The York Chemistry Department had a great showing at the 37th Southern Ontario Undergraduate Student Chemistry Conference (SOUSCC). Eight students and three faculty travelled to Brock University in St. Catharines on Saturday, March 28, to take part in this annual conference. The SOUSCC gives the opportunity for senior undergraduate chemistry students to present the results of research completed in research project courses.
The conference attracts the best and brightest graduating chemistry students from all over Ontario every year. The students gain valuable experience in making a formal research presentation and defending their results to an audience of peers. It is also a chance for a bit of friendly competition with chemistry departments showcasing their new talents and students competing for presentation awards.
The students from York enjoyed great success in this regard. The first three awards announced that night went to York University. It was a clean sweep of the analytical chemistry section of the conference with first, second and third prizes going to students from York. The students, their presentations and the award winners are as follows:
- Linda Jugowiec, with Professor Derek Wilson, received first prize in analytical chemistry for "Microfluidics – Ultra-Rapid Desalting Laminar Flow Microfluidic Device".
- Lusia Sepiashvili, with Wilson, received second prize in analytical chemistry for "Site-Specific Analysis of Hydrogen-Deuterium Scrambling".
- Peter Liuni, with Wilson, received third prize in analytical chemistry for "A Chip-Based Proteolytic Reactor for ESI-MS Analysis".
- Shraddha Brahmbhatt, with Professor Valeria Tsoukanova, presented "Area Expansion of Poly(Ethylene Glycol) Grafted Phosphocholine Monolayers Upon Insulin Binding".
- Jennifer Farmer, with Professors Pierre Potvin and Barry Lever, presented "Electrocatalysis of Carbon Dioxide Reduction by Ruthenium Quinonediimine Complexes".
- Susan Suk-Kyung Jeung, with Professors Sylvie Morin and Gerald Audette, presented "Modification of Au(III) Surfaces with Mixed Thiol SAMS as Templates to Form K122 Nanotubes".
- Ekaterina Olkhov, with Wilson, presented "Measurement of Kinetic Isotope Effect Using Time Resolved Electrospray Mass Spectrometry".
- So-Hyun Park, with Morin, presented the poster titled "Preparation of Photoanodes from Nanocrystalline SnO2 and TiO2 Semiconductors for the Fabrication of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells".
Submitted to YFile by Professor Rob McLaren, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science & Engineering