Chemistry & Biochemistry

Guest Speaker - Karen Kelsky, Academic Consultant
2025-10-24 15:00 - 15:50 (America/Chicago) | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Colloquium - Maya Fernando & Mayurika Mahendran, UWM Chemistry
2025-10-31 15:00 - 15:50 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Guest Speaker - Jennifer Herriges, UWM Lab Safety Coordinator
2025-11-07 15:00 - 15:50 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Guest Speaker - Jason Sidabras, Medical College of Wisconsin
2025-11-21 15:00 - 15:50 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Chemistry Holiday Gathering
2025-12-12 17:30 - 20:00 | Chemistry Lobby, Milwaukee, 53211, United States
Clink the following link for details and RSVP https://uwm.edu/chemistry/chemistry-holiday-gathering/

Guest Speaker, Joceyln Nardo, Ph.D., Ohio State University
2026-02-20 15:00 - 15:50 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States
Catalysts for Change: Cultivating a Culture for Chemistry Graduate Student Success
This project investigates how departmental culture shapes chemistry graduate students’ belonging, development, and access to opportunity. The project responds to documented challenges in doctoral education including unclear success criteria, inconsistent mentoring, and hidden cultural norms and seeks to generate actionable, evidence-based pathways for systemic improvement. We designed and deployed a mixed-methods pilot survey to chemistry graduate students measuring six domains informed by prior graduate-education and equity scholarship: (1) graduate milestones, (2) research competency, (3) teaching competency, (4) advisor support (academic and emotional), (5) peer and departmental culture, and (6) academic and demographic background. This talk will center on the qualitative data which is founded on academic citizenship, which is a set of behaviors, responsibilities, and relational practices through which members of an academic community contribute to its collective functioning, integrity, and well-being beyond their individual scholarly outputs. It includes activities such as mentoring, service, collaboration, care work, and stewardship that sustain learning environments, support colleagues and students, and advance the shared mission of the institution and discipline. Findings show that academic citizenship is unevenly distributed across student groups and is most strongly predicted by research competency and access to departmental resources. Advisor emotional support and advisor skill dynamics emerged as significant contributors to academic citizenship. Results informed department-level interventions, including (1) a redesigned first-year experience course integrating research, teaching, communication, and wellness, and (2) a multidimensional mentoring model grounded in sociopolitical noticing and disciplinary metaphors (chemist, family, coach). The project demonstrates that departmental culture can be surfaced, measured, and intentionally reshaped to create conditions where graduate students thrive because of rather than in spite of our systems.

Guest Speaker, Regan Thomson, Ph.D., Northwestern University
2026-03-20 15:00 - 16:00 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States
Natural Products in the Atmosphere

Volatile terpenes emitted from the world’s forests play a significant role in the formation of atmospheric aerosol particles, which in turn influence climate, air quality, and human health through a variety of direct and indirect mechanisms. Despite the importance of these aerosol particles, they remain poorly understood and constitute the largest degree of uncertainty in climate models. Recent studies have also led to the development of a novel biosphere–atmosphere feedback loop hypothesis whereby plants may be altering the emission of biogenic terpenes to enhance rainfall during drought conditions. This lecture will describe efforts within my lab towards the synthesis of putative biogenic terpene-derived constituents of atmospheric aerosol particles in order to confirm their identities and explore their climate relevant physical properties. Recent advances in the synthesis of isotopically-labeled pinene derivatives that are driving collaborative investigations into the complex oxidation pathways of terpenes in the atmosphere will also be presented along with ongoing efforts exploring the role of chirality in the atmosphere.

Regan J. Thomson was born in New Zealand in 1976, and received his Ph.D. in 2003 at The Australian National University where he worked for Prof. Lewis N. Mander. Following postdoctoral studies at Harvard University with Prof. David A. Evans, he joined the faculty at Northwestern University in 2006 where he is currently a Professor of Chemistry. Regan’s research interests include natural product synthesis and discovery, and atmospheric chemistry. He is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, an Amgen Young Investigator Award, a Novartis Lectureship, and an Illinois Division American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award. At Northwestern he has been named a Charles Deering Professor of Teaching Excellence and awarded the Provost Award for Exemplary Faculty Service.

Spring Recess
2026-03-22 - 2026-03-29 | WI

Guest Speaker, Sharani Roy, Ph.D., University of Tennessee
2026-04-24 15:00 - 16:00 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States
Digging deeper into the surface – Investigating subsurface oxygen and its reactivity in silver using lattice-gas models, DFT, and Monte Carlo simulations
First-row atoms, such as hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, not only adsorb on the surface of a solid but are small enough to diffuse into the near-surface or subsurface region. The percolation of adsorbates through the surface raises many fundamental questions, such as, what conditions promote subsurface adsorption? Does the same adsorbate have different chemical properties in the subsurface compared to the surface? How do subsurface adsorbates influence chemical reactions on surfaces? To address these questions, we extended the theoretical framework of lattice-gas models to describe both coverage-dependent surface and subsurface adsorption in crystalline solids. Using this framework, we developed an all-site DFT-parameterized lattice-gas model for O/Ag(111) and integrated it with Monte Carlo simulations to calculate the thermodynamic distributions of atomic oxygen on the surface and in the subsurface of Ag(111). The results show that subsurface adsorption becomes thermodynamically favorable for oxygen coverages greater than 0.375 ML. Furthermore, we applied the simulations to construct the first ab initio phase diagram of O/Ag(111) that shows the pressure and temperature ranges within which subsurface oxygen coexists with surface oxygen on Ag(111). Our results indicate that subsurface oxygen is present under the industrial conditions used for the catalytic partial oxidation of olefins on silver nanoparticles. Finally, we computed the reaction pathway for the conversion of ethylene to ethylene oxide on Ag(111) using DFT and found significant changes to the reaction barriers with increased oxygen coverage and the presence of subsurface oxygen.

