Kueyoung won 1st place in the undergraduate research poster exhibition for the physical sciences

Ciera was recognized with a Service Award from the Department of Chemistry

Nate was awarded a fellowship from the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium

Lauren, Malak, and Binish all won First Year Graduate Student Awards! Lauren and Binish received the Braucher Award and Malak received the Geiger Award. 

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.

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

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.

Caleb was honored with the Newnham Award for Research Excellence from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State

Yoshi has been selected as the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences student marshal for the University's Fall 2020 commencement ceremony. News story

Nabila won second place at the PPG Elevator Pitch Competition for a pitch on her research related to laser direct writing

Amy has been selected for a Benkovic Summer Undergraduate Research Award

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.

Ashley and Sonic showcased their work on iridescent structural color at the Science Writers conference.

Our group's research is featured in WIRED

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.  

Congrats to Ashley on her McNair Scholars research presentation

Amy wins 1st place in the Materials Visualization Competition and the Robert E. Newnham Award for Research Excellence

Alex was selected for the Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award from the Graduate School

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.

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.

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.

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

Cody's poster was voted top 5 at PSU's Materials Day

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

Wangyang was awarded the Harry and Catharine Dalalian Graduate Fellowship in Organic Chemistry from the Eberly College of Science at Penn State

Sam was awarded an Honorable Mention for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 

Mission Materials Science is finally live. What a great collaboration between the PSU MRSEC and the Franklin Institute. Check out "Light and Bubbles" especially!

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.

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!

Sonic was selected for a Service Award in recognition of his many contrbutions to outreach within the chemistry department

The Zarzar lab received support from the NSF CAREER program for their research on laser direct writing

Lauren was among the 36 scientists and eningeers selected for a 2020 AFOSR Young Investigator Award 

Rebecca was awarded a NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium (PSGC) Graduate Fellowship

Leo was selected for an Erickson Discovery Grant

Congrats to Ciera who received a 2018-2019 Chemistry Graduate Student Teaching Award

Lauren was selected as one of the 2019 Packard Fellows

Lauren was selected as one of C&EN's "Talented 12". Link to article

We ran a session in the 2019 Make it Matter summer camp and taught students about surfactants and emulsions

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.

Yoshi was awarded the George W. Brindley Award in Nonmetallic Crystal Chemistry from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Yoshi was awarded an Erickson Discovery Grant

Lauren was selected for an Army-ECASE (Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers). Penn State News story

Lauren was selected for the ARO Young Investigator award.

Ashley was selected for the ACS Scholars Program

Lauren was selected for a 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award

Wangyang, Krista, Nate, Malak, Lauren, and Shannon designed and led an activity on light-matter interactions at the Make it Matter summer camp

Lauren was recognized with a 2022 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award

Caleb was honored with the Coppola Graduate Student Excellence Award for Service and Leadership from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Nate and Krista were honored with Chemistry Graduate Student Teaching Awards

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.

We're getting involved in ChemTalk. Check it out!

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.

Rebecca's review article was selected for the cover of Chemical Physics Reviews

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. 

Ashley was honored with the Peter Craig Breen Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Chemistry Research

Lauren was selected for a Sloan Research Fellowship

Lauren was awarded a Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research award at Materials Day 2019

Our color-shifting technology won the People's Choice award at the Invent Penn State Tech Tournament

Congrats to Wilanyi for a great REU poster presentation

We shared "Structural Colors of Everyday Materials" with visitors to the PA Arts Fest at the Art of Discovery Booth

Caleb wins 2nd place in the Materials Visualization Competition and 3rd in the MatSE poster competition

Lauren was selected for the Unilever Award from the ACS Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division.

Our group's paper is published in Nature and featured on the cover. See the PSU News article and C&EN video

Lauren was selected for an ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator grant

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.

Lauren, who is one of the directors of WISDOM, took part in a local outreach event to discuss women's participation in STEM

Caleb was awarded a fellowship from the NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium