Hello hello, my name is Dana Cheng, a graduate student in the Fieser lab! Little me grew up in Philippines, then moved to Los Angeles as a kid. I have lived in Los Angeles for several years and chose to go to local schools. I received my B.S. in Chemistry from California State University, Los Angeles, then transferred over to the University of Southern California for my graduate studies!
I first got into chemistry while I was in community college. Taking those chemistry classes made me realize how cool chemistry can be! My professors posed some questions that really made me think about how a lot of things worked in this world. One of my main goals in pursuing chemistry is to try and make a positive impact in my community, no matter how small it may be. I want to help people, animals, the ecosystem, and the environment have better futures. My interest in chemistry and desire to help communities really coincides with the Fieser group’s goals. I love that our group actively takes part in outreach, which is a more physical way to help, while also doing chemistry with the goal of making a positive impact in the world via sustainable polymers, which is a more behind-the-scenes way to contribute to solving the plastic pollution problem. This specific problem affects everything and everyone, for example, animals can go hungry when they eat plastic since they can't digest or excrete it, blocking them from eating any actual food. In addition, microplastics can have toxins attached to them, exposing the living thing that ingests microplastics to those toxins. Dealing with plastic pollution is definitely an urgent matter, since we are continuously piling on plastic waste that cannot be recycled. My research specifically deals with using green methods to make simple salt catalysts to make branched polymers, which translates to sustainable plastics! The original goal of my project was to eventually use them for biomedical applications, such as orthopedic implants, but these polymers can actually have a multitude of applications, ranging from packaging, to insulations, to car parts, or whatever applications you can think of for plastic! I love that I get to do this type of research, where I can take part in tackling an environmental problem!
0 Comments
Hello! My name is Zach Wood and I am a graduate student in the Fieser Group. I am from St. Louis Missouri and received my B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Kansas (KU). My interest in chemistry took off when I began my freshman year at KU, and since then I have always been interested in how to apply what I learn to solve environmental challenges.
In the Fieser Group, I am working on using simple salt catalysts to synthesize more sustainable plastics. While research is one part of my work, I care deeply about providing a meaningful educational experience to undergraduates both in the classroom and the laboratory. Being mentored by Professor Fieser and working with passionate coworkers has taught me that making an impact in the world of chemistry is defined by far more than my work in the lab. For example, our beach cleanups in Southern California are a great way to spread knowledge about plastic pollution to the communities around us while also making healthier beaches. Ultimately, I want to use the skills I learn in the Fieser Lab at USC to make an impact by teaching students ways they can create healthier environments while also performing research towards the same goal myself. Hello! My name is Yvonne Manjarrez and I am a graduate student in the Fieser Group! I’m from Arizona and received my B.S. in Chemistry from Arizona State University (Go SunDevils!). My research focuses on the copolymerization project in our group to make sustainable plastics (aliphatic polyesters). I decided to join the Fieser Group seeing as the research aligns with something I am truly passionate about: using chemistry to make a positive impact on the environment. Of course, to truly make a positive impact on the environment, we can’t do it alone. This further emphasizes the importance of communicating our science and the negative consequences of current plastic consumption to the public. By connecting with broader audiences on plastic consumption, this can lead to more people recycling and using less plastic as well as potentially joining our beach clean-ups! The power of communication to the public can lead to more awareness of the current plastics crisis we are facing and thus make the need for change in our current consumption of plastics that much more urgent.
My name is Sophia Kosloski-Oh, I joined the Fieser lab at the University of Southern California in 2018 and I am currently a fourth-year graduate student. I grew up on the outskirts of Waco, Texas, and attended the University of Utah for my undergraduate studies. Everyone learns about chemistry in their early years of school, but I really became interested in it when I got to see it applied inside a crime lab. Seeing how chemistry connects the evidence to solve complex puzzles left me wanting to embark on an odyssey to learn chemistry.