Chemistry Awards Day and Research Symposium
2026-04-30 15:00 - 18:30 | Chemistry Lobby, Milwaukee, 53211, United States
Thursday April 30th, 2026

3:00pm Poster Session, CHEM 1st Floor Lobby
4:30pm Sosnovsky Lectureship Series, CHEM 110
5:30pm Questions / Answers Panel with Alumni & Sponsors, Dinner, CHEM 150

Full event information available at the following link https://uwm.edu/chemistry/outreach/annual-research-symposium/

Sosnovsky Lectureship Series - Guest Speaker Prof. Marc Greenberg from Johns Hopkins University
2026-04-30 16:00 - 17:30 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 108, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, 53211, United States
Chemical Tools for DNA-Protein Cross-Link Formation and Study
DNA-protein cross-links (DPCs) are highly toxic lesions formed via a variety of chemical pathways and as intermediates in enzyme transformations. DPCs are potent blocks of helicases, as well as DNA and RNA polymerases. DPCs are associated with aging and diseases such as cancer. Recently, DPCs were also shown to result in chronic inflammation. Despite their importance, our understanding of DPCs has lagged that of other forms of DNA damage. For instance, the first protease identified to repair DPCs in human cells (SPRTN) was only identified in the past decade. Our group is developing chemical tools for producing DPCs. These tools are useful for studying DPCs extra- and intracellularly and are potentially useful pharmacologically. Recent published and unpublished investigations will be presented.

Chemistry Awards Day and Research Symposium
2026-05-01 11:30 - 16:30 | Chemistry Lobby, Milwaukee, 53211, United States
Friday May 1st, 2026

11:30am Poster Session / Lunch, CHEM 1st Floor Lobby
1:00pm Break
1:30pm Questions / Answers Panel with Alumni / Sponsors, CHEM 2nd Floor
3:00pm Sosnovsky Lectureship Series, CHEM 110
3:50pm Break
4:00pm Awards Ceremony, CHEM 110

Full event information available at the following link https://uwm.edu/chemistry/outreach/annual-research-symposium/

Sosnovsky Lectureship Series - Guest Speaker Prof. Marc Greenberg from John Hopkins University
2026-05-01 15:00 - 15:50 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States
Sometimes DNA Damage is Only the Beginning
DNA damage is detrimental to genome integrity and can be mutagenic and/or cytotoxic. The latter lie at the etiology of disease but is also the goal of many anti-cancer therapeutics. Consequently, understanding this diverse and important group of processes is of paramount importance.
Frequently, scientists focus on the initially formed damage. To understand the consequences of DNA damage and its formation, our group begins its investigations by using the reductionist approach of organic chemistry. Generating a single damage site (“lesion”) within DNA simplifies studies on DNA damage and facilitates a deeper understanding. Using this strategy, our research group has discovered that in some instances the formation of damaged DNA is only the beginning.
For instance, some forms of damaged DNA inactivate repair enzymes. These discoveries provide insight into the chemical bases of drugs that kill cells by producing these forms of DNA damage and inspiration for designing inhibitors of such enzymes. Other DNA lesions react with the histone proteins within nucleosome core particles to produce more biologically deleterious forms of damage. Some of these processes that have been discovered in the test tube have been shown to occur in cells.
Overall, combining organic chemistry, biochemistry and cell biology to study damaged DNA facilitates elucidating these biologically important and complex processes, the discovery of previously unrecognized pathways, and the inspiration for designing molecules with useful biological activity.

Last Day of Semester Classes
2026-05-13, 2026-12-14 | WI

Study Day
2026-05-14, 2026-12-15 | WI

Final Exams
2026-05-15 - 2026-05-22, 2026-12-16 - 2026-12-23 | WI

Graduation
2026-05-17, 2026-12-20 | WI

Last Day of Summer Classes
2026-08-22 | WI

Instruction Begins
2026-09-02 | WI

Colloquium, Jennifer Herriges, Safety Seminar
2026-09-11 14:30 - 15:20 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Colloquium - Nikole Tamayo, UWM Chemistry
2026-09-18 14:30 - 15:20 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Colloquium, Dr. Partha Basu, Indiana University - Indianapolis
2026-10-02 14:30 - 15:20 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Guest Speaker Partha Basu, Indiana University - Indianapolis
2026-10-02 14:30 - 16:20 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Colloquium, Adeola Oderinde, UWM Chemistry
2026-10-23 14:30 - 15:20 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Colloquium, Nethyanji Premananda, UWM Chemistry
2026-11-20 14:30 - 15:20 | Chemistry Lecture Hall 110, 2000 E. Kenwood Boulevard, Milwaukee, WI, 53211, United States

Fall Recess
2026-11-25 - 2026-11-29 | WI
