Our chemical fingerprinting method to discriminate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), persistent pollutants with significant health and environmental consequences, has been accepted for publication in Chemical Science. The method was developed by Nick White and Michael Ihde in our group, using polymers developed by Joshua Tropp and Dr. Jason Azoulay at the School of Polymers at the University of Southern Mississippi. Our method, based on detecting how PAHs affect the fluorescence of fluorene-based conjugated polymers through the inner-filter effect (IFE), was able to discriminate between 16 PAH compounds identified as priority pollutants by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Yifei, and Xiyuan, graduate students in the group, are organizing a student-led symposium at the upcoming Fall ACS meeting in San Diego (August 2019). They are lining up some really interesting speakers, so plan to stop by if you are at the conference!

Gabrielle Covey, an experienced undergraduate researcher in our group, presented a talk at the ACS Southeastern Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC 2019) held this year at the University of Tennessee - Martin. She spoke on her research on metal complexation by modified rhodamine dyes carried out in collaboration with the Wallace Group at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Just like past years, many of us participated in the presentations at the 2018 Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS 2018, Augusta, GA).

• Xiyuan Yao gave a talk on Complexation thermodynamics between cyclodextrins and fatty acids. Xiyuan is a second-year graduate student, and this was her first report on work she conducted in our group.
  
• Yifei Xu gave a talk on Fingerprinting penicillin and cephalosporin antibiotics in neutral aqueous solution.
  
• Gabrielle Covey, an undergraduate researcher in the group whom we also recently hosted as an REU student (below), presented a poster on Fluorescent turn-on sensors for transition metals.

Congratulations to all of them!

Michael, Xiaoli, and Yifei, three graduate students in the group, organized a student-led symposium at the Fall ACS meeting in Boston (August 2018). The speaker lineup was stellar!

Our paper on the thermodynamic origin of the selectivity (or lack thereof) of a transition metal based receptor to a series of anions, stemming from work done by Michele Invernici, a visiting graduate student from Italy who spent six months in our group, has been accepted for publication in Chemistry - a European Journal! Here is a link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/chem.201800067

Dr. Bonizzoni was invited to present at the 2017 CASE (Catalysis and Sensing for our Environment) conference, organized in Shanghai, China by Prof. Yujun Yang (ECUST).

Xiaoli presented a poster today on the detection of sugars using boronated polymers at the 5th WiSE (Women in STEM Experience) Symposium organized by the University of Alabama. Her poster was selected to win the First Prize Poster Award! Congratulations Xiaoli!