Chemistry

I am Lydia Oikonomou, and I come from beautiful Thessaloniki, Greece. If there is one thing about me that people agree on is my outgoing character and passion for everything that I like – actually, my passion for life itself. I guess this is only another reason why my favourite hero of all times is Odysseus. With all his yearn for adventure and discovering of new things, he subconsciously became the role model I have always wanted to follow.

Shiqi Xie,'21, is majoring in chemistry. She is interested in environmental chemistry and public health. She wishes to work on the azo-dye degradation of wastewater treatment with electrochemical methods due to the inspiration of water pollution issues in her hometown. She will continue with azo-dye degradation during her senior year studies, and design catalysts to increase the degradation efficiency. She plans to apply for a graduate school of environmental chemistry and work on urgent environmental issues as her career goals.

During the summer of 2020, Chyanne worked remotely with her faculty advisor Dr. Amanda Oldacre to write a research grant for submission to the Petroleum Research Fund. Over the course of eight weeks, she and her advisor researched functionalization and activation methods of petroleum coke. Over the duration of the summer, she also became accustomed to the writing form of a grant; she discusses her research and writing processes in her recorded presentation. Chyanne is continuing her work with Dr. Oldacre and hopes to continue pursuing chemistry research after graduation.

Rachel Siegel, '21, is double majoring in Chemistry and English-Writing. During her fellowship, Rachel researched different types of TNT detectors to discover what chemical principles allow for them to function, research that she is continuing. She also wrote a physical chemistry lab experiment that is currently being reviewed for publication in the Journal of Chemical Education. She plans to continue her chemistry education and earn a phD with the goal of eventually becoming a chemistry professor.

Leo Romanetz is a chemistry major from the class of '21. He is particularly interested in the field of physical chemistry where he plans to use his research experience at SLU as a starting point for future graduate study in the field. He plans to continue his project of the physical chemistry of intercalating chemotherapy drugs while at SLU during his senior year experience. Ultimately, he hopes that by the end of the project he may acquire the kinetic characteristics of the drug proflavin, in particular.

During the summer of 2020, Sky Ratcliffe, '21, was a rising senior working on a project titled "Mathematical Art and Artistic Mathematics: M.C. Escher and the 17 Wallpaper Groups" through the Clare Boothe Luce Program, which involved designing a wallpaper pattern corresponding to each of the groups followed by the painting of a few of them and investigating the proof of there being exactly 17 of these groups.