The Department of Chemistry at Villanova University

This week, Dr. Tom Umile is at the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in San Antonio, Texas! He co-organized and is presiding at "Green Chemistry Case Studies in the Undergraduate Curriculum” on Tuesday. He is also a facilitator at a workshop on teaching green chemistry on Monday. The workshop is also associated with Beyond Benign, an organization focused on green chemistry education. Congratulations, Dr. Umile!

Congratulations to Dr. Yiben Wang and coauthors - their work made the cover of the Journal of Chemical Education. Articles featured on the cover indicate the significance of the work. Read more about the work here: https://pubs-acs-org.ezp1.villanova.edu/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5c01279 Congrats!
From the ACS: "Quantum tiles gameboard (center left) with two playing tiles highlighted: The tile “3” corresponds to the principal quantum number n in this example, as seen by the three shells below the number 3, and the tile “1” corresponds to the angular momentum quantum number ℓ, as reflected by the p orbital shown to the left of the number 1. Students use these playing tiles to construct valid (i.e., allowable) sets of quantum numbers and reinforce connections to atomic orbitals and the periodic table (art by Trey Colors)"

Congratulations to Dr Selinsky on this well deserved honor!

This , many congratulations to Professor of Chemistry Barry Selinsky, PhD, recipient of the 2026 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Teaching Award!

“I truly value this recognition of my efforts to provide unique experiences for our Chemistry students,” said Dr. Selinsky. “We work with students side by side, engaging them in our research while teaching the practices and subtleties necessary for success in science."

Dr. Selinsky’s researches dual-function enzymes, a group of proteins that trigger two separate chemical reactions in sequence. “The best-known example is cyclooxygenase, involved in the preparation of prostaglandins and important in pain and inflammation, he said." His work focuses on bacterial enzymes that carry out similar reactions. "In plants, these are needed to make hormones, but we don’t know what their function is in bacteria.”

Over his 38 years at Villanova, Dr. Selinsky has embraced the University’s teacher-scholar model, maintaining high-caliber research while also guiding countless students to a deeper understanding of the chemistry behind our everyday lives. In the Selinsky Lab, students produce and purify enzymes for further study, often sharing their findings at national or international conferences. This spring, four Villanovans presented at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology conference in Washington, D.C.

“I particularly enjoy topics that relate complicated concepts to life experiences encountered by students, such as disease,” he added. “Most of these lessons have general applications, helping students to make intelligent decisions and solve life problems,” he said. “I have always believed that every student should have the opportunity to work with a faculty mentor and benefit from individualized, personalized instruction and guidance. Working with students in this manner has been the most fulfilling contribution that I have made at Villanova.”

Villanova University’s MS program in Chemistry is seeking enthusiastic applicants for a Fall 2026 start. Our thesis-track, two-year graduate program offers funding and tuition remission. Learn more about the program and ongoing research opportunities by reviewing the flyer below. Follow this link to start your application today. Contact our graduate program director, Dr. Deanna Zubris (deanna dot zubris at villanova dot edu) with any questions.

Congratulations to all our graduates! Sad to see all of you leave but great to know they are taking what they learned here to move on to accomplish great things in the field of Science or where ever their journeys take them!!! You will always be part of our chemistry and biochemistry community! Keep
in touch!

Congratulations Dr Wang! Read more about this work here:

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5c01279

Quantum Tiles: An Interactive Chemistry Board Game to Strengthen Students’ Understanding of Quantum Numbers�

Katie A. Coscia, Jillian Fader, Yiben Wang, and Lauren A. Genova�

Journal of Chemical Education�DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5c01279

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Earlier this week we got to hear the senior thesis work of six of our amazing students! Congratulations and you all did an amazing job!

🎉 Anthony DeAngelo,
Research Mentors: Drs. Scott Kassel & Jared Paul
Thesis Title: Tuning Photocatalytic Activity: Monometallic Ruthenium Complexes for Aromatic Alcohol Oxidation

🎉 Eva Grzech,
Research Mentor: Dr. Jen Palenchar
Thesis Title: Crowded conditions, borrowed genes, and unknown activity: A tale of three haloacid dehalogenases

🎉 Sophie Malik
Thesis Title: Synthesis and characterization of N,N-bidentate ligands and associated iron (II) complexes as diene polymerization catalysts
Research Mentor: Dr. Deanna Zubris

🎉 Kristi Pham
Research Mentor: Dr. Dan Kraut
Thesis Title: Investigating the unfolding ability of the proteasome in living cells

🎉 Abbigail Snyder
Research Mentors: Drs. Scott Kassel & Jared Paul
Thesis Title: Synthesis and characterization of copper (I) complexes of methyl substituted of tris(2-pyridyl)phosphine oxides

🎉 Catherine Tobin
Research Mentor: Dr. Bryan Eigenbrodt
Thesis Title: Effects of pH on lipid production in Pseudochloris wilhelmii: Biofuel generation