Graduate Students

The Chemistry Department gathered at the beginning of the month to celebrate two of our graduate students who completed their PhD defenses this semester – Dr. Sean McDarby and Dr. Jozafina Milicaj.

Boston Cream Cake for Sean McDarby

Dr. Michelle Personick delivers a few remarks

Dr. Jozafina Milicaj pops a bottle of champagne 

Dr. Jozafina Milicaj & Dr. Sean McDarby

Dr. Erika Taylor & Dr. Jozafina Milicaj 

Tiramisu Cake for Jozafina Milicaj

Dr. Erika Taylor & Dr. Jozafina Milicaj 

Dr. Sean McDarby

Dr. Sean McDarby recently defended his Ph.D and thesis entitled, “Synthesis and Measurement of Noble Metal Nanoparticles with Well Defined Shapes by Electrochemical and Electroless Approaches.” Sean started at Wesleyan University in 2015 after completing his BS in Chemistry at Southern Connecticut State University where he conducted research under Dr. Gerald Lesley. His undergraduate research focused on the synthesis of novel MOF precursors involving the manipulation of air-free inorganic pathways. Upon starting at Wesleyan University, Sean joined the research lab of Dr. Michelle Personick and began a project to develop a new method to electrochemically synthesize shaped noble metal nanoparticles. The project was quickly successful, and the method was transitioned into a cyclical tool to create shaped nanoparticles by collecting electrochemical data about any particle growth reaction and translate that to either an electrochemical or colloidal approach. Further work involved the creation of novel shaped nanoparticles, mostly with palladium in both systems. Having completed his degree at Wesleyan, Sean will be starting his career as a federal contractor for Universities Space Research Association at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio where he is joining the Microgravity Sciences division and is focusing on the production and applications of boron nitride for space and aeronautics.

Dr. Jozafina Milicaj 

Dr. Jozafina Milicaj recently defended her Ph.D. and presented her work entitled, “Biophysical Exploration of Heptosyltransferase I for Potent Inhibitor Discovery.” Jozie started at Wesleyan University in 2015 after completing her BA in Chemistry at Manhattanville College where she was heavily involved with the American Chemical Society chapter and even holding the position as president for her senior year.  Jozie’s undergraduate research project was focused on analytical chemistry and the quantification of antioxidants from açaí berry sources through various extraction methods and UV-Vis radical capture assays. Upon starting at Wesleyan University, Jozie joined the research lab of Dr. Erika Taylor and began working on projects pertaining to Heptosyltransferase I substrate biosynthesis and optimization. Her projects then shifted to understanding and biophysically characterizing HepI and other glycosyltransferases like MshA for the purposes of inhibition of HepI. Having completed her degree at Wesleyan, Jozie will soon be starting her career in industry at Ginkgo Bioworks, a biotech company in Cambridge that professes in novel protein engineering where she will be characterizing and kinetically examining new proteins of interest.

Dr. Andrea Lee

Dr. Andrea recently defended her Ph.D. dissertation entitled “Examining Chromium(III)-based Contrast Agents for Use as a Model for Understanding Prototropic Exchange in ParaCEST MRI Contrast Agents.” Andrea started at Wesleyan University in 2014 after graduating with honors from the University of New Haven where she received a B.S. in Forensic Science and a B.S. in Chemistry. Her undergraduate thesis work focused on analyzing the triglycerides in biofuel made from acorns using HPLC with detection by FT-IR and UV-Vis. Upon starting at Wesleyan University, Andrea joined the research lab of Professor Westmoreland and worked on many research projects exploring various transition metal-based MRI contrast agents and their properties in aqueous solutions. She also received many opportunities as a teaching assistant which included taking on many responsibilities in the Introductory Chemistry Laboratory. She was also awarded the Tishler Teaching Award in 2018. This fall, Andrea will be starting as an Assistant Teaching Professor at Drew University where she will be teaching Analytical Chemistry.

Dr. Andrea Lee

Tom Lee

Dr. David Westmoreland

From left to right: Kimberly Lee, Terrie Tin, and Samantha Lee

Dr. Andrea Lee and Dr. David Westmoreland

A captive audience

From top to bottom, left to right: Eric Zanderigo, Kaylah Medvec, Annika Velez, Dr. David Westmoreland,
Dr. Andrea Lee, Jozafina Milicaj, Angelika Rafalowski, Dr. Alison O’Neil, Dr. Colin Smith
Sean McDarby, Mohammed Ullah, Oliver Cho, Kat Blejec

Celebratory cake

From left to right: Tom Lee, Kimberly Lee, Dr. Andrea Lee, Terrie Tin, and Samantha Lee

Dr. Vasileios Drogkaris

Dr. Vasileios Drogkaris successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis titled “Exploring the self-assembly of conjugated materials and the utility of the thiol-Michael reaction in macromolecular synthesis” on March 2nd, 2021. Vasili came to Wesleyan in 2014 after receiving his B.S. in chemistry from the University of Athens, Greece. While an undergraduate Vasili carried out research investigating ring-opening metathesis polymerization techniques using novel tungsten catalysts. At Wesleyan, Vasili joined the lab of Prof. Northrop and embarked on several research projects exploring the dynamic covalent self-assembly of boronic acids as well as the use of thiol-Michael reactions in macromolecular synthesis. Most prominently, Vasili developed the dynamic self-assembly of a series of boronate ester-bridged oligo(phenylene ethynylene) ladder compounds that have laid the groundwork for increasing our understanding of π-conjugation in one-dimensional versus two-dimensional materials. Vasili has recently accepted a position at Spartech, a leader in specialty plastics and packaging.