I am very passionate about animals and their environment. My dream project would be to open an animal sanctuary that would specialize in both creating perfect forever home matches for domesticated animals and rehabilitating wild animals in the hopes of releasing them back where they belong. To that end, a big way to help both animals and their environments are to address the problem of plastic pollution in our environment. Plastic pollution is not just a distant problem, but an urgent and present problem that affects not just the animals’ lives but our lives too. Did you know that we consume a credit card’s worth of plastic every week? And while the effects of microplastics in our system are still being analyzed, we can already see the awful effects of plastic pollution in nature. This is one of the things that drew me to join the Fieser lab. My work in the lab focuses on designing rare earth metal catalysts to make recyclable rubber and adhesive. Why would a group that seems so interested in the environment want to use rare metals? Well, their name is somewhat of a misnomer as they are often as abundant as copper, but they were the last metals to be discovered so they were thought to be rare. Working on this project is both challenging and rewarding, but it is made all the better because the Fieser group works together as a team. Plastic pollution is a complex problem, and just creating a new material that can be easily broken down is just the beginning. While everyone in the lab has their aspect of the problem to tackle, we are hopefully taking small steps in stopping our world from being the real-world version of Wall-E’s trash planet. My name is Nancy Bush and I am originally from a small town in CT. I was a chemistry/sustainability studies dual major at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and I am working to get my PhD in Chemistry at USC so that I can utilize the skills that I learned in both of my bachelors degrees to help others. I really appreciate my background in sustainability studies, because that degree viewed sustainability from a more sociological lens. We discussed environmental racism, environmental justice, how food systems and factories affect our planet, as well as the workers it employs and the people who live around them, etc. There are so many complicated systems at play when we think about “going green” and “saving the planet” that I often wonder - what’s the way to make real change? It is definitely a tough rabbit hole to find yourself in, because you start to feel as though nothing will ever be good enough - you can question the supply chain of everything you own and buy, you can try to find banks and credit cards and lenders that don’t buy into fossil fuel stocks, you can shop locally with reusable items, but then you turn around and see a whole world not even beginning to scratch the surface of those actions. And it’s so easy to get bitter and turn on each other - “look at that person using a straw,” “they didn’t recycle that bottle”. Lately I have been trying to come back to this sociological element of it all, the human element of sustainability. People are exhausted. They are told 10,000 things a day, 9,000 of them aren’t even true and the other 1,000 are difficult to parse through. When you work multiple jobs and have kids and bills to pay - we are all just trying to survive. Having the time to research the most sustainable swimwear brand and their supply chain truly is a privilege. So then, I try to revisit this question, “how do we make the most change”, and view it from the human element. You give a hand. To your community, to homelessness, to people who do not have the same privileges that you do. We help each other thrive, to give us more time to research and care about the bigger picture. I think that’s what I’ve learned from the past few years, and I am so grateful that in the Fieser group we bring our chemistry passions outside of the lab to our community with beach cleanups and educational outreach.
Hiiii!!! My name is Alex Palakian, and this summer I am combining my love for design and the environment as an environmental communications intern with the Wrigley Institute and the Fieser Lab!
From being on this website, you can probably tell that Dr. Fieser’s research surrounds a personal interest of mine: sustainable solutions for plastic pollution. As a Southern California native, I am constantly confronted with the accumulation of plastics, in particular, on our beaches. From basic littering to the plastic microfibers on our clothes, plastic pollution is a pressing issue that needs to be better communicated. I want to use my affinity for visual representation as a vessel to inform, educate, and inspire change. The Fieser Lab and the Wrigley Institute share my passion for sustainability and education, making this internship a no-brainer. I know that scientific research can be a mumble-jumble of equations and processes, so I want to help make this knowledge clear. Since my first meeting with Dr. Fieser, I am excited to bridge the gap of understanding between the lab’s work and society; to bring awareness to the critical issue of plastic pollution! HELLO! My name is Kai Knight and I’m a second-year graduate student in pursuit of a PhD in Chemistry. I feel very fortunate to have been able to stay in Los Angeles to continue my education, as I was born and raised here and love being close to my family. Immediately following my undergraduate education at Occidental College, I became an Americorps member with City Year Los Angeles and worked with eighth graders just a few blocks away from USC’s main campus. Following that, I became a Center Director for a Mathnasium Learning Center in Santa Monica, where I worked with children K-12. Through these experiences, I solidified my love of teaching and realized how much I love and missed learning for myself. My career goal is to work in academia to both satisfy the desire to work with students and to continue a lifelong education in a field I am passionate about.
