Sustainable Chemistry Lab
We are studying reactions that would support a sustainable chemical enterprise. We are interested in using biomass-derived molecules as a replacement for petrochemicals to meet future chemical demand. Students get training in a variety of synthetic, isolation and characterization techniques.
Group News:
August 2023:
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June 2023: We welcome Jonathan W. to our team!
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June 2023: Enner leaves us for the summer to attend a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) @ _______ in Wisconsin. We look forward to welcoming him back in the Fall!
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June 2023: Emily C. starts a new position at MicroVention as a Product Development Scientist 1. Congrats, Emily!
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May 2023: Diem V. was accepted into USC's Dental School. Congrats, Diem!
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May 2023: Congratulations to our seniors who are now moving on to their Chemistry PhD programs! Paul L. will be moving across the US to the east coast for NYU. Fernando A. will attending UC Riverside, and Ivy W. will also be staying in SoCal at UC Irvine.
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May 2023: Fernando A., Pauline C., Paul L., and Ivy W. successfully finish their senior theses. Congrats on graduating!
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May 2023: Congratulations to Paul L. for being awarded the 2023 Dr. Chevy Goldstein Distinguished Undergraduate Research Award and Anais A. for receiving the Goldstein Award for the Graduate division!
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March 2023: Paul L.'s paper on microwave irradiation applied to DODH reactions gets accepted for publication in the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry. Congrats!!
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January 2023: Undergraduates Jasper Dang, Isha Kallingal, and Daniela Eskew, along with graduate student Bronwyn Horton join the group. Welcome!
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August 2022: Enner M. and Ivy W. gets accepted into the McNair Scholars program. Congrats!
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June 2022: Ivy W. and Blaise leave us for the summer to attend their Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) @ Northeastern University in Boston, MA and _________, respectively. We look forward to welcoming them back in the Fall!
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May 2022: Congratulations to Eunice C., Israel S., and Haruka T. for their Chemistry PhD admissions! Eunice and Israel will be joining USC's 2022 Cohort and Haruka will be attending University of Utah's 2022 Cohort.
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May 2022: Congratulations to Ivy W. for being awarded the 2022 Dr. Chevy Goldstein Distinguished Undergraduate Research Award!
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April 2022: Andrea M., Eunice C., Ivy W., Haruka T., and Chris L. present their work at the Spring 2022 ACS National Conference in San Diego, California.
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January 2022: The lab welcomes undergraduates Alex Cartolan and Emily Corona as well as graduate student Anais Alvarado into the group!
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SCCUR?
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August 2021: Fernando Alfaro, Willie Tang, and Jerome Torres join our team. Welcome!
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August 2021: Haruka and Ivy present their research at the SoCal Undergraduate Chemistry Research Symposium at UC Irvine.
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June 2021: The lab opens for some in-person activity as Paul Lam, Chris Leon, and Paul M. joins our group!
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January 2021: We welcome Eunice Castro and Ivy Wang on to our team!
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January 2021: Research meetings start up again as we prepare to transition back to in-person activities on campus!
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August 2020: We start our first-ever fully virtual semester. Research restart discussions are underway.
August 2020: Mathew presents his paper at the CARS symposium.
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July 2020: Andy successfully defends his MS Thesis. Congrats Andy!! He is off to Texas to start in the PhD program at UT Dallas.
July 2020: Brandon has been admitted to the Dentistry program at USC. Congrats Brandon!!
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July 2020: Tristhan starts a position at AbstraxTech. Congrats Tristhan!!
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June 2020: Mathew Serna joins us as part of the SURE program.
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June 2020: The group publishes its second research article in the New Journal of Chemistry. Congratulations to Tim, Israel and Maiko!
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May 2020: Stephenie secures admission at UCLA Medical school. Way to go Stephenie!!
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May 2020: Dr. John is a Co-PI on a CSU-ARI grant ($19,000) along with Dr. Gabriel Davidov-Pardo and Dr. Xu Yang from the Food and Nutrition Science department. Thank you CSU-ARI for supporting our efforts!
May 2020: Dr. John is a Co-PI on a SIRG grant ($15,000) along with Dr. Gabriel Davidov-Pardo and Dr. Xu Yang from the Food and Nutrition Science department.
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May 2020: Paula successfully finishes her Senior Thesis project. Congrats on graduation!!
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May 2020: Israel wins the 2020 Undergraduate Alexrad-Goldstein Research Award. Congratulations!!
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March 2020: The research lab shuts down temporarily due to the CoVID-19 pandemic but we continue to work remotely. Paula and Andy miss their chance to present at the spring ACS conference.
March 2020: Celine will be joining the PhD program at Colorado State University and Andy is going to UT Dallas for his PhD. Congratulations to both of you!!
March 2020: Dr. John contributed a chapter on "Dehydrative Decarbonylation" to the book "Organometallic Chemistry in Industry: A Practical Approach" published by Wiley.
Editors: Thomas J. Colacot and Carin C. C. Johansson Seechurn.
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February 2020: Dr. John gave a talk at the "Catalysis and Chemical Engineering" conference held at Los Angeles, CA.
January 2020: We welcome Diem, Haruka and Andrew to the research group!!
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December 2019: Congratulations to Tristhan, Celine, and Stephenie for finishing their Senior Thesis projects!!
November 2019: Nate successfully defended his Masters Thesis. Congrats Nate!!
November 2019: The group attended SCCUR at CSU, San Marcos. Celine was one of the recipients of the Exemplary Oral Talk Awards. Congrats Celine!!
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September 2019: Dr. John is one of the recipients of the ECRA award! We welcome Saron and Nhan to the research group.
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August 2019: Our research on developing vanadium catalyzed oxidative cleavage reactions was funded ($147,000) by the CSU-Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) for 2019-2021 period. Thank you CSU-ARI!
Title: "Catalytic Processes for Value-added Products from Lignocellulosic Agricultural Waste"
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August 2019: Ibrahim, Paula, Tristhan, Israel and Christine gave talks at the 4th PUICS at Pomona College. We welcome Joshua to the research group.
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August 2019: Several group members presented their research at CARS Symposium, Cal Poly Pomona.
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July 2019: Dr. John presented our research at the "Biomass to Biobased Chemicals & Materials" Gordon Conference in Newry, Maine.
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June 2019: Stephenie & Christine presented research posters at the "National Organic Symposium" held at Indiana University, Bloomington.
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June 2019: Welcome to Ibrahim Abboud who joined the research group as a summer researcher from Citrus College. Thank you SURE program and OUR for support.
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May 2019: We say goodbye to Maiko and Tim as they leave for their PhD programs! Maiko will be starting PhD at University of Michigan, and Tim is going to UC Riverside.
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May 2019: Maiko, Consuelo, Tim & Skyler submitted their Senior Thesis. Congratulations!!
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May 2019: Christine is the recipient of the 2019 Goldstein Undergraduate Research Award. Congrats!!
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April 2019: Tim presented his research at the ACS National Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
April 2019: Andranik & Skyler presented their work at SCURC-2019 (Mount St. Mary's University).
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April 2019: Consuelo, Maiko & Celine presented at the 2019 College of Science Research Symposium.
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March 2019: Consuelo, Andranik & Skyler gave research talks at the 7th Annual Student RSCA Conference.
January 2019: The first research paper from the group is now published in the journal Inorganic Chemistry Communications. Congratulations Christine!!
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November 2018: The group attended the SCCUR-2018 at Pasadena City College. Garrit, Tim, Jamie & Maiko presented on their research.
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September 2018: Maiko and Consuelo were awarded the LSAMP Research Fellowships. Congrats! Thank you LSAMP for support.
August 2018: Jamie, Garrit & Tim gave talks at the 3rd Annual Pomona Undergraduate Inorganic Chemistry Symposium.
August 2018: Jamie and Garrit gave talks at the Creative Activities and Research Symposium at Cal Poly Pomona.
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June 2018: Our research on Molybdenum catalyzed Deoxydehydration reaction was funded ($ 240,000) by the National Science Foundation. Thank you, NSF-CAT program!
Title: "RUI: Evaluation of Ligand Effects in Molybdenum Catalyzed Deoxydehydration Reactions"
June 2018: SPICE grant: Dr. John & Dr. Liu were awarded $25k to acquire a SMART Flash Chromatography system.
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April 2018: Tim (undergraduate) and Nate (graduate) won the 2018 Goldstein Distinguished Student Research Awards. Congrats!!
March 2018: Nate presented at the ACS National Meeting in Louisiana with support from CPP-OUR.
February 2018: Grand opening of the Cal Poly Pomona Crystallography Co-op. The Bruker D8 Venture Diffractometer was made possible by a Department of Defense grant ($ 599,007). Dr. John is a co-PI on this grant.