Department Seminar
Seminars are held on Wednesdays at 4:00pm. All are invited to attend.
Upcoming Seminar
An Exploration of MOF Chemistry in Research and Teaching Labs at the University of San Diego
Dr. Lauren Benz, University of San Diego
October 15, 2025
4:00pm-5:00pm in HSCI-103
Abstract
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are a class of highly porous and chemically tunable materials with a host of applications including molecular storage, separations, sensing, and delivery. In the Benz research lab, we've employed ball-milling to modify MOFs postsynthetically via defect creation and ligand replacement.
MOFs also provide a fruitful means of implementing research into lower and upper division chemistry labs. At the general chemistry level, we've built a lab based on MOFs to provide a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience, helpful for recruiting chemistry majors. At the upper division level, a multi-experiment unit on MOFs exposes our majors to these modern materials in Physical Methods lab, and allows students to hone their scientific writing skills.
Seminar Coordinator
For information and suggestions about our Department Seminar series, please contact the seminar coordinator:
Dr. Michael Schramm
Michael.Schramm@csulb.edu
Schedule
The schedule for Fall 2025 is as follows. Additional details may be added as the semester progresses.
| Date | Title | Speaker and Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| October 15, 2025 | An Exploration of MOF Chemistry in Research and Teaching Labs at the University of San Diego | Dr. Lauren Benz, University of San Diego |
| October 22, 2025 | (topic: biophysics) | Zuzanna Siwy, UC Irvine |
| October 29, 2025 | TBD | Allon Hochbaum, UC Irvine |
| November 5, 2025 | (topic: physical) | David Mobley, UC Irvine |
| November 12, 2025 | (topic: engineering) | Haizhou Liu, UC Riverside |
| November 19, 2025 | (topic: biochemistry) | Zhixiang Tong, Genentech |
| December 3, 2025 | First Year Talks | Chemistry students, CSU Long Beach |
| December 10, 2025 | (topic: organic) | Osvaldo Gutierrez, UCLA |
Previous Seminars
| Date | Title | Speaker and Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| October 1, 2025 | New Reactivity to Solve Chemical Challenges | Dr. Elias Picazo, USC |
| September 17, 2025 | Solvent Driven Cross-Coupling of Fluorenones for Dibenzo[g,p]chrysenes | Dr. Tetsuo Iwasawa, Ryukoku University, Shiga, Japan |
| September 10, 2025 | Uncovering Iron Surface Chemistry and Mineral Film Growth at Complex Interfaces | Dr. Kathryn Perrine, Michigan Technological University |
| September 3, 2025 | Building at the Nanoscale with Programmable Peptide-Based Building Blocks | Dr. Andrea Merg, UC Merced |
The Seminar Archive has Department Seminars from previous semesters.
The Department Seminar is supported by The Allergan Foundation.
