The monthly Celebrating Women Chemists lunch seminar series provides a forum for networking across the various subdivisions of chemistry and fosters a sense of community among participants.

These presentations are an opportunity for women chemists to share information about their unique career paths in a way to help inform students and postdocs in our department on the variety of opportunities they can pursue.


Additionally, to help prepare for the Graduate Student Research Symposium , students in their 3rd or 4th year are invited to deliver a short presentation on their research to their peers. Mentoring opportunities are facilitated by informal interactions among students and faculty in this friendly non-research environment.

If you would like to present a seminar, contact Polly Lynch.

Past Speakers:

2021-2022 Schedule

  • Sept 23: Dr. Gwen Bailey, Assistant Professor, UMN Chemistry

  • Oct 29: Dr. Sapna Sarupria, Associate Professor, UMN Chemistry

  • Nov 19: Dr. Danielle Watt, Director of the Office of Biomedical Graduate Research, Education and Training (BGREAT) at the University of Minnesota, Medical School

  • Feb11: Dayeeta Saha, Product Specialist/Engineer at Bruker Nano Inc.

  • Mar 8: Dr. Sarah Wegworth, Content Specialist, Alchemie

  • April: 3rd Year Practice Talks

2020-2021 Schedule

  • Nov 19: Transferable Skills Workshop, Whitney Moore, CSE Career Center

  • Jan 20: Jessica Lamb, UMN, Professor

  • Feb 15: Yangguang Ou, University of Vermont, Professor

  • Mar 16: Trisha Miller, Sandia National Labs, Systems Research Analyst

  • April 30: Janaya Sachs (Tonks group), Margaret Clapham (Frontiera and Douglas groups), Celina Harris (Penn group), U of M, Graduate Student Research Symposium Practice Talks

  • May 7: Cecilia Douma (Bowser group), Eliza Herrero (Buhlmann group), Yoon-Jung Jang (Hillmyer group) U of M, Graduate Student Research Symposium Practice Talks

  • June 25: Xin Yi See, , Eastman Chemical Company, Research Chemist

2019-2020 Schedule

  • Sept 17: Courtney Roberts, UMN, Professor

  • Oct 17: Jennifer Strehlau, Medtronic, Senior Chemist

  • Nov 14: Audrey Meyer, Boston Scientific, Senior Process Engineer

  • Jan 23: Nicole Bousu, H.B. Fuller, Senior Scientist

  • Feb 20: Sarah Wegwerth, Alchemie, Content Specialist

  • Postponed: Hannah Bearinger, BRIGHT Research Partners, Clinical Research Consultant

2018-2019 Schedule

  • Sept 12: Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran, UMN, Professor

  • Oct 22: Sally Hed Dahlquist, ImmunoChemistry Technologies, President & Chief Manager

  • Nov 14: Christine Luscombe, Uni. Washington, Seattle, Professor

  • Jan 16: Laura Babcock, Minnesota Technical Assistance Programme (MnTAP), Director

  • Feb 11: Microaggression Workshop v2, Lee Penn, UMN Professor

  • Mar 12: Cora Leibig, Chromatic 3D Materials, Founder & CEO

  • Apr 26: Emily Que, UT Austin, Professor

  • May 7: Angela Carlson (Topczewski group), Monica Ohnsorg (Bates and Reineke group), Rebeca Rodriguez (Haynes group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

  • May 14: Julia Early (Lodge group), Rachel Swedin (Blank group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

  • May 21: Jiayi He (Haynes group), Cynthia Pyles (Massari group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

  • June 25: Assertiveness Workshop, Peg Lonnquist, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Executive Director

2017-2018 Schedule

  • Sept 21: Mona Minkara, Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Siepmann group)

  • Oct 27: Sarah Reisman, Caltech, Professor

  • Nov 8: Greta Wegner, R&D Systems, Senior Director

  • Dec 5: Graco Inc.

