William G. Fateley Student Award

2022 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Yamuna Phal

Yamuna Phal, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Yamuna Phal is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She received her B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT-R) and an M.S. from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) both in Electrical Engineering. After working as an analog research engineer with Finisar and the Swedish Institute of Space Physics she joined Prof. Bhargava’s research group to develop next-generation IR imaging instruments. She was able to bring her knowledge and expertise in design of spectroscopic instruments for remote sensing applications to the field of vibrational spectroscopy, specifically to develop novel cancer imaging technology.

Yamuna’s research work involves the development of quantum cascade laser (QCL)-based vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectroscopy and imaging techniques for the rapid identification and separation of chiral samples. Her recent publications include the first study on VCD imaging and demonstration of its capabilities (Analytical Chemistry, 2021) and using decision theory to provide an analytical formulation for the resolution limit of spectral imaging systems (Journal of Physical Chemistry C). Both of these were featured on their respective journal covers. Her work has resulted in five first author peer-reviewed publications, nine total publications, and a book chapter. Her work has been recognized by awards in different scientific communities, including the best student poster award at SciX 2021. She was invited to present her work at OSA Biophotonics Congress and FACSS SciX in 2021. She was also selected to represent UIUC at the Global Young Scientists Summit in early 2022.

Yamuna is a recipient of the prestigious Cadence Women in Technology Program, the President of India Award (IIT-R), a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Fellowship (Caltech), the Nadine Barrie Smith Award and the James Henderson Fellowship (UIUC). She is a passionate teacher and has been recognized by the Harold Olsen Award and E. A. Reid Fellowship for undergraduate teaching and engineering education at UIUC.  Yamuna has served as a mentor to several high school, undergraduate, and graduate students and is committed to helping underrepresented students join STEM careers. Moreover, her efforts in undergraduate teaching have been recognized by the UIUC graduate college and she has been consistently ranked as an excellent teacher in Fall 2017 and Spring 2018. She is a founding member of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) Illinois chapter and currently serves as President of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) student chapter at UIUC.

2021 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Paulina Kozioł

Paulina Koziol, Jagiellonian University, Poland, Professor Tomasz P. Wrobel

Paulina Koziol is currently in her third year of PhD studies of Biophysics at the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science of Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Medical Physics from AGH University of Science in Krakow. After MSc studies, Paulina worked for a year as a research technician within a project led by Prof. Tomasz P. Wrobel and focused on the development of histopathological models for cancer detection based on IR imaging and machine learning. Successful cooperation encouraged her to enroll in a PhD program in October 2018, under T. P. Wrobel’s supervision. During her studies she continues working on classification models, mostly focusing on pancreatic cancer, including translation from FT-IR to a faster QCL modality. She has also done extensive work on denoising influence on IR spectroscopic data quality and classification results. This research resulted in a series of optimization-themed publications for both FT-IR and QCL imaging. Currently, her work interest is leaning towards implementing polarized infrared light to determine macromolecular orientation and level of ordering, mainly for fibrous tissue, which may play a significant role in cancer microenvironment.

Paulina is an author of ten publications, including three as first author. She has received several awards and stipends, including a prestigious START stipend from the Foundation for Polish Science and a stipend under the Iwanowska Programme from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange NAWA covering six months internship in Prof. Rohit Bhargava’s group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Apart from her studies, Paulina works at the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre in Krakow, where she is a part of a team of beamline scientists constructing the Solaris Advanced IR (SOLAIR) beamline. She is also PI of her own research grant from the National Science Centre Poland entitled “Improving 3D macromolecule orientation determination based on polarized IR chemical imaging by optimization of scattering removal algorithms”.

2020 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Ewelina Mistek-Morabito

Ewelina Mistek-Morabito is a Ph.D. student in Chemistry at the University at Albany, State University of New York and a National Institute of Justice Graduate Research fellow. Ewelina is originally from Bukowno, a small village in Poland. She obtained an Academy Profession Degree in Chemical and Biotechnical Science from the Business Academy Aarhus, University of Applied Sciences in Denmark. During that program, she pursued a one-year internship in a forensic science laboratory with the Lednev Research Group at the University at Albany. After returning to Europe, Ewelina continued her undergraduate program in Forensic and Analytical Science at the Robert Gordon University, earning her Bachelor of Science with Distinction. In 2016, she returned to the University at Albany to pursue her doctorate degree under the mentorship of Professor Igor Lednev. She obtained her master’s degree in chemistry simultaneously while pursuing her Ph.D. degree in May 2019.

Ewelina’s work involves the application of vibrational spectroscopy and statistical data analysis for the development of new forensic methods with a focus on the identification and characterization of body fluid traces. Her work has been recognized by a number of local, national, and international awards. Besides the prestigious National Institute of Justice Fellowship, Ewelina received the Coblentz Society Student Award in 2017, the FACSS Student Award in 2019, the Best Student Poster Award at the 2019 ICAVS conference in Auckland, New Zealand, runner-up in the Three Minute Thesis Competition at the University at Albany, and the Francis Dunstan Travel Award to present at the 2018 ICORS conference in Jeju, South Korea. This year alone, Ewelina received the William G. Fateley Student Award and the 2020 Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) Barbara Stull Graduate Student Award. She is also serving as Student Representative for the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

Ewelina has already published nine articles in peer-reviewed journals including five first-author papers, and one book chapter. She has  presented her research at more than twenty local, national, and international conferences. She was interviewed by local TV stations, the University’s podcast series, and her research was highlighted in the press on several different occasions. Ewelina’s research continues to attract the attention of the forensic and spectroscopy societies, as she proceeds to disseminate her research around the world.

2019 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Shachi Mittal

Shachi Mittal, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Professor Rhohit Bhargava

Shachi Mittal is currently a final year graduate student in the Department of Bioengineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her current research in Prof. Rohit Bhargava’s lab focuses on developing efficient and robust computational models using spectroscopy data for early cancer detection and prognostic assessment, particularly breast cancer. Risk stratification of early stage patients has been a challenge as there are no clinical factors, histopathologic features, or molecular markers that permit reliable assessment of recurrence risk. Consequently, many more women are over diagnosed, resulting in potential short-term and long-term morbidities as well as healthcare costs. Therefore, precise diagnosis of in-situ cancer and predictive models for their progression is indispensable for early detection and subsequently improved patient outcome. Her recent work on building digital tools for identifying different disease states and microenvironment analysis using infrared spectroscopic imaging and machine learning can provide more detailed diagnoses for precise treatment planning. She has translated her models to discrete frequency measurements for rapid and efficient clinical translation. Her future goal is to combine patient information obtained from chemical imaging, genomics, proteomics, tissue and patient level disease information to identify multilevel statistical associations to drive improved diagnostics, treatment and management of cancer.

Prior to joining graduate school, Shachi earned her Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2014. Her research work has resulted in 13 peer-reviewed publications and several awards including the Baxter Young Investigator award, invited speaker at Annual Engineering PhD Summit in EPFL, Lausanne, an Eastern Analytical Symposium Graduate Student Research award, the Nadine Barrie Smith fellowship, Beckman Institute Graduate Fellow, a Big Data Summer fellowship and an Illinois Distinguished Fellowship.

2018 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Courtney Marie Olson

Courtney Marie Olson, University of Minnesota, Professor Aaron Massari

Courtney Olson began her research career in analytical and physical chemistry with Dr. Karn at Ohio Northern University (ONU). During the summer of 2013, she was accepted to participate in Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of Oregon with Dr. Geraldine Richmond. She studied how polyelectrolytes behave at an oil-water interface with addition of metal salts and changes in acidity using vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy and interfacial tension measurements. In 2014, Courtney received her B.S. in chemistry from ONU. During the summer before starting graduate school at the University of Minnesota, Courtney started her graduate research with Dr. Aaron Massari, where she was trained in two-dimensional infrared (2D-IR) spectroscopy. Courtney earned her M.S. in December 2015, while also becoming a Ph.D. candidate. During her first few years of thesis work in Dr. Massari’s group, she studied the silicon hydride mode in small molecule silanes using 2D-IR spectroscopy to see if different substituents imparted different sensitivity to solvatochromism and/or spectral diffusion. She then continued to use the silicon hydride mode as a probe in a new system, polydimethylsiloxane, in hopes of seeing differences in the ultrafast structural dynamics of the polymer by inducing physical and chemical changes like swelling, compression, cross-link density, etc. She has published seven peer-reviewed papers, being first author on two of them, and has presented her research at many poster sessions at scientific conferences. She has earned several awards and fellowships, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRFP) and the Overend Award for Graduate Research in Physical Chemistry.

Other than performing research, Courtney also volunteers and participates in outreach. She volunteers for the Energy and U show as a fire safety volunteer, where the show helps 3rd through 6th grade students get excited about science and engineering. Since the summer of 2015, Courtney has participated in the yearly outreach program, University on the Prairie, where she is one of the science outreach instructors. This program immerses middle and high school students from rural portions of Minnesota in hands-on activities to show them what they can do with a science education.

2017 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – David A. Bryce

David A. Bryce, University of Utah, Professor Joel M. Harris

David A. Bryce is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Utah, working in the research lab of Joel M. Harris. David received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Central Washington University in 2012. During his undergraduate studies, David did research with Prof. Dion Rivera, utilizing ATR-FTIR methods for investigating polyelectrolyte adsorption to oxide films. After graduation, David worked as a post bachelor’s research assistant at Pacific Northwest National Lab, developing infrared spectroscopic methodology for in situ study of the partitioning of contaminants between water and supercritical CO2. Following this appointment, David enrolled in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah to pursue a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry. David is presently the National Student Representative to the Executive Committee of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

David’s research in the Harris group has focused on developing and utilizing confocal Raman microscopy methods for detection and analysis within individual chromatographic particles. David’s work in the Harris group initially focused on the measurement and modeling of accumulation kinetics of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in reversed-phase chromatographic silica. More recent work has focused on the preparation and characterization of supported phospholipid bilayers deposited throughout the pore-network of chromatographic silica particles. These pore-confined bilayers can be used for label-free confocal Raman microscopy experiments to detect membrane partitioning of small molecules, specific protein binding to membrane localized ligands, and detection of signaling peptide accumulation. This research provides both quantitative and structural information about molecular interactions with phospholipid membranes.

2016 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Mustafa Unal

Mustafa Unal, Case Western Reserve University, Professor Ozan Akkus

Mustafa Unal received his B.Sc. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Selcuk University in Turkey. His success in B.Sc. was recognized with M.Sc. and PhD fellowships from Turkish Government. He is currently a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Ozan Akkus at Case Western Reserve University. His current research includes Raman spectroscopic analysis of bone and cartilage with diseases and aging. He has recently developed Raman spectroscopy-based a novel nondestructive modality to assess hydration status in bone and cartilage. It was the first time in the literature that OH-stretching band region was characterized for bone and cartilage to identify different water compartments as a novel tool to assess bone and cartilage quality.

He further works on several side projects including the novel use of Raman spectroscopic techniques for point of care testing devices such as diagnosis of crystals in urine for early detection of kidney stone formation and diagnosis of crystals-induced arthropathies. Since 2014, he has published 6 peer-reviewed articles, 1 book chapter, and presented 13 poster/oral presentations in scientific conferences. He has been recognized as a promising young investigator in the field of biomedical vibrational spectroscopy and musculoskeletal biomechanics, as evidenced by several national and international prestigious awards, including FACSS Student Award, ORS Osteoarthritis Young Investigator Award, Baxter Young Investigator Award, The Victor M. Goldberg Award, and The George W. Codrington Charitable Foundation Student Research Award. He has been also selected as one of the ten finalists of 2016 CIMIT Student Technology Prize for Primary Healthcare.

2015 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Marie Richard-Lacroix

Marie Richard-Lacroix, Université de Montréal, Professor Christian Pellerin

Marie Richard-Lacroix is currently a Ph.D. candidate under the supervision of Prof. Christian Pellerin at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Montreal. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 2011 from the University of Montreal. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in Prof. Pellerin’s group on the formation and characterization of supramolecular polymer complexes with small molecules into electrospun nanofibers. For this work, she received the Undergraduate Tthesis Award from the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Division of the Canadian Society for Chemistry.

As a graduate student, her main research interest focuses on the characterization of molecular orientation and structural aspects of electrospun nanofibers by confocal Raman spectroscopy. She was the first to demonstrate that quantitative information can be obtained on individual nanofibers. She established a new, experimentally simplified method with improved accuracy for orientation quantification by Raman spectroscopy. She also works on the characterization of ultrathin films by infrared spectroscopy. Up to now, she has published nine peer-reviewed papers, including eight as a first author and a review article. She is also author or coauthor of over 35 contributions presented in national and international conferences. She earned several awards and scholarships, including from NSERC-Canada, FRQNT-Québec and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

2014 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Chris Huber

Chris Huber, University of Minnesota, Professor Aaron Massari

Chris Huber received his bachelor’s degree in 2010 from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse in the field of Chemistry. While at UWL he gained undergraduate research experience in both the laboratories of Dr. Kris Rolfhus (analytical chemistry) and Dr. Janet Kirsch (computational chemistry). He also spent two years working as an intern in the chemistry laboratory at the Trane Co. testing facility. Before starting graduate school, Chris was a summer researcher at the University of Minnesota in Dr. Aaron Massari’s ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy lab, where he was trained in two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy (2D-IR). In March 2012, Chris earned his M.S. in Chemistry at Minnesota while also becoming a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Massari’s group. Chris has spent the first couple years of his thesis work developing a new route to silica sol-gel films that incorporates a molecular vibration that not only can be probed with 2D-IR spectroscopy, but also is sensitive to the dynamics of its surroundings.

2013 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Tomasz P. Wrobel

Tomasz P. Wrobel, Jagiellonian University, Professor Malgorzata Baranska

Tomasz P. Wrobel graduated from “Advanced Spectroscopy in Chemistry” Erasmus Mundus master programme in 2010, yielding a double diploma of USTL Lille 1 (France) and Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland). He completed a master thesis about atherosclerotic tissue imaging with FT-IR spectroscopy and is continuing this topic throughout his PhD studies under supervision of Professor Malgorzata Baranska. He is also an assistant in Jagiellonian Centre for Experimental Therapeutics (JCET). He has published 10 peer-reviewed articles (another 4 are in the process of revision) and 2 book chapters (another one is being reviewed).

He has received several awards and stipends including an award by the Polish Chemical Society for the best presentation of master thesis results, regional “Doctus” fund for the best doctoral students and an award given by the polish Ministry of Education for the best doctoral students.

2012 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Xiaohua (Sarah) Zhou

Xiaohua (Sarah) Zhou, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Professor James R. Durig

Xiaohua (Sarah) Zhou is completing her Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City with Dr. James R. Durig. Her research is focused on understanding the structural properties and dynamics of quasi-linear molecules with a special emphasis on molecules containing the isocyanate moiety. The research is conducted by utilizing infrared, Raman, and microwave spectroscopy along with theoretical investigation.

She has published 14 peer-reviewed papers and is expected to have five more prior to her graduation in May 2013. During her graduate studies, she worked as a research assistant in the University of Kansas Medical Center carrying out research on the molecular and thermodynamic mechanism of allosteric regulations by utilizing Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry. Xiaohua has received several awards which include the Gates Millennium Scholars-Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship fund, the Outstanding Merit Award from the UMKC Women’s Council and first place for her poster presentation at FACSS 2011.

2011 William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Rohith Reddy

Rohith Reddy, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Professor Rohit Bhargava

Rohith Reddy is a Bioengineering graduate student in the Chemical Imaging and Structures Laboratory, headed by Professor Rohit Bhargava at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. His research interests include design of novel instrumentation and imaging technologies for infrared spectroscopy. His current research is focused on creating and enhancing mid-Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging techniques for biomedical applications. His work also presents important advances in using FT-IR imaging for tissue type identification and cancer detection in prostate and breast tissue. Previously, he obtained his B.Tech and M.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

In his doctoral work he has so far published 5 peer reviewed papers, 1 book chapter and filed 1 patent. As a graduate student he has won the FACSS student poster award in 2007 and 2009, the Bioengineering Student Award (2010) and Graduate Student Achievement Award (2009) at the University of Illinois and co-authored the bronze medal winning paper at Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) 2007 held at London.

2010 Inaugural William G. Fateley Award Recipient – Ali Eftekhari-Bafrooei

Ali Eftekhari-Bafrooei, Temple University, Ph.D. 2010, Professor Eric Borguet

Ali Eftekhari-Bafrooei received his M.Sc. degree in Physical Chemistry from Sharif University in Tehran, Iran where he studied surface reaction mechanisms. He traveled to the USA to join Professor Borguet’s group at Temple University in 2005 and is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow in the group of Professor Stephen Leone at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

During his PhD he studied the vibrational spectroscopy and dynamics of interfacial water using vibrational sum-frequency generation (SFG). His experiments were the first to reveal how the ultrafast vibrational dynamics of water at a solid interface (H20/Si02) can be slowed down, a consequence of the reduced number of neighbors. Furthermore, he used dilute solutions of HDO in D20 to decouple the 0-H stretch and observed a frequency dependent vibrational relaxation of this mode. The redshift of the 0-H stretch in SFG spectra with increasing charge at the silica surface suggested a correlation with the strength of the hydrogen bond network. This provided a connection between the spectroscopy and dynamics of water at a charged interface, and existing theoretical models for vibrational dynamics of bulk hydrogen bonded systems. In addition, he has contributed to a variety of studies where vibrational SFG has been critical in determining the structure of self assembled monolayers and their effect on processes as diverse as neuronal cell growth and electronic device fabrication.