Meet the Executive Board!

2023-2024

Nicole Sagui

Co-President

Nicole grew up in northern Italy, where she received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Milano-Bicocca. Before moving to Oregon, she lived in Sweden for some time, graduating with an MS from Uppsala University and gaining a fondness for pickled herring and salty licorice. She is a member of the Boettcher lab, where she studies water oxidaton catalysis for clean energy technology. Nicole is excited to join the UO ADSE board and looks forward to continue promoting inclusivity in STEM with both on and off-campus communities.

Gabriela Bailey

Co-President

I grew up in Antigua, Guatemala and moved to Portland, OR, USA to pursue my undergraduate degree in Chemistry. I am currently pursuing my PhD conducting research in the lab of Professor Ramesh Jasti, at the University of Oregon. The goals I hope to accomplish with ADSE is help represent and support diversity in STEM. I have come to my place in academia with the guidance and mentorship of individuals who saw the value of diversity in STEM. One of my goals is to 'pay forward' the mentorship I have received throughout my STEM academic career. Through my work with ADSE, I have also come to strongly admire the work and effort our previous co-presidents (Alison Chang and Arman Garcia) dedicated to the UO ADSE chapter. For that reason, another one of my goals is focused on assisting ADSE's growth.

Andy Davis

Community College Outreach Chair

I graduated from my local community college, Moorpark College in 2018 before transferring to Cal Poly and graduating in 2020. Due to the nature of being a transfer student, I felt out of the loop or behind when it came to undergraduate research opportunities. Sometimes as a transfer student, it’s easy to feel left behind or overlooked; I want to ensure that community college students are given the information/resources they need to feel confident and be successful beyond community college. My goals as LCC Outreach Chair are to give local community college insight into research opportunities that they otherwise may not have been aware of. Additionally, I want to be able to offer them guidance when it comes to transferring to a 4 year institution, joining a research lab after transferring, attending graduate school, and exploring career options.

Keyan Li

Diversity Lecture Seminar Series Chair

I am a third year chemistry graduate student in the Pluth group, and I am excited to be serving as the seminar chair of ADSE. My goal for this upcoming year as the seminar chair is to bring a diverse group of seminar speakers to lecture about not only their exciting research to our department but also the topic of diversity and inclusion as well as their own fascinating journeys in science.

Karly Fear

Co-Outreach Chair

As an undergraduate at UO, Karly began her research journey in the Ong lab, designing and fabricating mechanically active magnetoelastic bone fixation devices meant to augment healing of large bone fractures. She then transitioned into Parisa Hosseinzadeh's lab to approach the treatment of bone fractures from a biomolecular perspective, by engineering proteins to improve the delivery of osteogenic growth factors. Inspired by Parisa's research and mentorship, Karly joined her as a graduate student and is now a second-year bioengineering PhD student in her group. She computationally designs and experimentally validates protein-protein interactions in order to develop new molecular and computational tools for therapeutic and synthetic biology applications. Prior to joining ADSE, Karly participated in a range of science outreach programs and projects and is excited to continue doing so with ADSE!

Malvika Singhal

Co-Outreach Chair

Hi! I am Malvika, and I am an incoming second year PhD student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. I went to undergrad at the University of California, Berkeley where my passion for K-12 Outreach grew. I am looking forward to being co-chair of K-12 Outreach, because I believe STEM accessibility is vital to empowering the future generation of scientists and engineers. Outreach doesn't stop after high school. I hope that through my position, I can also bridge the science and engineering communities on campus together to work towards greater inclusivity amongst colleagues at UO. Outside of outreach, I enjoy writing, cooking, and the outdoors.

Audrey Davenport

Social Media Chair

Audrey is originally from Indiana where she went to Butler University and double majored in Chemistry and French. She owes her interest in chemistry partly to her amazing professors she had in undergrad. Audrey is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon where she studies inorganic materials chemistry. Through ADSE, Audrey hopes to help undergraduates in STEM find their passions and pursue them fearlessly.

Aidan William Short

Website Chair

Growing up in New York City, Aidan developed an interest in biology watching insects in Riverside Park. This interest led him to Bowdoin College where he majored in biology and studied the diet of the invasive green crab. Aidan developed an interest in plant evolution as a Master's student at Guangxi University where he studied the cold stress response of mangroves. Aidan is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon where he studies monkeyflower adaptation and speciation in the Streisfeld Lab. As a member of ADSE, Aidan hopes to help increase student interest and involvement in scientific research.

Sayandeep Gupta

Science Communication Chair

Sayandeep's adventure in academia began in India, where he was born and raised. After spending years in studying microbiology and biochemistry, and finally obtaining his PhD, Sayandeep came to Oregon as a postdoc. His work in the Plesa Lab in Knight Campus focusses on developing gene synthesis technologies to create high-throughput screening method for large-scale antigen-antibody interaction. Sayandeep is obsessed with protein functions and has a deep interest in popular science communication. He writes articles on various scientific innovations in his native language for an Indian web-portal and has served as the editor for the same. When not engaged with the pipettes and PCR in his lab, you may find Sayandeep hiking along Oregon trails or reading the newest non-fiction in the cozy corner of his home.

Christopher Griffin

Workshop Chair

Following his childhood in San Diego, CA, Christopher obtained his B.S. in Biochemistry from Cal Poly. During his time at Cal Poly Christopher gained exposure to research under Prof. Zoerb in the topic of atmospheric chemistry. At UO, Christopher is working in the DeRose lab, where he is synthesizing and investigating the properties of Pt(IV) compounds, with particular interest in the effect these compounds have on the nucleolus and their role in ribosome biogenesis inhibition. Chris is hoping to increase awareness across various DEIR topics as the workshop chair for ADSE. In his free time Christopher enjoys running, playing soccer, and reading.

Tanner Rozendal

Undergraduate Officer

Tanner grew up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and now attends the University of Oregon in the pursuit of a B.S. in neuroscience and human physiology. He enjoys working in Dr. David McCormicks lab studying the neural mechanisms of epilepsy and their relation to the pupil. Outside of his studies and research, Tanner is passionate about serving his community volunteering at two local kitchens that provide meals to cancer patients and their families. Tanner also leads the Literature in STEM (LIST) book group, with a mission to share his interest in science with the Eugene community by providing free reading materials and organizing weekly discussions with his peers. Tanner is excited to serve as an officer on the ADSE board, where he intends to spread awareness about the numerous resources and science-related opportunities offered in the Eugene area. With his lifelong goal of improving the academic discipline, Tanner plans to pursue an MD/PhD degree at the conclusion of his undergraduate studies.

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.