse Glomeruli
(Professor Joshua Vaughan)
Praise Anyanwu, PhD Chemistry: Data Science
Light-Matter Interaction in Nano-Photonic Systems: Harnessing Weakly Interacting Emitter-Cavity Systems for Controlling Single-Photon Emission
(Professor David Masiello)
Casey Hannah Bisted, PhD Chemistry
Surface Ligand Binding Motif Chemistry on Semiconductor Nanocrystals and Quantum Dots
(Professor Munira Khalil)
Maddie Breshears, PhD Chemistry
Data-Driven Scanning Probe Microscopy for Understanding Carrier Dynamics in Lead Halide Perovskite Semiconductors
(Professor David Ginger Jr.)
Jack Geary, PhD Chemistry
Modular Synthesis of Templated Multicomponent Active Sites in Metal Organic Frameworks via Cross linking Strategies
(Assistant Professor Dianne Xiao)
Gunnar Goetz, PhD Chemistry
Techniques to Measure Biophysical Properties of Lipid Membranes and Lily Flowers
(Professor Sarah Keller)
Atch Gopalan, PhD Chemistry
Redox Targeting Insights and Applications for High-Energy-Density Redox Flow Batteries
(Professor Daniel Gamelin)
Ziyu Guo, PhD Chemistry
Highly Multiplexed Fluorescence Microscopy with Semiconducting Polymer Dots
(Professor Joshua Vaughan)
Mitchell Erlin Kaiser, PhD Chemistry
Uncovering Structure-Property Relationships with in-Situ Electrochemical Quantum Capacitance Spectroscopy
(Professor Jun Liu, Materials Science & Engineering)
Ashlyn Kamin, PhD Chemistry
Cycloparaphenylenes and Related Contorted Aromatics as Building Blocks for Multifunctional Nanomaterials
(Assistant Professor Dianne Xiao)
Brianne King, PhD Chemistry
Computational Stabilization of a Non-heme Iron Enzyme Enables Efficient Evolution of New Function
(Associate Professor Jesse Zalatan)
Sebastian Krajewski, PhD Chemistry
Modular Design and Synthetic Tuning of Ternary Molecular Nanoclusters
(Associate Professor Alexandra Velian)
Can Liao, PhD Chemistry
Manifestation of Spin--Orbit Coupling in Molecular Systems
(Professor Xiaosong Li)
Caroline Loe, PhD Chemistry
Observing Coupled Nuclear and Electronic Motions Involved in Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonding and Proton Transfer with Ultrafast Multicolor Spectroscopy
(Professor Munira Khalil)
Lina Mikaliunaite, PhD Chemistry
Advances in Instrumentation and Chemometrics of Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography Systems
(Professor Robert Synovec)
Cem Millik, PhD Chemistry
Polyether- and serum albumin-based hydrogels and bioplastics for bio-interfacing applications leveraging additive manufacturing
(Professor Alshakim Nelson)
Hao Nguyen, PhD Chemistry
Designing Huge Colloidal Quantum Dots for Scalable & Deterministic Placement of Single-Photon Emitters
(Professor Brandi Cossairt)
Emily Nishiwaki, PhD Chemistry: Data Science
The Role of Ensembles in Metal Phosphide Electrocatalysis for Modulating Nitrate Electroreduction Behavior
(Professor Brandi Cossairt)
Austin G. Nixon, PhD Chemistry
Inelastic Scattering of Transversely Structured Free Electrons
(Professor David Masiello)
Meredith Pomfret, PhD Chemistry
Large Polymers that Behave like Small Polymers
(Assistant Professor Matthew Golder)
Justin Pothoof, PhD Chemistry
Interrogating Ionic and Electronic Carrier Motion in Halide Perovskites with Scanning Probe Microscopy
(Professor David Ginger Jr.)
