Okay, we’ve been really bad about keeping up with lab news. 

Lots to say, though! 

Both Imdad Haque and Lori Çobani successfully defended their Original Research Proposals and advanced to PhD candidacy.  

Lori and Imdad also did absolutely heroic teaching during the height of the COVID madness, and both were recognized for their excellence. Lori won the departmental Guy Allen Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2020 and the College of Science and Technology Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in 2021. Imdad won the Guy Allen Award in 2021.  

Graduate student ASM Saem finished his cumulative exams – another hurdle, cleared! 

In early 2021 terrific undergraduate researcher Owen Glaser joined the lab, and he’s headed to graduate school after graduation this spring. Stay tuned! 

Finally, just at the end of 2021 we welcomed new graduate student Yong Suk (Isaac) Choi from Haverford College. We’re so happy you’re here! 

We’re thrilled to be returning to the lab after the COVID shutdown!

In all the upheaval, we missed posting about a few really important events.

This spring we welcomed first year graduate student ASM Saem. Saem earned his MS at Mississippi State University after a BS at Rajshahi University. Welcome Saem!

We also celebrated two lab members as they earned their degrees and went forth in the world.

Ethan Kimmett (BS ’20) graduated and is starting a PhD program in chemistry at the University of Oregon.

Lauren Profitt’s (PhD ’20) virtue of never procrastinating really served her well this spring, as she was able to defend her PhD thesis in person before the shutdown. She’s now an Analytical Scientist at Quotient Sciences, still in the Philadelphia area.

We’ll miss them both so much, but we look forward to following their success! Here are Ethan and Lauren after winning undergraduate and graduate poster prizes, respectively, in February at the American Chemical Society Philadelphia Section Younger Chemists’ Committee poster session:

With the semester wrapping up, we want to take a moment to reflect on all of the great lab events!

We welcomed two new first-year graduate students to the lab: Md. Imdadul Haque and Lori Cobani! Imdad joins us after earning his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Dhaka. Lori earned his B.S. and M.S. from Idaho State University before joining our group.

Annastassia Gallo successfully defended her dissertation in April! She also gave a seminar as part of Temple’s Chemistry After Dark series in March.

Olivia Stepanic (CST ’19) presented at the Undergraduate Research and Creativity symposium. She also received the Temple University ACS Undergraduate Award in Inorganic Chemistry!

Ethan Kimmett (CST ’20) presented a poster at the Undergraduate Research and Creativity symposium!

Lab alumna Prof. Kathryn Cole (PhD, Yale ’09) earned tenure at Christopher Newport University!

Upcoming events include CST graduation on May 9th and the Philadelphia Inorganic Colloquium (PIC-7) at Temple on May 11th! Be sure to register for PIC-7 and stop by Lauren Profitt’s poster!

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Congrats to the newest doctor from our lab, Dr. Annastassia Gallo! Anna successfully defended her dissertation on the “Homeostasis and trafficking of hydrolysis-prone metals in cells, proteins, and small molecules”. Anna is headed down to Duke University in June for her postdoc in the Franz Lab! We are so proud and can’t wait to hear about her new adventures!

A few of our former graduate students have started new positions recently. It is exciting to see our student each advance in their careers, and we can’t wait to hear all about their new opportunities!

Melanie Jalloh (MS 2015) is a Lab Manager at Columbia Irving Medical Center.

Mark Zierden (PhD 2016) is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Lindroth lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kayleigh Jones (PhD 2017) is a Senior Scientist position at Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Research Services (PMRS, Inc.)

 

Congrats to Lauren Profitt for passing her Original Research Proposal and becoming the department’s newest doctoral candidate! She continues the Valentine lab tradition of receiving a Hawaiian shirt upon elevation to candidacy!

Corey’s series of tiron crystal structures was published this week in Acta Cryst E. This work was a collaboration with the Zdilla lab here at Temple. Great job, everyone!

Access the article here!

Fun fact: Both Corey and Mike Gau currently have post-doctoral positions at the University of Pennsylvania!

We had a fantastic time at the 2018 Frontiers in Metallobiochemistry Symposium at Penn State! Thank you to the organizers for putting together a wonderful program and providing the opportunity for us to share our research.

The symposium also provided us with an extended Valentine lab family reunion! In addition to Ann and current graduate students Anna Gallo and Lauren Profitt, Ann’s former graduate students Kathryn Cole (Christopher Newport University) and Kate Buettner (Gettysburg College) attended along with their undergraduate students.

We wish Dr. Corey Herbst-Gervasoni the best as he starts a postdoc position in David Christianson‘s lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Thanks for the many years of being a great labmate and friend! Thankfully you’ll only be in West Philly, so we’ll see you soon!

Last evening was the ACS Philadelphia Local Section Young Chemists Committee Annual Poster Session, held at Temple University. Two of our undergraduate students (Jack and Ethan) and two of our graduate students (Anna and Lauren) presented. Great work everyone!

Congrats to Anna for winning the University of Pennsylvania Student Choice Award for favorite poster!

Congrats to all other winners, especially those from Temple University who won 1st and 3rd place in the graduate section:

1st: Connor Koellner from the Zdilla lab
3rd: Natalia Molina from the Willets lab.

 

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