Meghana Nittala ’24 and Sanjana Nittala ’24 each gave an oral presentation on their research on how photosynthetic diatoms adapt their light-harvesting under light and iron stress at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium (GCURS) hosted by Rice University in October. Both of their talks were recognized with “Outstanding Presentation in Physical Chemistry” awards. Their presentations resulted from research done with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey.

Sanjana Nittala ’24 gave a talk titled “The Emergence of the F710 State Due to Iron Stress on Diatom P. tricornutum Light-harvesting Complexes” at the Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium (FURS) at UT-Austin in September. She was awarded the Best Presentation Award in Chemistry. Her talk resulted from research done with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey presented a poster titled “The light-harvesting response of the diatom P. tricornutum to external stressors varies by native environment” at the Photosynthesis Gordon Research Conference, held July 23-28 in Newry, Maine. She conducted the research with Yusuf Buhari ’23, Sanjana Nittala ’24, Meghana Nittala ’24, and Noor Nazeer ’24.

Southwestern University was well represented at the American Chemical Society Spring 2023 meeting in Indianapolis, IN. Five students presented a total of three posters at the meeting: Yusuf Buhari ’23, Holly Lawson ’23, Sanjana Nittala ’24, Meghana Nittala ’24, and Noor Nazeer ’24. This work was done collaboratively with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey and Professor of Chemistry Emily Niemeyer.

Southwestern University was well represented at the American Chemical Society Spring 2022 meeting in San Diego, California. Eight students presented a total of six posters at the meeting: Yusuf Buhari ’23, Sean Calvert ’22, Gabrielle Cano ’22, Natalie Gierat ’22, Rhoda Hijazi ’22, Jared McCormack ’22, Neha Momin ’22, and Ethan Shilgalis ’22. This work was done collaboratively with Associate Professor of Chemistry Mike Gesinski, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey, and Professor of Chemistry Emily Niemeyer.