zarzar lab
Research Group in the Department of Chemistry at Penn State University
July 2024
Yutong and Quynh were honored with Second Year Graduate Student Awards
August 2023
Kueyoung won a top poster prize in the Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division at the Fall 2023 ACS Meeting
April 2023
Malak was recognized with a second year graduate student award
October 2022
Kueyoung won 1st place in the undergraduate research poster exhibition for the physical sciences
May 2022
Ciera was recognized with a Service Award from the Department of Chemistry
April 2022
Nate was awarded a fellowship from the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium
January 2022
Lauren, Malak, and Binish all won First Year Graduate Student Awards! Lauren and Binish received the Braucher Award and Malak received the Geiger Award.
July 2021
Sonic and three other grad students volunteered at a daycare (C3 Kids) to do three interactive science demos with the kids and teachers. The demos were: Lava Lamp, Structural color bubbles, and Ice fishing.
July 2021
Ciera, Sonic, Rebecca, and Shannon led a virtual outreach activity in the Make it Matter summer camp to teach campers cool aspects of color and emulsions
May 2021
Rebecca and team worked to film a series of demos relating to surface and liquid chemistry for the Young Women in STEM Workshop for girls between the 5th and 10th grades. Activities range from fun, colorful demonstrations of diffusion to boat racing driven by surface tension changes.
March 2021
Caleb was honored with the Newnham Award for Research Excellence from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State
December 2020
Yoshi has been selected as the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences student marshal for the University's Fall 2020 commencement ceremony. News story
June 2020
Nabila won second place at the PPG Elevator Pitch Competition for a pitch on her research related to laser direct writing
April 2020
Amy has been selected for a Benkovic Summer Undergraduate Research Award
January 2020
Shannon McGee was awarded the $4K Continuing Graduate Student TA Award in Spring 2020 to continue her proposed project from Fall ‘19 of creating safety and technique videos for organic lab courses CHEM 213W and 203 with a heavy focus on instrumentation, sample preparation, and spectral analysis.
October 2019
Ashley and Sonic showcased their work on iridescent structural color at the Science Writers conference.
August 2019
Congrats to Wilanyi for a great REU poster presentation
July 2019
We ran a session in the 2019 Make it Matter summer camp and taught students about surfactants and emulsions
April 2019
Yoshi was awarded the George W. Brindley Award in Nonmetallic Crystal Chemistry from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
March 2019
Yoshi was awarded an Erickson Discovery Grant
November 2018
Lauren was selected for an Army-ECASE (Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers). Penn State News story
July 2018
Caleb volunteered at the Central PA Arts fest running a booth making Oobleck (mix of cornstarch and water) demonstrating how certain fluids can have non-Newtonian viscosities. There were over 1000 kids in attendance that day.
July 2018
Sonic volunteered as a science mentor for BBVS (Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services) Summer Academy at Penn State. Here, he is mentoring students in a forensic science activity to analyze evidence gathered at a mock crime scene. He also won an award for this involvement as a science mentor.
April 2018
Sonic volunteered with the MRSEC at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in DC. He demonstrated light lithography using acrylic stencils made using a laser cutter and solar paper
October 2017
Cody's poster was voted top 5 at PSU's Materials Day
March 2024
Kueyoung was awarded an SACP Undergraduate Award from The Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh,
July 2023
The group led hands-on activities exploring interactions of light and matter for the Make it Matter summer camp for high school students held at Penn State
April 2023
Nate received a Chemistry Gradate Student Leadership Award
September 2022
Shannon won third place prize for her presentation on laser writing of catalysts at the ACS Meeting in Chicago in the Energy and Fuels Division
May 2022
Wangyang was awarded the Harry and Catharine Dalalian Graduate Fellowship in Organic Chemistry from the Eberly College of Science at Penn State
April 2022
Sam was awarded an Honorable Mention for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
December 2021
Mission Materials Science is finally live. What a great collaboration between the PSU MRSEC and the Franklin Institute. Check out "Light and Bubbles" especially!
July 2021
Alex received a TA award to support his work on designing a new biochemistry-oriented version of Chem 112. Alex will also be designing review modules for incoming students covering important Chem 110B concepts in the form of practice problems, informational videos, and review texts.
July 2021
Sonic led an outreach event alled "Summer Scientist". It was an "in-person" outreach event that happened in partnership with the CRPR (Centre Region Parks and Rec) where we rented a park pavilion to have fun guided chemistry demos for 45 mins.
