Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Sep 2

Professor Alexander Deiters wins 2026 ACS Cope Scholar Award. Read more about the award and Alexander Deiters here: zurl.co/gKR2p

1 3 3

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Aug 18

Congrats to Elizabeth Shiby of the Waldeck group for recieving a PQI fellowship. Her explores structure and chiral-induced spin selectivity property relationships to identify the important features necessary for developing a more comprehensive understanding of this phenomenon.

3

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Aug 13

Congrats to Ann Marie Paterno from the Millstone group for receiving the PQI Fellowship. She researches how molecular interactions and reaction conditions influence nanoparticle outcomes, adopting a photocatalytic approach to characterize intermediate species as they evolve.

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Aug 12

Congratulations to our 2025 Safford Award recipients. A luncheon was held on August 7, 2025, to honor these amazing graduate teaching assistants at the University of Pittsburgh – Department of Chemistry. Thank you for making such a difference in our student’s education.

2

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Jul 25

Grace Fleury (‘24) is an alum of the Floreancig group and current NSF GRFP fellow at Princeton University. Read more about her time at Pitt and what she’s been up to since graduating here: zurl.co/NZsjg

2

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Jul 17

In this paper from JPCB, the Saxena group establishes Q‑band double‑quantum coherence ESR as a method for measuring distances between nitroxide spin labels in proteins at physiologically relevant concentrations. Read more: zurl.co/pXRCx”

2

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Jul 17

The Wipf group and collaborators studied the antitumor efficacy of 1,2,4‑triazole VCP/p97 allosteric inhibitors which showed low-nanomolar potency in mouse models. Read more in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry: zurl.co/RpGf4

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Jul 2

Baily Ford, a member of the Chong group, researches algorithms to sample the conformational space of biomolecules. Read more about his research and his experiences at Pitt here: zurl.co/TS7Bb

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Jun 16

The Rosi group and collaborators studied the differences in iodine adsorption in Zn(II) and Co(II)-based metal-organic frameworks. Read more here: zurl.co/b8g4m

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Jun 6

Recently, the Saxena group developed a rigid, nucleotide-independent Cu(II)-based spin label that enables precise measurement of DNA conformation and flexibility using EPR spectroscopy. Read more in JACS: zurl.co/QFmBZ

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Jun 5

Using electronic structure calculations, the Jordan group characterized low energy isomers of different classes of the H+(H20)21 cluster. Read more in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A: zurl.co/ITTVP

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Jun 5

The Wang group has a new review paper out on advancements in regio- and stereoselective synthesis of enantioenriched propargylic and allenic derivatives of silicon, germanium, and tin. Read more in Chemistry – An Asian Journal: zurl.co/fjLhF

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 30

Congratulations to the Transue Lab on their first Journal of the American Chemical Society Publication! Read the publication here: zurl.co/y1zJC and read more about the Transue Lab and their work here: zurl.co/vRbaM

2

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 29

Congratulations to Dominic Brazzle, who just received The Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh's College Chemistry Award. Read more about Dominic, and the work is his doing here: zurl.co/xxZ0u

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 22

Peng Liu’s group worked with researchers from UW Madison to investigate silver catalysts and their non-covalent interactions in asymmetric C‒H amidation reactions. Read more in Chem Catalysis: zurl.co/cQGo8

3

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 22

This month in Science, Peng Liu’s group and collaborators at UCSF and UCSB designed proteins with histidine-ligated porphyrin and heme ligands which have the potential to become ecofriendly catalysts. Read more: zurl.co/DPkXC

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 21

Check out this new paper from the Rosi and Waldeck groups in ACS Nano on investigating the magnetic properties of the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect using atomic force: zurl.co/GaYBD

1 3

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 15

Christian Knox, a graduate student in the Peng Liu group, has been selected by the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program to conduct on-site research at the Brookhaven national laboratory. Read more about the work he will be doing here: zurl.co/t6M2f

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 7

Peng Liu’s group collaborated with researchers from Emory to investigate how HFIP influences the enantioselectivity of cyclopropanation reactions catalyzed by chiral dirhodium tetracarboxylates. Read more in the Journal of the American Chemical Society: zurl.co/o0JBu

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 6

In this piece in Bioanalysis, Stephanie Rankin-Turner outlines the advantages – and challenges - of adopting ambient mass spectrometry in bioanalytic laboratories: zurl.co/vpyOL

Adopting ambient ionization mass spectrometry into bioanalytical laboratories

Published in Bioanalysis (Vol. 17, No. 7, 2025)

zurl.co

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · May 6

Check out David Waldeck's new collaborative paper investigating photon emission from trivalent lanthanide cations and selecting dopants for the next generation of LEDs and other optoelectronic devices. Read more in Accounts of Chemical Research: zurl.co/jaBsh

2

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Apr 15

Meet Marcus Van Engen a fifth-year PhD student in the Floreancig lab who is working on the total synthesis of antibiotic Neomycin B. Read more about Marcus: zurl.co/WwusB

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Apr 15

This month in JACS, Peng Liu and collaborators at UCSB report that P450 variants produced by directed evolution enable catalytic enantioselective Smiles rearrangements. Read more: zurl.co/0XmYp

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Apr 14

Congratulations to Peng Liu on getting another paper in Nature! In collaboration with Gregory Fu from the California Institute of Technology, they propose a catalytic method to convert racemic mixtures of alkyl halides into a single enantiomer. Read more: zurl.co/iEL6Q

1

Pitt Chemistry @pittchemistry.bsky.social · Apr 8

This week, we’re highlighting Zoe Soilis, a 5th year student in Nat Rosi’s lab who is researching the photophysical properties of MOFs. Read more about Zoe’s research and her experience at Pitt at zurl.co/ajUAj

1 6