  • Jan 12: Microaggression workshop, Lee Penn, UMN, Professor

  • Feb 5: Kolby White, 3M, Senior Chemist

  • Feb 28: Brenda Case, Leadership Alliance, Special Projects Manager

  • Mar 13: Megan Fieser, Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Tolman group)

  • Apr 6: Christine Thomas, Ohio State University

  • May 8: Anna Luke (Tolman group), Kajari Bera (Frontiera group), Adeline Espinasse (Carlson group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

  • May 14: Stephanie Mitchell (Carlson group), Beth Dewing (Mahanthappa group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

  • May 21: Constance Anderson (Douglas group), Debmalya Ray (Gagliardi group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

  • Jul 16: Leah Witus, Macalester College, Professor

  • Aug 28: Elena Koltun, Revolution Medicines, Director of Medicinal Chemistry

2016-2017 Schedule

  • June 22: Diana Mayweather, UMN, Senior Laboratory Services Coordinator

  • July 20: Jennifer Henderson, UMN, CSP Director of Education, Outreach, and Diversity

  • Aug 15: Jodi Ogilvie, UMN, Public Health Specialist

  • Sept 6: Mari Lee, Environmental Protection Agency

  • Sept 28: Anne Hall, UMN, Office for Technology Commercialization

  • Nov 4: Nicole Bechtold, 3M, Regulatory affairs

  • Dec 21: Donde Anderson, Valspar

  • Jan 11: Emily Pelton, UMN, Adjunct faculty

  • Mar 15: Karen Beckman, Merchant and Gould P.C., Patent lawyer / Marie Vanderlaan, 3M, Patent attorney

  • May 9: Courtney Elwell (Tolman group) / Xin Yi See (Tonks group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

  • May 24: Bianca Ramirez (Lu group) / Zhe Tan (Reineke group), U of M, 3rd year Practice Talks

  • Jun 13: Letitia Yao, UMN, NMR facility manager

  • Jun 29: Lisa Balbes, Technical writer and editor

2015-2016 Schedule

  • Sept 21: Intel

  • Oct 1: Lyndal Jensen, Ecolab

  • Nov 4: Kathleen Shafer, 3M

  • Dec 8: Susanna Remillard, WuXi

  • Jan 12: Kari McGee, 3M

  • Feb 3: Intel

  • Mar 1: Anna Komor, U of M Chem, Science Mentors (Que group)

  • Mar 24: Jacqui Tehranchi, Beckman

  • Apr 27: Maria Miranda, 3M

  • May 18: Hanna Macaranas (Tolman group) and Emily Keller (Frontiera group), 3rd-year practice talks

2014-2015 Schedule

  • Sept 15: BASF

  • Oct 27: Erin Carlson

  • Nov 6: Jennifer Laaser (Lodge group)

  • Dec 11: Vivien Feng (Augsburg College)

  • Feb 24: Deirdre Manion-Fischer (Arriaga group)

  • Mar 16: Sadie Otte (Douglas group)

2013-2014 Schedule

  • Sept 24: Renee Frontiera

  • Oct 29: Elizabeth Hill, Dow Chemical, Work Life Effectiveness

  • Feb 20: Sarah Pound (Douglas group)

  • Mar 26: Sarah Wegwerth (Douglas group)

  • Apr 17: Haley Phillips (Reineke group)

  • May 29: Anna Komor (Que group)

2012-2013 Presenters

  • Sep 14: Jodi Ogilvie (Douglas group)

  • Oct 24: international research experiences

  • Jan 17: Katie Hurley (Haynes group)

  • Mar 2: Solaire Finkenstaedt-Quinn (Haynes group)

  • Apr 18: Deirdre Manion-Fischer (Arriaga group)

  • May 28: Jennifer Soltis (Penn group)

2011-2012 Presenters

  • July 28: Kyle Bantz (Haynes group) - lessons from COACh

  • Sept/Oct: Theresa Reineke

  • Feb: Zahra Sohrabpour (Massari group)

  • Mar: Allison Dzubak (Gagliardi group)

  • Apr: Makenzie Provorse (Gao group)

  • May: Charuta Palsuledesai (Distefano group)

2010-2011 Presenters

  • Sep 30: planning meeting

  • Nov 18: Mallory Richards (Hoye group)

  • Feb 17: Penny Beuning, Northeastern University

  • Mar 10: Melissa Maurer-Jones (Haynes group)

  • March spring break: Jenny Schuttlefield, SHARK

  • Apr 21: Bess Vlaisavljevich (Gagliardi group)