Kimo Pressler, PhD Chemistry
Defect Engineering of Spin-Correlated Luminescent Dopants in Ferromagnetic van der Waals Materials
(Professor Daniel Gamelin)
Ricardo Rivera-Maldonado, PhD Chemistry
Probing the Stability of Nickel Phosphide Nanoparticle Electrocatalysts via Advanced Benchtop X-ray Spectroscopy
(Professor Brandi Cossairt)
Garrett Santis, PhD Chemistry
Probing Hydrogen Bonds in Aqueous and Biological Systems: Solvation Structure, Dynamics and Spectroscopy
(Affiliate Professor Sotiris Xantheas)
Austin Shaff, PhD Chemistry
Transition Metal Catalyzed Hydrofunctionalization of Alkynes via 1,2-Boronate Rearrangements
(Professor Gojko Lalic)
Kathleen Snook, PhD Chemistry
Redox-Active Metal-Organic Cages and Frameworks for Electrochemical Applications
(Assistant Professor Dianne Xiao)
Ethan Stoddard, PhD Chemistry
Uncovering the mechanistic basis of intracellular Raf inhibitor sensitivity reveals synergistic cotreatment strategies
(Professor Dustin Maly)
Lindsey Ulmer, PhD Chemistry
New Photo-Crosslinking Mass Spectrometry Approaches for the Study of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
(Associate Professor Matthew Bush)
AnneClaire Wageman, PhD Chemistry
New Ion Mobility Measurements Enabled by Innovations in Instrumentation and Modeling
(Associate Professor Matthew Bush)
Kelly Walsh, PhD Chemistry
Spin-Correlated Optical Properties of Ferromagnetic Nanostructures
(Professor Daniel Gamelin)
Jiahao Wan, PhD Chemistry
Structural Characterization of Gas-Phase Biomolecular Ions with Novel Mass Spectrometry and Computational Methods
(Professor František Tureček)
Liam Wrigley, PhD Chemistry
Understanding the Photochemistry of Heptazines and Heptazinyl Radicals
(Associate Professor Cody Schlenker)
Fiona Xi Xu, PhD Chemistry
Quantitative Imaging of Protein and Lipid Metabolism using Stimulated Raman Scattering Microscopy
(Associate Professor Dan Fu)
Leo Zasada, PhD Chemistry
Conjugated Metal-Organic Macrocycles as Solution-Processable Semiconductors
(Assistant Professor Dianne Xiao)
Yuting Zeng, PhD Chemistry
Elucidating Human Disease Mechanisms Using Innovative Open Microfluidic Platforms
(Professor Ashleigh Theberge)
Yvonne Zhu, PhD Chemistry
Mechanistic Insights into Intramolecular Gas-Phase Crosslinking of Peptides and Carbene or Nitrile Imine Intermediates
(Professor František Tureček)
MASTER’S DEGREES AWARDED IN APPLIED CHEMICAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Summer 2024, Autumn 2024, Winter 2025, and Spring 2025
Qusai Alsabia, MS
Controlling Metal Organic Framework (MOF) Crystallization Using High Throughput Synthesis and Computer Vision
(Assistant Professor Shijing Sun, Mechanical Engineering; Assistant Professor Dianne Xiao)
Ishaan Chopra, MS
John Paul Sampang Custodio, MS
Ling Dai, MS
Designing Peptoid-based Cofactor-free Catalysts for Enhanced CO2 Hydration
(Affiliate Professor Chun-Long Chen)
Chimeh Esegbue, MS
Vraja Gandhi, MS
Jack Gipson, MS
Carley Hinrichs, MS
Tony Le, MS
Kuan-Wei Lee, MS
Leopold Liu, MS
Hydrogen Absorption on Single Palladium Nanoparticles
(Professor Bo Zhang)
Bam Manitsirisuk, MS
Solvent Exchange Method for Protein-Based Bioplastics
(Professor Alshakim Nelson)
Hannah Nemnich, MS
Evan Park, MS
Libby Petersen, MS
Hongyu Pu, MS
Jessica Lynne Roth, MS
Vivian Truong, MS
Abraham Varughese, MS
Xuansheng Wang, MS
Design of Nanostructured Peptoid Assemblies as Synthetic Analogues of Natural Carbonic Anhydrases
(Affiliate Professor Chun-Long Chen)
Olive White, MS
Makenzie Williamson, MS
Lilly Woerner, MS
Tianyi Xu, MS
Evaluating the Gaseous Chlorine-containing Byproducts from the Use of an HOCl-derived Disinfectant
(Professor Joel Thornton, Atmospheric Sciences)
Meijing Zhang, MS
Mechanical Studies of Bovine Serum Albumin-based Bioplastics in Additive Manufacturing
(Professor Alshakim Nelson)
MASTER’S DEGREES AWARDED IN CHEMISTRY
Summer 2024, Autumn 2024, Winter 2025, and Spring 2025
Douglas Baumgardner, MS
Markus Bergstrom, MS
Matthew Chang, MS
Andrew Garcia, MS
Young Li, MS
Annie Moulene, MS
Khoa Ngo, MS
Kirill Shumilov, MS
Shengzhang Su, MS
Henry Thornes, MS
Zoe Wang, MS
Jupeng Zhang, MS
Huanyi Zhao, MS