Graduate Research Highlights

The Department of Chemistry offers a collaborative research environment where graduate students take part in cutting edge research. These highlights showcase the creativity, rigor and impact of our graduate community.

Featured research projects

“I investigate how changes in cellular lipids influence cell function. My work focuses on understanding how ceramide accumulation at the ER promotes cellular senescence and identifying the proteins that mediate this response.”
10/14/26
Shweta Chitkara
“My research focuses on understanding nonradiative energy relaxation dynamics in dense manifolds of excited states in fullerenes and endohedral fullerenes using nonadiabatic molecular dynamics.”
10/8/26
Kosar Yasin
“My research explores advancing carbon capture and conversion as well as energy storage. By implementing various electroanalytical techniques, I investigate electrochemical behavior and interfacial processes in systems including sodium-metal batteries.”
10/6/26
Shwetha Prakash
Designing and characterizing semiconductor–molecular heterostructures for photocatalytic CO2 reduction, with an emphasis on charge-transfer dynamics and band alignment.
10/20/26
Udani Wijethunga
Developing electrolyte additives and studying their influence on the performance of liquid and solid-state rechargeable batteries (Na-ion and Li-ion).
2/27/26
Pratahdeep Gogoi
Structure-guided design and functional characterization of small-molecule inhibitors targeting oncogenic kinases.
2/27/26
Surbhi Chitnis
Exploring porphyrins and tellurium chromophores as catalysts for small molecule activation.
2/27/26
Nayanika Kalita
Designing, synthesizing and analyzing paramagnetic Fe(III) and Co(II)-based macrocyclic complexes and metal-organic polyhedral cages as potential MRI probes, with the aim of improving T1 and paraSHIFT sensitivity for magnetic resonance imaging.
2/27/26
Aruni Dissanayake