Recent News from the Su Lab: 

August 2025

• Jan and Grace travel to the National ACS Meeting in Washington DC to give oral podium presentations.

• Jan, Grace, and Kemi post their first video in their series to demystify the undergraduate research experience, funded by the NSF. Follow along on on TikTok or Instagram.

• Jan receives a UCR Mini Travel Award!

• Kemi wins an Outstanding Poster Award at the UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium!

July 2025

• Elijah Mauga joins the lab as a graduate student. Welcome Elijah!

• Undergrad alumnus Aracely Gonzalez receives an NSF GRFP award!

• Nhien, Aracely, Holly, and Lan publish their work on polynorbornenes with silicon cluster pendants in Polymer Chemistry. Congrats everyone!

• Tim attends the Cottrell Scholars Conference in Tucson, AZ.

June 2025

• Tim gives an invited talk at the Telluride Workshop on Main Group Chemistry.

• Leila Bensaid joins us as a MacREU Fellow for the summer from Harvey Mudd!

• Matt and Ashley’s co-first author paper on quantum interference in silicon diamondoids is published in JACS! This work received extensive news coverage in Phys.org, Azo Quantum, AAAS EurekAlert, UCR News, Mirage News, What’s New in Electronics, SciTechDaily, Earth.com, The Brighter Side

• Lan starts her summer internship at Momentive, a major silicones company, in New Jersey.

May 2025

• Jacob and Lan went to the 54th North American Silicon Symposium - Jacob gave oral and poster presentations and Lan gave a poster presentation.

• The lab’s lastest paper “Quantum Interference in a Molecular Analog of the Crystalline Silicon Unit Cell” is published in JACS. This paper was 4 years in the making. Congrats especially to co-first authors Matt Hight and Ashley Pimentel!

• Congrats to Lan Pham on receiving an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award!

• Tim is named a 2025 Scialog Fellow in Quantum Matter and Information by the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement.

• Tim and the lab’s work on molecular electronics is featured on UCR’s “Ask a CNAS Prof” Youtube series.

• Ashley gives an oral presentation at the 2025 Socal Organometallics Meeting.

• Grace receives a Chancellor’s Research Fellowship Award!

April 2025

• Dr. Subir Maji joins the Su Lab as its first postdoctoral researcher. Subir comes from IISER Kolkata and will bring his expertise in main group synthesis to molecular electronics. Welcome Subir!

• Joel Weatherred joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher working in molecular electronics. Welcome Joel!

March 2025

• Congrats to Ashley Pimentel for winning a Dissertation Year Fellowship Award! This highly competitive award will fund the final year of her graduate research.

• Ashley Pimentel is selected to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureates Conference in Germany this summer!

• Congrats to Shali Thai for his acceptance into medical school!

• Nhien’s co-first author paper entitled “Intermediate Electronic Coupling via Silane and Germane Bridges in Silicon Quantum Dot-Molecular Hybrid Systems” is published in Nano Letters! This was a collaborative effort with the Mangolini, Roberts, Eaves, and Tang groups.

December 2024

• Congrats to recent graduates, Dr. Tim Siu and Dr. Nhien Nguyen, who will be starting new jobs in January! Tim will be an R&D Scientist at Heraeus in Santa Fe Springs, CA and Nhien will be a Senior Scientist at Alcon in Johns Creek, GA.

• Congrats to Fernando Alfaro for being selected for a GAANN Fellowship!

• Congrats to Nhien for defending her Ph.D. thesis!

November 2024

• Melissa Zamora joins the lab as a graduate student!

October 2024

• Kemi Dawodu joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Kemi!

September 2024

• Ashley and Lan’s paper on the single-molecule conductance of staffanes is accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie!

• Jacob and Grace give excellent poster presentations at SoCal Organometallics at UCSD.

• Tim Jr. and Matt defend their theses and graduate. We will miss you both and your pioneering contributions to the lab.

August 2024

• Grace wins an Outstanding Poster Award for her presentation at the UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium!

• Nhien attends the 3M Rise Conference.

July 2024

• Ashley gives a poster presentation on her work on quantum interference in silicon diamondoids at the Electron Donor-Acceptor Interactions Gordon Research Seminar and Conference.

• Tim is named to the Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers Early Career Advisory Board. Read more about it here.

• Tim gives talks at the 45th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry and Cottrell Scholars Conference.

• Holly Lusk joins the lab as a new graduate student. Welcome Holly!

June 2024

• Our trio of senior undergrads, Aracely Gonzalez, Lamia Haque, and Mack Durham graduate from UCR and head to new institutions for their Ph.D. studies in Chemistry: Aracely is going to Columbia University, Lamia is going to UC San Diego, and Mack is going to UCLA. We will miss you all very much!

