News

Alden, Cody, and Tyler, along with some of our other coworkers, volunteered with United Way this month through their Lunch Bunch program! They had a great time chatting with the children about life as a scientist and letting out their inner child by playing soccer and "lava monster" with them after lunch.

It was a busy week in the Clément group as we had not one but two PhD students defend their dissertations! Ash and Olivia both delivered wonderful presentations exhibiting the years of hard work they put into their research. It's been a pleasure to have them in our group, and they'll be sorely missed. Huge congratulations to Dr. Wander and Dr. Patterson!!!

Shiyu received the prestigious Willard L. McRary Prize from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry! This award was created in honor of Willard L. McRary, Professor of Chemistry, 1940-58, and is given to graduating seniors whose attainment in chemistry is outstanding and reflects the promise of the same high-quality scientific achievement that characterized the career of its namesake. Shiyu was also awarded the Phi Lambda Upsilon Award and graduated with Highest Honors from UCSB!

Alden, Emma, Tyler, Erick, and Julia had a blast with the Family Ultimate Science Exploration (FUSE) program this week when they went to Carpenteria Middle School to host workshops for the students and their families. The theme was Waves so they taught participants about the various forms and properties of waves using slinkies and spectrometers and even guided them in making simple homemade speakers!

Maggie and Cody presented posters at this year's Experimental NMR Conference in Asilomar. They enjoyed meeting other members of the magnetic resonance community, from fellow graduate students to facility managers and professors. They also caught up with an old postdoc, now assistant professor of chemistry at the Danish Technical University, Dr. Leo Gordon!

Hanna, Erick, and Alden took a trip to Didcot, UK, to perform synchrotron XRD at the I-11 beamline of Diamond Light Source. They acquired valuable data for our group and for our colleagues in other UCSB groups, and also got a tour of the Bruce Lab from our former colleague Amelia, now at Oxford!

Ash and Eliana presented posters at this year's Batteries Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar in Ventura. They enjoyed learning from other students and faculty and hearing new perspectives on their research, and thought it was exciting to see a zoomed-out view of current work in the battery community. They both enjoyed the chance to chat and network with other students, and Eliana got a chance to catch up with old friends in the Chueh Group!

Our group had a fun time at the bowling alley again as an end of the year celebration and farewell party for Elizabeth. We will miss her dearly and wish her all the best in her next chapter!

The group had a great time at the “Finding Internships in Materials Science” panel for UCSB undergrads, which Alden planned and moderated, and at which Anaya served as a panelist. We shared resources and opportunities for internships in academia and industry.

At the annual Materials Student Association Halloween coffee hour and costume contest, many of our group members donned pink as Battery Scientist Barbies!