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Catching up on Department News

Fall is here, but it’s time to catch up on some of the department’s happenings since Spring. It’s been a busy year!

→At the end of the Spring semester, Associate Clinical Professor Chris Saunders was given a University Foundations Teaching Award for Foundations of Sciences. About 500 different instructors teach UF courses at Boise State, and we’re thrilled that Chris was recognized for his exemplary teaching, creativity in course design, and excellence in translating chemistry to non-majors.

Photo of Chris Saunders holding his UF Teaching Award certificate

→During Employee Appreciation Week, several department members were recognized for their years of service to Boise State University. A couple of them stood still long enough for a picture. Thank you all for your continued service to the university and for making this department an excellence place to work!

Photo of Kathleen Mukengezi (left) and Sean Ruettgers (right) holding their Years of Service Award certificates

Sean Ruettgers: 25 years!!                                             

Jeunghoon Lee: 15 years

Chris Pajak: 15 years

Kathleen Mukengezi: 10 years

Thaaer Muhammed: 10 years

David Boldridge: 5 years

→Associate Professor Oliviero Andreussi hosted the Undergraduate Python Hackathon in May. He ended the workshop with a picnic in the park, treating the participants to burgers and homemade pizza.

Photo of students standing in the park next to a picnic table

Photo of Oliviero Andreussi and Jenee Cyran standing with a student in front of a portable pizza oven Photo of students gathered around a picnic table watching Oliviero Andreussi make a pizza Photo of students gathered around a picnic table watching Oliviero Andreussi make a pizza

→ Several graduate students from Owen McDougal’s lab attended the BUILD Dairy Annual Conference in Corvallis, OR at the end of May. Habeeb Babatunde, Madison Dirks, Rianat Lukman, Mia Rheede, and Elizabeth Ryan presented during the annual meeting.

Photo of Madison Dirks talking into a microphone at a podium

Photo of Mia Rheede talking into a microphone Photo of Rianat Lukman talking into a microphone at a podiumPhoto of Rianat Lukman talking into a microphone at a podium Photo of Elizabeth Ryan talking into a microphone at a podium

 

 

 

 

 

 

→This summer, 17 high school students had the opportunity to research at Boise State in various labs across campus as part of the ACS Project SEED program. 15 of those were working with Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry faculty members. At the end of their summer research experience, students presented posters at the 2024 Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research. Read more about Project SEED.

Photo of 4 Project SEED students standing around 3 research posters
Photo of 3 people standing in front of a Project SEED research poster
Group photo of the 2024 Boise State Project SEED students

3 Project SEED students wearing lab coats and googles standing in a lab

Thank you to all of our hardworking faculty, staff and students for continuing their amazing work during the summer months!