• Tim Jr receives the 2024 Chemistry Alumni Award!

• Matt receives the 2024 Robert C. Haddon Memorial Endowed Graduate Award!

• Imex is selected to give a talk at the Inorganic Chemistry Gordon Research Seminar in Newport, RI, and gives a poster presentation at the corresponding GRC.

May 2024

• Imex and Jacob both give poster presentations at the International Symposium on Main-group-element Chemistry (ISMEC) in Tsukuba, Japan, and oral presentations at the 20th International Symposium on Silicon Chemistry (ISOS) in Hiroshima, Japan. Tim gives invited talks at both conferences.

• Imex wins the BCSJ Award for his poster presentation at ISMEC!

• Aracely, Grace, Mack and Lamia give presentations at the UC Undergraduate Research Symposium.

• Matt and Tim’s review article “Opportunities in Main Group Molecular Electronics” is published in Trends in Chemistry as part of the ‘Emerging Leaders in Chemistry’ special issue.

• Ashley wins an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award!

April 2024

• Lan gives a poster presentation at the Amgen Graduate Research Symposium.

March 2024

• Mack is selected to receive UCR’s ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Undergraduate Award! This award is designed to highlight undergraduates who have performed excellently in research and/or classwork in Inorganic Chemistry.

• Matt and Ashley give oral presentations at the “Physical Chemistry of Molecular Electronics” symposium at the ACS National Meeting in New Orleans.

• Ashley gives an oral presentation at the UC Chemical Symposium.

February 2024

• Tim is named a 2024 Cottrell Scholar! Read more about the award here.

• Matt’s paper on London dispersion interactions in carbosilane backbones is published in JACS!

January 2024

• Jancrizto Ruidas and Roger Teng join the lab as undergraduate researchers.

November 2023

• The group receives an NSF CAREER award! This grant provides five years of support to investigate new concepts in molecular silicon electronics. Read more about it here.

October 2023

• Fernando Alfaro joins the lab as a grad student!

September 2023

• Imex’s paper on SiGe adamantanes is published in JACS! The article is featured in JACS Spotlights.

August 2023

• Mack, Nhien, and Aracely give oral and poster presentations at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco. 

• Grace gives an oral presentation at the UCR CNAS Scholars Symposium to wrap up her summer research.

• Jess finishes the summer off by giving a poster presentation at the MacREU symposium.

June-July 2023

• Jess Hernandez joins our lab as a summer MacREU student.

• Amren Saran joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher.

• Fernando Alfaro joins our lab for a summer rotation.

• Aracely is awarded an ACS Bridge Travel Award to support her poster presentation at the National ACS Meeting in San Francisco.

• Mack is awarded a DIC Travel Award and a UCR Student Travel Mini-Grant to support his oral presentation at the ACS Meeting in San Francisco.

• Grace is recognized as a CNAS Scholar, which will support her research in the lab this summer.

• Imex and Ashley give oral presentations at the SoCal Organometallics Symposium.

• Tim Sr. gives a talk at the 10th European Silicon Days Conference in Montpellier, France.

• Lan is selected to give an oral presentation at the 2023 Artificial Molecular Switches and Motors GRS. She gives a poster presentation at the associated GRC.

May 2023

• Nhien is selected to attend the 2023 BASF North American Research Forum. She and her team are awarded first prize there for their presentation.

• Matt and Ashley give oral presentations at the UC Chemical Symposium. Ashley wins award for “best flash talk”.

• Tim Jr. wins an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.

• Ashley passes her oral examination and advances to Ph.D. candidacy.

• Aracely gives a poster presentation at the UCR Undergraduate Research Symposium.

• Aracely is selected for the prestigious Chancellor’s Research Fellowship Award!

• Josh is selected as the sole recipient of the CNAS Academic Excellence Award in Biochemistry.

April 2023

• Josh, Miku, and Isabelle graduate from UCR, and the lab goes bowling to say farewell. We will miss you all!

• Josh and Miku decide they will both attend Cornell University next Fall to pursue their Ph.D. in Chemistry.

• Tim Jr. is selected as one of four recipients across the university for the highly competitive Yvonne Danielson Endowed Graduate Award.

• Tim Jr. wins an Advancing Faculty Diversity award.

• The lab welcomes a new undergraduate researcher, Grace Wang. Grace has also been selected as a RISE Scholar, which will support her summer research in the lab.

March 2023

• Miku is selected as UCR’s recipient of the ACS Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry.

• Isabelle completes a terrific honors thesis.

January 2023

• Shali Thai and Sam Mau join the lab as undergraduate researchers.

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