Welcome to the 5th Annual East Central Illinois ACS Undergraduate Research Conference.  We are glad you are here and have chosen to participate in our conference as a student presenter, student or faculty attendee, or faculty judge.

Below you will find the schedule for the conference, including Zoom links for the live portion on Saturday November 14th and links to pages on this website where you will find student presentations.  Student presentations will include a voiced over presentation which you can view and a text transcript .  We encourage all presenters, attendees, and judges to leave comments and use the comment section of each post as a place to dialogue.  Presentations will be available for viewing until Saturday, November 21st.  Judging scores are due by Saturday, November 21st, at 11:59pm but scores can be submitted earlier.  Click here for more information on judging.

Schedule (Saturday, November 14th, 2020)

9:30-10am (CST)–Networking sessions (CLICK HERE)

10-11am (CST)–Welcome remarks and Keynote Address “Life After Undergrad: Careers in Chemistry and the Chemical Sciences” Ms. Patricia Simpson, Director of Academic Advising & Career Services in the School of Chemical Sciences (CLICK HERE; passcode URC2020)

11-12pm (CST)–Q&A Panel “Preparing for Graduate School: Why Attend and How to Apply” (CLICK HERE; passcode URC2020). 

Panelists:

• Susannah Miller: Susannah is a third-year graduate student in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UIUC. She graduated from Colorado State University in 2016 with her bachelor’s in chemistry and minor in mathematics. Outside of research, she enjoys reading, Pilates, and anything outdoors.
• Zane Thornburg: Bio coming soon!
• Daniel Najera: Daniel is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Alison Fout’s research group. He graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2017 where he worked under professor Luis Echegoyen. Daniel is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in chemistry and science. He has served on the board of the Women Chemists Committee and as President of the Department of Chemistry Graduate Student Advisory Committee.
• Danielle Loving: Danielle Loving is a current first year graduate student within the organic chemistry department. I attended Mercer University in Macon, Georgia for my undergrad where I received a B.S. in Chemistry.
• Edzna Garcia: Edzna Garcia is a 6th year graduate student in organic chemistry. She obtained a B.S in Pharmacological Chemistry at the University of California, San Diego and M.S in Chemistry at California State University, Los Angeles. She is an active member of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and in her spare time she loves to dance.

Saturday, November 14th-Friday, November 20th

Click on pages in toolbar above to find presentations grouped by area then click on names of students to view their presentation, abstract, and text transcript.  Please feel free to leave comments and questions using the comment feature and student presenters will respond to your questions.  Additionally, each post is also in our “blog” feed and clicking on the tags underneath each post will also show presentations grouped by area or by type (poster or oral).

Thank you to the following organizations for their help and sponsorship of our conference: East Central IL American Chemical Society (ECI ACS), the UIUC ACS Undergraduate Student Chapter, the Women Chemists Committee (WCC) at UIUC, the ECI Younger Chemists Committee (YCC), the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) Chapter at UIUC, and the SACNAS and Friends Chapter at UIUC.

Thank you also to WolframAlpha for their generous sponsorship of awards.