Autumn 2025 ChemLetter | Department of Chemistry

Dear Friends of Chemistry,

The mission of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Washington is to educate and train scholars in the fundamental and applied chemical sciences that impact healthcare, biotechnology, and global sustainability. Our students and postdoctoral researchers develop into critical thinkers and problem solvers who use their knowledge and analytical thinking to create new solutions and identify the answers to some of society's biggest challenges. They will become leaders in the state of Washington and across the globe. Our responsibility is to educate our students with the long-term view of providing them with the skills to solve the problems of five, ten, or even twenty years from now.

As the new chair of the department, I am excited and fortunate to work with wonderful colleagues who share our department's mission. I get to learn more about how my colleagues are having an impact on their research fields while training and teaching our students to become scientists. Together, we are finding new discoveries and generating new knowledge that the world has not known before. We share this knowledge with the world, and use it to develop new ideas, products, and even spin off companies.

We are committed to our educational mission and proud to perform research of the highest scientific integrity. The outcomes of these efforts are most visible in publications, patents, presentations, and the people that come from our department. Our work is of value to the global scientific community. Our work catalyzes local, state, and national economies. And, our work is for the betterment of society.

Thank you to all who have supported the department and stay tuned for more exciting outputs of our work to come!

Best regards,

Alshakim Nelson
Professor & Chair, Department of Chemistry

Tristan Shi joins our faculty

We are delighted to announce that Dr. Jiaojian (Tristan) Shi joined the University of Washington faculty as our newest assistant professor of chemistry on July 1, 2025! Dr. Shi completed his undergraduate studies in physics at Peking University, where he investigated the chemical reaction dynamics of water and methanol on titanium oxide surfaces. After graduating in 2015, he pursued his Ph.D. in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the mentorship of Professor… Read more

Faculty Promotions: Xiao, Bush, Fu, Zalatan

The Xiao group poses together in the lab

We are pleased to announce that Assistant Professor Dianne Xiao has been promoted to associate professor with tenure and Associate Professors Matthew Bush, Dan Fu, and Jesse Zalatan have been promoted to professor. These promotions are effective September 16, 2025. Dianne Xiao Associate Professor Professor Dianne Xiao’s research program designs new porous materials to address unsolved challenges in clean energy and chemical sustainability.… Read more

Kovacs, first woman tenured in UW Chemistry, retires

As of April 1, 2025, Professor Julie Kovacs retired and was appointed Professor Emerita of Chemistry. Kovacs, an expert in bioinorganic chemistry, joined the University of Washington faculty in 1988 as assistant professor of chemistry, following a postdoctoral stint at Berkeley and Ph.D. work at Harvard. In 1994, she became the first woman in the Department of Chemistry to be promoted to associate professor with tenure. She was promoted to full professor in 2001 – again, the first woman in the… Read more

Rathod retires

Pradip Rathod wears round glasses and a goatee

On June 15, 2025, Professor Pradipsinh Rathod retired after 24 years in the Department of Chemistry and was appointed Professor Emeritus.Rathod joined the University of Washington in 2001, bringing his expertise in malaria pharmacology and the study of genetic plasticity of Plasmodium falciparum to our department. He began his independent career as a professor of biology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before making UW Chemistry his academic home.Born in Dar-es-Salaam… Read more

Anne McCoy named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the nation’s most prestigious honors, recognizing extraordinary contributions across academia, the arts, public affairs, and science. Election is both a recognition of profound achievement and an invitation to help shape the intellectual and civic future of the nation. Anne McCoy, Natt-Lingafelter Professor of Chemistry, is among the new class of nearly 250 members… Read more

Nick Riley named one of C&EN's Talented 12

The Chemical & Engineering News' Talented 12 highlights twelve early-career scientists doing research that will make a real-world impact. We’re delighted to see Assistant Professor Nick Riley featured as one of C&EN's T12 for his work on “Cracking the glycan code to understand disease.” Nick was selected from nearly 370 nominations submitted by C&EN's readers.… Read more

Xiaosong Li elected AAAS Fellow

Professor Xiaosong Li was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for his contributions to the development and application of time-dependent quantum theory and relativistic electronic structure theory, and for advancing educational pathways and diversity in STEM. Li conducts research at the intersection of physics, chemistry, materials science, mathematics and scientific computing, and he has developed widely used computational software. A UW faculty… Read more

Students awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Three students and their mentor near large posters of their research

Congratulations to the three graduate students in the Department of Chemistry who were awarded 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships, and to the four students who received honorable mentions. This year was a highly competitive year, and we are proud of this recognition of our students' research endeavors! The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces… Read more

Undergrad Research at the Heart of MEM-C

A scientist uses a glove box while another scientist looks on.

Story by MEM-C StaffIf this newsletter had a “help wanted” section, it would include a listing: MEM-C needs undergraduate researchers. UW MEM-C (Molecular Engineering Materials Center) is an NSF-funded Materials Research and Engineering Center (MRSEC). For MEM-C’s Director, Prof. Daniel Gamelin, the task of getting undergrads involved in research is personal. “I was incredibly lucky to have the… Read more

A 3D-Printed Device to Model Human Tissue

In an exciting breakthrough, a team of scientists led by Ashleigh Theberge, professor of chemistry, and Nate Sniadecki, professor of mechanical engineering, published a paper in Advanced Science detailing a new 3D-printed device known as STOMP (Suspended Tissue Open Microfluidic Patterning) that provides tissue engineers with the ability to examine how cells respond to various mechanical and physical cues… Read more

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