  • May 10: Katie McGarry (Douglas group)

2009-2010 Presenters

  • Sep 21: Judith Giordan, ACS tour speaker

  • PDFs of Judy's slides on Mentoring and Women Leaders and Entrepreneurs

  • Oct 14: Rita Majerle, visiting professor from Hamline

  • Nov 3: Connie Lu

  • Jan 13: Grayce Theryo (Hillmyer group)

  • Mar 18: Sarah Page (McNeill/Arnold group)

  • April: Susan Brown (Hoye group)

2008-2009 Presenters

  • Sept. 24: Mari Titcombe (Roberts group) - Mari's Stoves for Njombe project

  • Nov 18: Parent Panel

  • Dec 11: Jane Wissinger

  • Feb 4: Laura Gagliari

  • Apr 23: Susie Emond (Hoye group)

  • May: Britt Peterson (McNeill group)

2007-2008 Presenters

  • Oct: 9 Valerie Pierre

  • Nov 7: Kristi Curry Rogers, in combination with the IT Pizza Lunch

  • Dec 13: holiday event

  • Feb 28: Elizabeth Lugert and Lee Penn, Adobe tutorials

  • Mar 19: Jennifer Lowe (Hillmyer group)

  • Apr: 29 Nicole Settergren (Buhlmann group) and Chekesha Liddell, IT Distinguished Woman Speaker

  • May 19: Katie Maerzke (Siepmann group)

2006-2007 Presenters

  • Oct: 19 Katy Splan (Musier-Forsyth group)

  • Nov 16: Lynn Weyer (Forsyth group)

  • Dec 12: Emily (Skowronek) Resar (Bowser group)

  • Feb 15: Chunze Lai (Buhlmann group)

  • Mar 20: Amanda Bialke (Hoye group)

  • May 10: Kelly Anderson (Siepmann group)

  • May 30: The Gender Chip Project movie screening

2005-2006 Presenters

  • Christy Haynes

  • My Vo (Musier-Forsyth group)

  • Jasmine Erbs (Penn group)

  • Betsy Edhlund (McNeill group)

  • Elizabeth Lugert (Buhlmann group)

  • Alicia Peterson (McNeill group)

2004-2005 Presenters

  • Anne Boreen (McNeill group)

  • Kari McGee (Mann group)

  • Yini Wang (Hoye group)

  • Leila Albers (DiStefano group)

  • Julia Phillips, Donaldson lecturer

  • Angie Eder (Arriaga group)

2003-2004 Presenters

  • Amy Anschutz (Penn group)

  • Jia Liu (Hsung group)

  • Amanda Nienow (Roberts group)

  • Angela DeGreeff (McNeill group)

  • Kathleen Schreck (Hillmyer group)

2002-2003 Presenters

  • Sarah Schmidtke (Blank group)

  • Karen Switek (Hillmyer group)

  • Jamie Klappa (McNeill group)

  • Laurie Breyfogle (Tolman/Hillmyer groups)

  • Ann McNally (McNeill group)

2001-2002 Presenters

  • Tamara Kale (Distefano group)

  • Mary Engler (Forsyth group)

  • Anne Reynolds (Tolman group)

  • Carolyn Brauer (K. Leopold group)

  • Nicole Boaen (Hillmyer group)

  • Jessica Allen (Ellis group)

2000-2001 Presenters

  • Sherri Hunt (K. Leopold group)

  • Hollie Lewis (Hoye group)

  • Bethany Kormos (Cramer group)

  • Lakshmi Devi Kesavan (Gao group)

  • Dongfeng Qi (Distefano group)

  • Abbey Rosen (Musier-Forsyth group)

1999-2000 Presenters

  • Maria Nagan (Cramer group)

  • Amy Dounay (Forsyth group)

  • Lauren Kaune (Munson group)

  • Donna Staarup (Gladfelter group)

  • Heather Sklenicka (Hsung group)

1998-1999 Presenters

  • Michelle Douskey (Munson group)

  • Kirsten Granum (Hsung group)

  • Penny Beuning (Musier-Forsyth group)

  • Feben Gobena (Que group)

  • Denise Fiacco (K. Leopold group)

  • Rebecca Michelsen (Roberts group)