Meet the Executive Board!
2026-2027
Katy Wyatt-Allen (She/Her)
Co-President
Katy is originally from Keizer, Oregon. She is a 4th year PhD candidate, specializing in chemistry in the Jasti Lab where she does research on organic synthesis.
As co-president, she supports and helps the other chairs on the executive board as they plan their yearly activities (e.g. professional development workshops for undergraduates and graduate students or science communication seminars). She organizes ADSE’s bi-weekly meetings, applies for interdepartmental funding, and attends meetings that need a club head representative.
Through ADSE, she hopes to help foster a sense of community through outreach events while showcasing the excitement of chemistry and what it truly means to be a scientist.
Christopher Griffin (He/Him)
Co-President
Christopher is originally from San Diego, California. He is a 5th year PhD candidate, specializing in chemistry in the DeRose Lab where he does chemical biology research. He studies how metal compounds affect biological systems, specifically how platinum compounds with anti cancer potential affect the function of the nucleus and nucleolus.
Through ADSE, he hopes to expose the UO community to different ways of presenting their own science, as well as showing that science can be accessible to everyone and doesn’t have to be for experts only.
Outside of school, he enjoys spending time outside, particularly running, biking, soccer, and backpacking. He also enjoys slower days where he gets to read and watch movies.
Noah Smith-Shoop (She/Her)
Science Communication Chair
Noah is originally from Eugene, Oregon. She is an undergraduate student majoring in advertising and minoring in science communication.
She loves the work that ADSE does. She believes that diversity is so important in all spaces and the work that ADSE does to help break the barrier of accessibility to STEM knowledge and opportunities is such a huge part in making STEM spaces more diverse.
Outside of school, she loves hanging out with her husband and cats, reading, cooking, birding, swimming, and being outside.
Taylor (She/They)
K-12 Outreach Chair
Taylor is originally from Alma, Arkansas. She is a 5th year PhD student, specializing in physical chemistry in the Widom Lab where she conducts research on the photophysics of fluorescent probes of RNA structures and fluorescence-detected spectroscopy as a way of studying RNA structure and dynamics.
In their role as K-12 Outreach Chair, they work with schools of all grade levels and organizations in the Eugene-Springfield area to bring different and fun educational STEM activities to students.
She loves being able to take a small part in making STEM education and activities more accessible for all students. She feels that she was fortunate enough to grow up with her love for science thanks to the encouraging teachers who made STEM fun with the resources that they had. She hopes to help teachers in this endeavor. She loves seeing the students get excited by science and hopes that it encourages them to see themselves as scientists and to dream big.
Outside of school, they enjoy hiking, reading, and crocheting/knitting.
Alexandra Bender (She/Her)
Perspectives in Science Lecture Series Coordinator
Alex is originally from Horsham, Pennsylvania. She is a 3rd year PhD candidate, specializing in Chemistry in the Cook Lab where she does organometallics research.
In her role as Perspectives in Science Lecture Series Coordinator Chair, she organizes a series of seminars for visiting scientists to come to UO to educate the student body on the career opportunities available in chemistry across a diversity of backgrounds. Within this role, she is most excited about her ability to expand her and her peers’ career horizons.
To her, ADSE is an opportunity to connect to scientists beyond UO, and also enable her to understand how a career in chemistry can be used to change the world around her.
Outside of school, she enjoys jigsaw puzzles, video games, skiing, and thrifting.
Natalie Lakanen (She/Her)
Public Relations Chair
Natalie is originally from Upland, Indiana. She is a 3rd year PhD candidate in the Haley/DWJ labs specializing in tuning the fluorescent properties of azaphosphinine heterocycles.
In her role as Public Relations Chair, she helps promote ADSE through social media, flyers, and internally at the University of Oregon.
Outside of school, she loves skiing, mountain biking, and going on all sorts of adventures in the PNW.
Sam Rundquist (He/Him)
Treasurer
Sam is originally from Buffalo, New York. He is a 3rd year PhD candidate in the DWJ lab specializing in the pnictogen-assisted self-assembly of novel sulfur macrocycles.
Liz Hicklin (She/Her)
Workshops Chair
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Dr. Amanda Cook
Co-Faculty Sponsor
Amanda earned her BS in Chemistry from the California State University Fullerton in 2010, after transferring there from a community college. She then went to the University of Michigan, where she earned her PhD studying Pd-catalyzed C-H activation reactions in Melanie Sanford’s group. During her post-doctoral stay at ETH Zurich, she worked on single-site Zn heterogeneous catalysts for hydroamination reactions. In 2018, she began her independent career at the University of Oregon, where her group develops new catalytic reactions and studies their mechanisms. At UO, she is involved in the chemistry SAIL camp, the Near-Peer Mentoring Program, and most recently, ADSE!
Dr. Ramesh Jasti
Co-Faculty Sponsor
Professor Ramesh Jasti was born in Concord, North Carolina (1st generation born in the United States) and attended the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill as an undergraduate. At UNC, Prof. Jasti synthesized and characterized gold nanoparticles in the laboratories of Professor Royce Murray. This early research experience sowed the seeds of his future interests in interdisciplinary research and nanoscience. After graduation in 1998, Professor Jasti worked at a start-up pharmaceutical company for three years in the Research Triangle Park. Having found great interest in organic synthesis, Prof. Jasti conducted his graduate education under the guidance of Professor Scott Rychnovsky at the University of California, Irvine. Prof. Jasti’s graduate research led to the unraveling of numerous mechanistic aspects of the Prins cyclization reaction. After obtaining his PhD in 2006, Prof. Jasti started as a postdoctoral fellow with Professor Carolyn Bertozzi at The Molecular Foundry, a brand new nanoscience institute at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. At Berkeley, he began to explore the concept of attacking problems in nanoscience utilizing organic synthesis as an enabling tool. Having joined Boston University in the summer of 2009, this basic idea continues to be the overarching theme of the Jasti Research Group. Professor Jasti has been a recent recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, and Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, as well as a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. In the summer of 2014, he moved to the University of Oregon where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and Associate Director of the Materials Science Institute.
