Graduate Student News
Spring Semester 2020
New GSA board
We held our election for the new GSA board at our Pizza lunch March 4th 2020, the new board will officially take over after the end of semester pizza party. The new board members that were voted in by the Graduate Student body are as follows:
Graduate Recruitment weekend
Massive thank you to everyone who participated in the graduate recruitment weekend this year. We enjoyed meeting and spending time with the recruits and look forward getting to know all of the new grad students when they arrive in August.
Graduate Student Seminars -
Friday, May 8 - Katie Steward will present her graduate student research in a seminar titles (TBD). Katie works in the lab of Professor Brian Bothner.
Thursday, April 9 - Ms. Natsha Pence will defend her PhD in Biochemistry beginning with a seminar. 11 am in the Byker Auditorium Natsha is co-advised by Drs. Peters and DuBois.
Wednesday, April 1 - David Chen will present his graduate student research in a seminar titled (TBD). David works in the lab of Professor Tim Minton. 2 pm Byker Auditorium.
Monday, March 30 - Ms. Casey Hickey will defend her PhD in Chemistry beginning with a seminar titled “Characterizing Excited State Transport and Charge Carrier Dynamics in Lead Halide Perovskites.”12 noon Byker Auditorium. Casey works in the laboratory of Professor Erik Grumstrup.
Friday, March 27 - Mr. Alex Charbonneau will defend his MS in Biochemistry beginning with a seminar titled (TBD). Alex works in the lab of Prof. Martin Lawrence. 9 am in ABB 138.
Wednesday, March 11 - Ms. Danica Walsh will defend her PhD in Chemistry beginning with a seminar titled "Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Antimicrobials for the Eradication of Biofilms." 2 pm in the Byker Auditorium. Danica works in the laboratory of Prof. Tom Livinghouse.
Tuesday, March 3 - Ms. Märtha Welander will defend her PhD in Chemistry beginning with a seminar titled "Operando Optical Studies of Next Generation Anode Materials in High Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells." 12:30 pm Byker Auditorium. Märtha works in the laboratory of Prof. Rob Walker.
Fall Semester 2019
Graduate Student Seminars -
Tuesday, November 12th - Ms. Sarah Hopfner presents her fourth year graduate student seminar. Sarah is a Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Prof. Mary Cloninger.
Thursday, November 7th - Mr. Colin Miller defends his Ph.D. in Chemistry. Colin works in the labs of Prof. Mary Cloninger and Prof. Ed Schmidt.
Wednesday, November 6th - Ms. Michelle Aries defends her Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Michelle works in the lab of Prof. Mary Cloninger.
Tuesday, November 5th - Ms. Grace Purnell defends her Ph.D. in Chemistry. Grace works in the lab of Prof. Rob Walker.
Friday, October 18th - Ms. Amanda Fuchs defends her Ph.D. in Biochemistry.Amanda works in the lab of Prof. Valérie Copié.
Friday, October 11th - Mr. Jesse Peach presents his fourth year graduate student seminar. Jesse is a Ph.D. student in the laboratory of Prof. Brian Bothner.
Friday, September 6th -Ms. Emerald Ellis presents her fourth year graduate student seminar. Emerald is a Ph.D student in the laboratory of Jen DuBois.
Tuesday, September 3rd - Ms. Ece Topuzlu defends her Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Ece works in the lab of Prof. Valérie Copié.
Monday, October 14th - Second rotations begin for the first year students. Enjoy experiencing another lab!
Tuesday, September 3rd - The new first year students begin their rotations through labs of interest
August - 23 first year graduate students join the department and arrive for orientation.
Spring Semester 2018
2018 Spring ACS Montana Local Section Meeting/Mini Conference
The local ACS meeting was held Friday April 6th 2018 at Montana State University, this mini conference was organized by the current GSA board in conjunction with the local ACS section. It was a great day and we all enjoyed listening and learning about the ground-breaking work our peers are carrying out across the state. We heard some great talks and were able to award travel grants to four of the speakers. These travel grants were funded by the local ACS section. More information about the day can be found at http://montana.sites.acs.org/
Travel Grant Winners
Materials Chemistry
Geoffrey Zath: High-Throughput Identification of Influenza Interfering Particles Using Droplet-Based Microfluidics
Biochemistry I
Ross Hartman: Elucidating Attachment of a Hyper-Thermophillic Virus with Cryo-Electron Tomography
Biochemistry II
Angela Patterson: The Role of Allostery in the Assembly of the HBV Capsid
Organic Chemistry
Danica Walsh: Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Pro-Drug Antimicrobials to Control Biofilms
New GSA board
We held our election for the new GSA board at our coffee and donut morning March 29th 2018, the new board will officially take over after the end of semester pizza party. The new board members that were voted in by the Graduate Student body are as follows:
Graduate Recruitment weekend
Massive thank you to everyone who participated in the graduate recruitment weekend this year. We enjoyed meeting and spending time with the recruits and look forward getting the know all of the new grad students when they arrive in August.
Fall Semester 2017
End of semester Pizza Party
Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate the end of semester with pizza and beer. We announced the winner of the GSA Travel Grant at the pizza party- massive congratulations to Emily Reeves.
Annual Departmental Picnic
Thanks to everyone who came to the annual picnic- check out the video that Moh made of the afternoon.
It was a great way to meet all the new incoming graduate students and catch up with everyone after a busy summer of research
Spring Semester 2017
End of Semester Pizza Party
Thanks to everyone who came and celebrated the end of the spring semester and the start of summer!
The warm weather made people feel groovy :)
Guess how many eggs winner
Photo Contest Winners
We held a photo contest during the spring semester, massive Thank You to everyone who entered. The winners were announced at our coffee and donut morning on March 31st, they each won a GSA coffee mug and $5 gift card for The Daily Coffee Bar
The categories and winners were:



Fall Semester 2016


Summer Semester 2016



Spring Semester 2016









