Chemistry and biochemistry majors Kaiden Salaz ’26, Alex Dow ’26, Ian Becher ’26, Saki’a Rivers ’26, Maddie Bridges ’26, and Kayla Moody ’26 presented posters and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey gave an invited talk at the American Chemical Society Southeast/Southwest Regional Meeting in Orlando, FL in October. Student presentations resulted from research done with Massey, Professor of Chemistry Emily Niemeyer, and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Chelsea Massaro, who also attended the conference.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey was awarded a Launching Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This $250,000 research grant will support her lab’s research over the next two years, studying the effects of native environment and external stressors on diatom light-harvesting.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey gave a talk at the American Chemical Society Spring 2025 national meeting in San Diego on her recently published work with chemistry graduate Lexi Fantz ’21 on low energy chlorophylls in cyanobacterial light-harvesting.

Chemistry majors Jodi Glenn-Millhouse ’25, Kaiden Salaz ’25, Annalina Slover ’26, and Carolyn Waldie ’26 presented posters on their research on how photosynthetic diatoms adapt their light-harvesting under light and magnesium stress at the American Chemical Society Spring 2025 national meeting in San Diego. Their presentations resulted from research done with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sara Massey and chemistry graduate Lexi Fantz ’21 published an article titled “Functional Connectivity of Red Chlorophylls in Cyanobacterial Photosystem I Revealed by Fluence-Dependent Transient Absorption” in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. They used ultrafast laser spectroscopy to show energy transfer between low energy chlorophyll sites on the picosecond timescale. This work was done in collaboration with researchers at Swarthmore College, National Institutes of Health, the University of Chicago, and the University of Sheffield. The article can be read here.