Green Chemistry @ MUN

The holidays are coming up and people are excited to be festive after a dreary & rainy November! To start off December, Megan Fitzgerald organized a cookie exchange on Monday where we enjoyed some cookies for breakfast and we were able to take lots home with us. Everyone brought a batch of cookies which people could choose from, almost like a cookie potluck!

The next day, Fran and Chris invited us all to the Pantry for a holiday lunch! The paninis were really good and we look forward to visiting the Pantry again, a hidden gem that’s just a short walk behind the Core Science Facility.

I think most of us are looking forward to a break after a busy Fall semester. Some students are leaving within the next few weeks to head back home to spend time with their families during the holidays. The University is officially closed from Tuesday, December 24th through to Thursday, January 2nd.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope everyone gets the chance to relax and celebrate!

The month of September marks the beginning of a new semester at MUN, which means new graduate students have joined the group! We would like to welcome the following students to the lab:

Kate Hanrahan is a 1st year MSc student supervised by Prof. Kozak and she completed her BSc (Hons) at MUN! We would like to congratulate her for winning joint first-prize in the 2024 CIC Macromolecular Science and Engineering Division Undergraduate Thesis Competition! 💖🏆

Emily Wiseman is a 1st year MSc student supervised by Prof. Kerton & Prof. Mike Katz and she completed her BSc (Hons) at MUN! 🐚💙

Megan Graham is a 1st year MSc student supervised by Prof. Kerton and she completed her BSc (Hons) at University of Western Ontario!

Meghan McKeeman is a 1st year MSc student supervised by Prof. Kerton and she completed her BSc (Hons) at Queen’s University!

At the end of the month on September 25th, Sachel & Sarah co-organized this year’s Global Conversation on Sustainability! Multiple members of the lab presented their research as a 5 min talk, including Cyler, Olivia, Megan F., Megan G., Emily, and Kate. We really appreciate their participation in this year’s event 💚 Check out the post before this for some more pictures regarding the event!

With a large research group and lots going on in the lab, stay tuned for lots of upcoming updates this semester! 👩‍🔬🔬📝

Thank you to the organizers and presenters at yesterday’s event celebrating the anniversary of the UN SDGs being established, and describing how chemistry plays an important role in achieving many of them

As the Fall semester approaches rapidly, it is time to reflect on a busy summer. Thank you to Shelby and Rudrakshi for working with us as Mitacs Globalink Interns – we hope you enjoyed your time in Newfoundland. Welcome to Suphatta, a visiting graduate student from Khon Kaen University, Thailand.

We look forward to Cyler returning from a JSPS-Mitacs funded summer visit to Kyoto University, Japan.

Matthew attended the Crystallography Workshop organized by the CNC-IUCr and the CSC in Winnipeg. Olivia attended the ACS GCI Green and Sustainable Chemistry Summer School in Vermont. Sarah, Mikhailey, Dr. Kerton and Dr. Kozak attended a number of conferences around the world including the ACS GCE in Atlanta.

Now back to paper and proposal writing, lab work and teaching 😀

Apologies for not updating the website for a long time. Here is a photo from the end of the semester. We are looking forward to welcoming some mitacs-funded students in the next few weeks and also traveling for conferences and workshops. Have a great summer everyone!

It’s that bitter sweet time of year when some of our visiting students head back to their home labs after time with us. Thank you to Dahryn, from UWI-St. Augustine, for visiting us via the Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program.

We have had 4 undergraduates working with us this summer including 2 international students via Mitacs Globalink.

Members of the group have been attending several conferences including the U. of Toronto Green Chemistry Initiative Symposium, the CSC in Vancouver, the GCE conference in Long Beach and the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress in the Hague. Congratulations to Wynnry on her poster prize at the GCI Symposium.

Closer to home, we have been to St. Vincents Beach to see the whales, had a group BBQ and had visitors to the department including Prof. Kenichiro Itami (Job Lecturer from Nagoya University).

Wishing everyone a peaceful time! Our group has had a busy semester. The faculty SEA conference has been happening this week. Sara Cheema gave her Masters Research Seminar on Tuesday – the photo includes most group members and our wonderful collaborator Dr. Stockmann. We look forward to seeing many of our friends over the coming months and at various conferences around the world.

Below is a photo of Dr. Kozak wearing one of his new shirts from Party Puffin Apparel, https://www.partypuffinapparel.com/, watch out for more of these cool shirts over the Spring and Summer

The profs will be busy grading exams soon so an early happy holiday to friends, alumni and group member

Thank you to the MUN Chemistry Society who took new photos of the Green Chemistry and Catalysis Group, Dr. Kerton’s group and Dr. Kozak’s group last week (as part of their fundraiser)