June 2022: Samudra Amunugama graduates with a Ph.D., is snatched mercilessly by Intel
June 2022: Marco (PhD 10) get an award for Excellence in Research at La Sierra U.
May 2022: Nour got a well-deserved hooding ceremony stolen by COVID.
March 2022: Sunalee (PhD 16) becomes research scientist at Dulux in Australia
February 2022: Dakshika is appointed Sr. lecturer at U. of Kelanyia
February 2022: Rajendra (PhD 07) receives an endowed Teaching Award from Broward
2021: Isuri Weeraratne graduates with a Ph.D., is hired as lecturer U. Sri Jayewardenepura
2021: Carlos Lucecki and Emerson Perry join the group
2020: Nour El-Harakeh graduates with a Ph.D.
2019: Danushka Ekanayake graduates with a Ph.D., joins the Fiedler group at Marquette as PDF
2019: Gibson Kirui and Eva Mwakazi join the group
2018: Pavithra Kankanamalage graduates with her Ph.D., moves to a PDF with Heather Hennkens
August 2017: Claudio joins the dark side – He’s an Associate Dean for Research now…
2017: Habib Baydoun graduates with a Ph.D., moves to a position at GE Chemistry
2017: Abi Cousino joins the group
2017: Kenneth Kpogo graduates with a Ph.D., moves to a position at Moses Lake
2016: Sunalee Gonawala graduates with a Ph.D.
2015: Ryan Thomas graduates with a Ph.D., starts position at GHD Environmental
2015: Debashis Basu graduates with a Ph.D., moves to a postdoc with Randy Thummel
2015: Debashis and Shivnath double scored with two ACIE papers on proton/water reduction with cobalt complexes (2015, 54, 2105 and 7139)
August 2015: Claudio gets the IUPAC-Young Investigator Award to travel to Busan, Korea
April 2015: Claudio gets the WSU-Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award
January 2015: Claudio gets a profile in the Brazilian newspaper “Notícias do Dia” (Daily News) tilted “The Santa Catarina-born Claudio Verani wanted to be a scientist by age 3″… At 44 he is professor and scientist at Wayne State University in Detroit, United States
December 2014: Claudio is a “Special Guest Researcher and Lecturer” at Federal University of Niteroi, Brazil. He will be there for 4-6 weeks every year from 2014 to 2016
September 2014: Dajena graduates with a Ph.D. degree. She is now Prof. Tomco at Marygrove in Detroit
July 2014: Lanka graduates with a Ph.D. degree. She is now a member of the Thummel lab in Houston
February to May 2014: Claudio is a visiting scholar on sabbatical in the Artificial Photosynthesis group led by David Tiede at the Argonne National Laboratory
December 2014: Lanka continues to walk on water… this time with the help of Sunalee and Shivnath. The “Mechanisms of Rectification in Au|molecule|Au Devices Based on Langmuir-Blodgett Films of Iron(III) and Copper(II) Surfactants” (ACIE 2014, 53, 14462) is the culmination of 12 years of research
May 2014: Dakshika’s “Effect of Substituents on the Water Oxidation Activity of [RuII(terpy)(phen)Cl]+ Procatalysts” (IC 2014, 53, 3311) was the first paper on water oxidation by the group. It’s more like a 3-in-1 paper with massive amounts of data there!
December 2013: Dakshika graduates with a Ph.D. degree. She is Prof. Dakshika in Sri Lanka now
October 2013: Rama’s work gets the cover on Dalton
January 2013: Lanka’s “Rectification in Nanoscale Devices based on an Iron(III) Complex” (ACIE 2013 52, 13346). Now we are talking about devices, and devices that rectify current. Lanka, you walk on water!
November 2012: Dajena’s “Probing ligand dissociation in cobalt(III) complexes as a viable mechanism for the inhibition of the 20S Proteasome”. An invited paper for Jim Dabrowiak’s special issue “Metals in Medicine” in ICA 2012 393, 269
September 2012: Claudio’s “Probing the inhibition mechanisms of the 26S proteasome by metal complexes in tumorous cells.” And invited review for the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry
February 2012: Frank graduates with a Ph.D. degree. Dr. Lesh is a big shot at Henkel now
July 2012: Marco’s masterpiece “Bioinspired five-coordinate iron(III) complexes for stabilization of phenoxyl radicals” published in Angew Chem. 2012, 51, 3178. This was the follow up to Mauricio’s work and the precursor for Lanka’s devices. It also got the cover!
June 2012: Claudio gets the Young Investigator Award at the GRC: Metals in Medicine conference
December 2011: Rama graduates with a Ph.D. degree. Persistence and hard work always pay off. She is now a lab manager in California
September 2011: Claudio gets a two-page profile “Inspiration… from nature to inorganic chemistry” in the WSU magazine New Science
April 2011: Claudio is the recipient of the WSU 2011-2012 Career Development Chair
June 2011: Frank, Marco, and Rama’s “Ruthenium(II)-containing amphiphiles” on IC 2011, 50, 969, playing with photosubstitution in ruthenium amphiphiles
September 2010: Marco Allard graduates with a Ph.D. degree. After a post-doc with my friend and mentor John Endicott, he is now Prof. Allard in California
August 2010: Frank and Rama’s “Modular approach to multimetallic hydrophobes of discoid topology” (IC 2010, 49, 7226). Supramolecular chemistry at its best with mighty [FeII(FeIII)3] film precursors
May 2010: Claudio’s review on “Films of metal-containing surfactants” for the McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology
October 2009: Claudio is elected fellow of the Karmanos Cancer Institute
October 2009: Sarmad’s “Copper(II) complexes as inhibitors of the 20S proteasome” paper (EJMC 2009, 44, 4353) was a landmark on the possible mechanisms of proteasome inhibition
July 2009: Frank’s work gets the cover on EJIC 2009, 345
March 2009: Sarmad graduates with a Ph.D. degree. Now he is Prof. Hindo in North Carolina
October 2008: Jeff’s “film patterning of redox-active cationic copper(II) surfactants” (CEJ 2008, 14, 9665). To this date, a masterpiece on Brewster angle microscopy!
April 2008: Jeff graduates with a Ph.D. degree. This guy defended on a Monday, married on a Wednesday and was deployed to Iraq on a Friday of the same week. Thank you for the service to our country sir!
November 2007: Rajendra and Sarmad’s “Amphiphilic behavior of cobalt(ii)-containing soft-materials” (IC 2007, 46, 9808). First “hard-core” paper on surface science
July 2007: Rajendra is the first student to graduate with a Ph.D. degree. Now he is Prof. Shakya in Florida
June 2007: Frezza and Rajendra’s review on anticancer gallium gets the cover
September 2006: Publication of Rajendra’s “Thermotropic mesomorphism of soft materials bearing carboxylate-supported μ4-oxo tetracupric clusters” (IC 2006, 45, 7587). First paper on the incorporation of clusters to amphiphiles AND on liquid crystals. You’re the man Rajendra!
August 2006: Publication of Mauricio’s “Structural and electronic behavior of unprecedented five-coordinate iron(III) and gallium(III) complexes with a new phenol-rich electroactive ligand” IC 2006, 45, 955. This paper remains pivotal for the group’s ligand design and for efforts in molecular rectification
October 2005: Camille graduated with an M.Sc. degree and went back to beloved France. Now she is a big shot at Johnson & Johnson
September 2005: First paper published: Camille’s “Influence of ligand rigidity and ring substitution on the structural and electronic behavior of trivalent iron and gallium complexes with asymmetric tridentate ligands” IC, 2005, 44, 7414
