Transcript 2013 Farewell Dinner Brochure - Texas Tech University Departments

Texas Tech University
Welch Summer Scholar Program
Farewell Dinner
Jon Thompson and Haley Bullecks
WSSP Directors, Texas Tech University
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Lubbock, TX 79409-1061
[email protected]
July 12, 2013
5:00 – 7:00 pm
Merket Alumni Center
Welch Summer Scholars 2013
Thank you for joining us at the farewell dinner for the
2013 Welch Summer Scholars.
The Welch Summer Scholar Program has been active
for 29 years, and has offered over 1300 high school
students in the state of Texas the opportunity to
participate in chemical research. The goal of the
program is to provide exceptional students the chance
to interact with professional researchers while
learning how to use state of the art equipment. We
hope the students will use the skills acquired
throughout the program to become more independent
and confident researchers.
The Welch Scholars and I would like to thank all the
faculty
mentors,
postdoctoral,
graduate
and
undergraduate research assistants and the Robert A.
Welch Foundation for making this summer possible!
Regards,
Jon Thompson and Haley Bullecks
WSSP Directors Texas Tech University
Collin Davda
Research Mentor:
Dr. Hase and Rui Sun
Project Title:
Investigating Reaction Dynamics in the F- and CH3I
Bimolecular Nucleophilic Substitution Reaction
Favorite Welch Moments:
Soccer/food with Ray/Lianxie/Patrick/Austin. “Why in
the world do I need to cite something for the MaxwellBoltzmann Distribution?!” “Greg, Greg and more
Greg” Lunch with Mr. Wu > Nap time, Korean Dramas
with Miranda, Guerrilla Nap Tactics. Finally finishing
the paper!
Special Thanks:
To Ray for dealing with my inordinately stupid
questions. To Dr. Hase for letting me dive right in and
for sharing Ray with me. To Miranda for teaching me
Excel. To Ms. Bullecks and Dr. Thompson for driving
us to movies and Wal-Mart and everything else.
Chaarushena (Chaaru) Deb
Research Mentor:
Dr. Thompson
Project Title:
Mapping of Global Soil Black Carbon Content
Favorite Welch Moments:
Happy cola, sweet tea, red velvet ice cream addictions.
Walking 7 miles round-trip to see fireworks on the 4th of July.
Food sciences lab trip. Kimberly’s impromptu birthday party.
Ridiculous wifi names, late nights, and cat spotting. McAlister’s
novel spellings of my name – “Shaloo”. Matching rings and
E=mc2. There were innumerable perfect moments during this
experience.
Special Thanks:
Dr. Thompson, Haley Bullecks, and Beth Daws for organizing
everything making this possible. Tingting and Yiyi for making
my lab-time more enjoyable. My fellow Welch scholars for
being an incredible, often dysfunctional family for the past five
weeks. I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of such a fantastic
program with such a wonderful group of people.
Gene Hsu
Kimberly Lai
Research Mentor:
Dr. Birney and Trideep Rajale
Research Mentor:
Dr. Findlater and Laci Singer
Project Title:
Synthesis of Thiophene-based Diimine Ligand
Favorite Welch Moments:
Laser tag and arcade time. Cards against humanity.
White rice at Maharaja’s.
Special Thanks:
Special thanks to Laci Singer for putting up with
organic chemistry even though she’s an inorganic
chemist. Union Bistro has the world’s best omelette.
Project Title:
Thermal [3,5] – Sigmatropic Rearrangements of Coumarin
Derivatives
Favorite Welch Moments:
Setting up internet hotspots. Red velvet cake ice cream!
Lifetime movies. Selfies of all kinds. SO.MUCH.FOOD. Abusive
unicorns. Musical puns. “True” names (David). The Welch
playlist! “I’m like a 1970s computer…No, you’re just an abacus.”