We did lava lamps, ice fishing, and made ice cream!
May 2021
Sonic was selected for a Service Award in recognition of his many contrbutions to outreach within the chemistry department
February 2021
The Zarzar lab received support from the NSF CAREER program for their research on laser direct writing
November 2020
Lauren was among the 36 scientists and eningeers selected for a 2020 AFOSR Young Investigator Award
May 2020
Rebecca was awarded a NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC) Graduate Fellowship
March 2020
Leo was selected for an Erickson Discovery Grant
December 2019
Congrats to Ciera who received a 2018-2019 Chemistry Graduate Student Teaching Award
July 2019
Congrats to Ashley on her McNair Scholars research presentation
June 2019
Putting on 'Sweet Science' themed demos for participants at the 50th annual PA Special Olympics. Many students from our group signed up to volunteer at different times throughout the day.
April 2019
Amy wins 1st place in the Materials Visualization Competition and the Robert E. Newnham Award for Research Excellence
March 2019
Alex was selected for the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award from the Graduate School
November 2018
At Exploration-U in Bellfonte, we showcased the properties of interfacial tension of liquids using detergents and emulsions and conducted boat races powered by spreading soap films. The event was attended by several hundred elementary-aged students and parents from the area along with other demonstrators from across STEM departments at PSU.
July 2018
The Zarzar group designed and led activities at the Make It Matter summer camp at Penn State. The activies taught high school students about surface tension, surfactants, and emulsions, and how that fundamental science relates to the current research on responsive fluids in the lab.
May 2018
Ashley was selected for the ACS Scholars Program
April 2018
Lauren, who is one of the directors of WISDOM, took part in a local outreach event to discuss women's participation in STEM
December 2023
Quynh won the I AM STEM speaking competition and will be the keynote speaker at the ENVISION STEM Career Day Supporting Young Women
June 2023
Yutong was a top 5 finalist in 2023 PPG Elevator Pitch Competition
March 2023
Kueyoung was awarded a 2023 Goldwater Scholarship
June 2022
Wangyang, Krista, Nate, Malak, Lauren, and Shannon designed and led an activity on light-matter interactions at the Make it Matter summer camp
May 2022
Lauren was recognized with a 2022 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
March 2022
Caleb was honored with the Coppola Graduate Student Excellence Award for Service and Leadership from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
November 2021
Nate and Krista were honored with Chemistry Graduate Student Teaching Awards
July 2021
Krista was awarded a TA award to implement a new redox chemistry lab in CHEM 111 that would incorporate a real-world application. Specifically, Krista will develop a forensic chemistry lab framed as a murder mystery using transition metals and DNA samples in order to foster student engagement and understanding of a challenging subject.
May 2021
In the State College Graduate Women in Science Chapter (GWIS), Ciera was elected Co-chair for the Young Women in STEM Workshops along with Ryan Myers for the 2021-2022 academic year.
June 2020
Sonic participated in an outreach project with other PSU students in which they created videos of themselves sharing a talent or greeting and produced it into a video collage for residents at nursing homes. Their efforts were highlighted in this story.
May 2020
Ashley was honored with the Peter Craig Breen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Chemistry Research
October 2019
Lauren was awarded a Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research award at Materials Day 2019
October 2019
Our color-shifting technology won the People's Choice award at the Invent Penn State Tech Tournament
August 2019
Shannon McGee was awarded a fall 2019 $4k Continuing Graduate TA award for her proposal to create lab technique and safety videos that would be uploaded on Canvas prior to the lab period for organic 203 and 213W lab courses. These videos would demonstrate relevant safety practices and techniques to the students for the upcoming lab period before they arrive so they can be more prepared and see how a more experienced TA approaches the experiment.
July 2019
We shared "Structural Colors of Everyday Materials" with visitors to the PA Arts Fest at the Art of Discovery Booth
April 2019
Lauren was selected for the Unilever Award from the ACS Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division.
April 2019
Caleb wins 2nd place in the Materials Visualization Competition and 3rd in the MatSE poster competition
February 2019
Our group's paper is published in Nature and featured on the cover. See the PSU News article and C&EN video
October 2018
Lauren was selected for an ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator grant
July 2018
Lauren was selected for the ARO Young Investigator award.
April 2018
Lauren was selected for a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award
March 2018
Caleb was awarded a fellowship from the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium