About Us
Who are we?
We are a group of early career spectroscopists interested in spreading knowledge of magnetic resonance techniques to amateur and veteran spectroscopists through our series of educational webinars.
How did this all begin?
A lot of the traditional methods for sharing ideas and reconnecting with friends in the scientific community were stymied by the pandemic. People were looking for new/existing ways to stay connected and discuss the science that motivates us. Many of us were already using video-conference software to stay in touch with colleagues, seeing it be applied to social gatherings as well, so it seemed like the next logical leap.
Our aim was to provide a webinar series that differed from the normal conference style talk by putting an extra emphasis on the introductory material and questions from the audience. Our goal being to produce a series that mixes the learning environment of a classroom with the discussion of cutting-edge research that we normally see at conferences.
Organizing Committee
Dr. Amrit Venkatesh – President
2008 – 2013: MSc Chemistry, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India
2016 – 2020: PhD Physical Chemistry (Fast MAS solid-state NMR), Iowa State University, USA (Prof. Aaron Rossini)
2021 – 2023: Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow (Dynamic Nuclear Polarization), EPFL, Switzerland (Prof. Lyndon Emsley)
2023 – present: Research Faculty I, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, USA
Dr. Asif Equbal – Secretary
2008 – 2013: BS-MS, IISER Mohali, India
2013 – 2016: PhD, Aarhus University, Denmark (with Prof. Niels Chr. Nielsen and Prof. P. K. Madhu)
2017 – 2021: Postdoc, UCSB, California, USA (with Prof. Songi Han)
2021 – 2022: Postdoc, Northwestern University, Illinois, USA (with Prof. Michael Wasielewski)
2022 – Current: Assistant Professor, NYU Abu Dhabi
Dr. Adrian Draney – Treasurer
2008 – 2012: BS Chemistry and Mathematics, Doane University
2012 – 2018: PhD Biophysical Solution State NMR, University of Illinois at Chicago
2018 – 2020: Postdoctoral researcher Solid State NMR, CRMN, Lyon France (Prof. Guido Pintacuda)
2021 – Current: Instrument Specialist, Creighton University, Omaha, NE
Nesreen Elathram – Twitter Conference Committee
2014 – 2018: BS in Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
2018 – Current: PhD in Chemical Biology, University of California San Diego with Prof. Galia Debelouchina
Charlotte Bocquelet – Twitter Conference Committee
2016 – 2019: BSc in Biochemistry, University of Lyon 1
2019 – 2021: MSc in chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science
2021 – Current: PhD in Chemistry, CRMN, Lyon France with Prof. Sami Jannin
Nikita Rao – Twitter Conference Committee
2014 – 2019: Integrated MSc in Physics, Central University of Rajasthan, India
2019 – 2021: Bachelor of Education, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Shekhawati University, India
2021 – Current: PhD, Solid-State NMR, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore with Prof. Sheetal Kumar Jain
Scientific Committee
Dr. Blake Wilson – Twitter Conference Committee
2013: BS Physics with Prof. Bob Griffin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013 – 2019: PhD, with Prof. Mark Sherwin and Prof. Songi Han, University of California, Santa Barbara
2019 – Current: Postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Rob Tycko, NIH Bethesda
Dr. Michael Hope
2011 – 2015: MSci, Natural Sciences (Chemistry), University of Cambridge
2016 – 2019: PhD with Prof. Clare Grey, University of Cambridge
2020 – 2023: Marie-Curie Fellow with Prof. Lyndon Emsley, EPFL
2023 – Current: Assistant Professor, University of Warwick
Dr. Mouzhe Xie – Twitter Conference Committee
2009 – 2013: BSc with honors, Chemical Biology, Xiamen University
2013 – 2018: PhD in Chemistry (protein dynamics and metabolomics, solution NMR), The Ohio State University
2019: Visiting Scholar, EPFL
2019 – 2023: Postdoctoral Scholar (NV-NMR and quantum sensing), the University of Chicago
2023 – Current: Assistant Professor, Arizona State University
Dr. Nino Wili
2011 – 2016: BSc & MSc at ETH Zurich. Master Thesis with Matthias Ernst (ssNMR method development)
2017 – 2021: PhD with Gunnar Jeschke at ETH Zurich (Pulse EPR method development)
2022 – Current: PostDoc with Niels Chr. Nielsen in Aarhus, Denmark. (Interface of EPR, NMR & DNP)
2023 Twitter Conference Organizing Committee
Tomoyuki Hamachi
Tomoyuki Hamachi is a Ph.D. student in the Yanai laboratory at Kyushu university, Japan. His research topic is the integration of molecular self-assembly with photoexcited spin states to develop highly efficient photochemical properties. He received B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Kyushu University (Japan) in 2020. He is conducting the doctoral research on Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) with photoexcited triplet spin states using molecular self-assembly. Outside of research, he enjoys listening to and playing jazz.
Yifan Song
Yifan Song is currently a graduate student at Zhejiang University. His research interests focus on the sodium relaxation dynamics and multiple quantum coherences. He received a B.E degree of mineral engineering from Central South University (China) in 2020. He has a wide range of interests, including but not limited to NMR theory, quantum sensing, and etc. He was also very interested in classical music, especially Russian music, such as Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff.
Dr. Nicholas Jaegers
Dr. Nicholas Jaegers uses a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches to explore the molecular interactions that take place on the surfaces of heterogeneous catalysts, seeking to develop a molecular-level understanding of reaction mechanisms. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California at Berkeley using kinetic assessments and computational modeling for Lewis acid-base catalyzed C–C and C–H activation catalysis. Dr. Jaegers earned his PhD in chemical engineering from Washington State University and conducted research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developing and applying methods of in situ solid-state NMR.
Previous Members
Dr. Daphna Shimon – Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Chemistry at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Dr. Mona Mohammadi – Life Sciences Specialist at L.E.K. Consulting
Dr. Pinelopi Moutzouri – Application Scientist at Bruker BioSpin
Dr. Mohamed Sabba – Postdoctoral research fellow with Prof. Malcom Levitt
Dr. Tamar Wolf – Postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Lucio Frydman