Dumb vs. ditzy. “Oh my God, I’m SO pretty!” “Dude, I’ve been
trying to tell you that this whole time!” And so much more ”
Special Thanks:
Welch Foundation and Summer Scholars Program for making this
experience possible. Haley, Dr. Thompson, and Beth for driving
us everywhere and taking good care of us. Dr. Birney and
Trideep Rajale for teaching me and keeping me safe in the lab.
My fellow Welch Scholars for making me laugh in the most
stressful of times. Oh and for making me cry on my birthday. 
My family, for being there when I needed them and for still being
there when I didn’t. Oh wait…I’ve always needed them.
Miranda McClellan
Sumarth Mehta
Research Mentor:
Dr. Findlater and Laci Singer
Research Mentor:
Dr. Hase and Jing Xie
Project Title:
Direct Dynamics Simulation of the [CH3-I-OH]Complex Ion Dissociation
Favorite Welch Moments:
Daily coffee breaks with the grad students. Late night
walks. Hanging out at Whataburger.
Special Thanks:
I’d like to thank Dr. Hase for allowing a mere high
school student into his lab and Jing for teaching me
everything and not freaking out when I almost deleted
all of our data.
Project Title:
Design and Synthesis of Crowns for Remediation of
Fracking Wastewater
Favorite Welch Moments:
Walking around campus, watching birds and cats,
fireworks on July 4th, eating copious amounts of ice
cream, monopolizing happy colas, funny wifi names,
caffeine, early morning IHOP.
Special Thanks:
Dr. Thompson and Haley Bullecks for organizing this
amazing experience, Beth Daws for being the coolest
person, Laci Singer for guiding me in research, all my
fellow Welch Scholars for making this a really fun
experience.
Emily Miaou
Jessica Musler
Research Mentor:
Dr. Birney and Trideep Rajale
Research Mentor:
Dr. Li and Dr. Guanghui An
Project Title:
Study of Thermal [3,5] – Pseudopericyclic Reactions of
Coumarin Derivitaves
Project Title:
GAP (Group-Assisted Purification) Synthesis of Biphalin
Favorite Welch Moments:
Chaaru’s falling backwards in her chair and Miranda’s
holding milk to her foot. Arcade games/unicorn.
Drive-in movies.
Special Thanks:
To all my fellow Welch Students – thank you for
newfound friendship, support, and tons of fun. To
Beth and Haley – thank you for being supportive and
acting as responsible adults when we couldn’t be. To
Trideep – thank you for teaching us everything we
know in lab and for being understanding.
Favorite Welch Moments:
When Chaaru’s name was spelled Shaloo. Zumba
class with Austin at the rec. Making fun of the
chemistry errors in Breaking Bad. Cards Against
Humanity.
Special Thanks:
Dr. Thompson and Haley for directing the program.
Beth for being awesome. Cole Seifert and Suresh
Pindi for editing my paper/poster. Dr. Li and Dr. An for
mentoring me. I had an incredible experience at
Welch learning about chemistry and college life.
Thank you for this opportunity!
Gautam Pappu
Katherine Xiu
Research Mentor:
Dr. Mechref and Ehwang Song
Research Mentor:
Dr. Quitevis and George Tamas
Project Title:
Branched and Linear Ionic Liquids: Synthesis and
Physical Measurements
Favorite Welch Moments:
Too many, lol
Special Thanks:
I would like to thank Dr. Quitevis for accepting me into
his group as well as the rest of the team for taking the
time to familiarize me with the lab.
Project Title:
Characterization of the Glycosylation Sites of HIV-1 gp120
Favorite Welch Moments:
Mean Girls. Spoonful. Getting all those tickets at Main Event.
And my two strikes! Buying all the ice cream at Murray. Also,
definitely walking to the rec. It’s a party every time!
Special Thanks:
I would like to thank Ehwang Song for all her knowledge and
generosity (and for her keys) and professor Mechref for his
lectures on mass spectrometry. I would also like to thank
everyone in Professor Mechref’s lab for putting up with my
knocking on the doors and letting me in every time. Good
luck to Shiyue on his research exam! Lots of love, from
Chastin/Hatherine (thank you McAlister’s).