I find chemistry one of the most fascinating and diverse topics, with which I truly believe a more sustainable world can be achieved in my lifetime. I chose USC for its many research groups dedicated to a cause of mitigating climate change in some way, and I especially love the Fieser group for its complete dedication to sustainability in and out of the lab. My current project aims to depolymerize plastics via various methods of hydrofunctionalization using an easy-to-synthesize catalyst containing earth-abundant cobalt. Beyond my research, I am thrilled to contribute to our group’s outreach by sharing information with volunteers about the plastics crisis and joining them to clean local beaches. I have also learned so much about recycling guidelines for Los Angeles County as well as numerous other counties and states by adding information to this outreach website, which aims to educate the public on plastics and recycling. Since joining the Fieser lab, I have learned so much more than just chemistry! I have learned the importance of being able to communicate our work to those unfamiliar with chemistry and how to make daunting literature and publications more palatable. I am finding how interconnected chemistry is to aspects of everyday life and that the best strategies I learned when working with kids are applicable to so much more than just teaching. My name is Mikiyas Assefa and I am a postdoctoral associate in the Fieser group at USC. I hail from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where I enjoyed authentic Ethiopian food. My research is focused on polymerization catalysis for a facile synthesis of sustainable plastics, and catalyst design for an economical recycling and valorization of plastic waste.
I chose my current area of research after being inspired by my Ph.D. work that involved addressing challenges in the management and recycling of nuclear waste. My current research and outreach activities in the Fieser group have graced me with a unique perspective in addressing plastic pollution through the lenses of both scientific and sociocultural approaches. I also gained a better understanding of the scope of this crisis after learning that plastic pollution has reached the most remote areas of the northern and southern hemispheres in the Arctic and Antarctica. Hello! My name is Julia, and I was an environmental communications intern with the Wrigley Institute and the Fieser lab this summer.
When I first heard about this opportunity, it seemed like an exciting chance to combine my love for journalism and the environment. After my first call with Professor Fieser, I knew I had landed in the right lab. From the focus on sustainability to the care for community, this work and this summer was a reminder that, yes, plastic is everywhere, but there are people looking to change this. And beyond that, it is a reminder that we can all be a part of that community. Working on this website was a unique chance to make the digital world a tool to create change in our physical world. One of my favorite things on this website is our processing checkpoints to encourage both action and conversation. I hope that the designs on this website are just the beginning of my involvement with Wrigley, and I can’t wait for you all to explore this new page! Hello! My name is Megan Fieser and I am a Gabilan Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California (USC). When I started in 2018, I knew that I wanted to encourage others to do good things for their community. In my postdoc, I was lucky to get exposed to the scientific challenges of plastic pollution. I knew that this would be a great topic to study for my new research group at USC. This topic would allow me to accomplish many goals:
I am extremely lucky to have an incredible team of researchers who have connected with the missions of our group. Not only have they helped me start an entire research program, but they have really helped me build every aspect of our mission, including this website. These researchers will introduce themselves on this blog over time. |
AuthorWe are the Fieser Lab at the University of Southern California. Authors of these blog pieces are students (undergraduate and graduate), postdoctoral researchers and Prof. Fieser who are all committed to helping tackle plastic pollution both in and out of the research lab. Archives
September 2022
Categories |