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Prof. Kenneth B. Wagener
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"Members of the Wagener research group focus on the chemistry associated with polymer science. We deal largely with mechanism as applied to the synthesis of new polymer structures. My contributions as a research advisor are to suggest opportunities for original research, and to maintain proper connections with external organizations that are interested in our work. Ultimately, I want to see all students in this group get what they want out of the degree, then enthusiastically proceed on to the next step in their career."
Email: wagener@chem.ufl.edu
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Prof. Fabio Zuluaga
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Dr. Zuluaga returns as a visiting summer scientist after graduating in 1993 with his PhD. He is a professor in the Chemistry Department of the Universidad del Valle in Colombia and returns to Florida in the summer to work on increasing branch distance in precision alkyl branched model polyethylenes.
Email: fazulu@univalle.edu.co.
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Prof. Kathryn R. Williams
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Dr. Williams has over 35 years experience teaching university-level chemistry and writing instructional materials. After completing her PhD at the Florida State University in 1972, she joined the faculty at Florida International University, where she designed the lecture and laboratory programs in inorganic and analytical chemistry. In 1979, Dr. Williams moved to the University of Florida to become the coordinator of laboratories in analytical, physical, and radiochemistry. During her teaching career, Dr. Williams wrote seven student laboratory manuals and coauthored over 50 technical publications, many of them describing new student laboratory experiments. She also produced over 20 video tapes to enhance laboratory instruction. In 1999, she became editor of the “From Past Issues” feature of the Journal of Chemical Education, for which she writes non-technical articles on interesting or off-beat themes encountered in previous volumes of the journal. Now semi-retired from full-time teaching, Dr. Williams works as a free-lance editor of journal manuscripts, dissertations, and proposals. She has served as the Wagener group editor since September 2008.
Email: krw@chem.ufl.edu
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Kate Opper
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Kate is currently a fifth year graduate student. She comes from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after graduating in May 2005 with a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology. During her undergraduate time, she worked on polybenzimidazole and fuel cell research under Dr. Brian Benicewicz. Kate has done some of her dissertation work at the Max Plank Institute for Polymer Research under Prof. Klaus Mullen and Dr. Markus Klapper. Kate's current PhD research is in the area of organic synthesis of ADMET ionomers.
Email: kopper@chem.ufl.edu.
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Sam Popwell
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Sam is a fourth year graduate student and hails from the University of Southern Mississippi where he did his undergraduate studies on polymer research. Sam is continuing his interest bio-olefins through research related to polyolefin bioactivity.
Email: spopwell@ufl.edu.
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Yuying Wei
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Yuying is now a fourth year graduate student coming to the University of Florida from Xi'an, China. She attended the University of Petroleum in Bejing and then came to the U.S. to attend Clemson University and study Polymer Physics. Yuying has both technical and theoretical experience in Neutron and X-ray scattering. Yuying is working on her doctoral degree in the Analytical Division and will work on the synthesis and analysis of deuterated polyethylene samples.
Email: yuyingwei@chem.ufl.edu.
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Paula Andrea Delgado
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Paula is also a fourth year graduate student. She graduated from the Universidad de Valle, Colombia in November 2005. She is working this summer on the carbosilane-carbosiloxane project with Professor Fabio Zuluaga.
Email: pauladeg@gmail.com.
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Bora Inci
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Bora, a native of Turkey, is a third year graduate student qualifying in the organic division. He received his B.S. degree in 2005 from the Bilkent University. In 2007 he earned his M.S. degree from Koc University in the area of polyurethane synthesis and characterization. He joins the Wagener group in fall of 2007 with interest in mechanism and structure/property relationships.
Email: binci@chem.ufl.edu |
Brian Aitken
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Brian is from Satellite Beach, FL and joined the group after receiving his degree from the University of Central Florida. He is currently in his third year of graduate studies and is conducting research in the field of precision ionomers and polymeric light emitting diodes.
Email: baitken@chem.ufl.edu
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Chet Simocko
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Chet is a second year graduate from Bar Mills, ME. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in May 2008. During his time at RPI he conducted research under Dr. James Moore in the area of Diphenolic acid polymerization, as well as under Dr. Steven Cramer toward organic synthesis of displacers used in displacement chromatography.
Email: simocko@chem.ufl.edu
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Pascale Atallah
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Pascale, native of Lebanon, is a second year graduate student qualifying in the organic division. She received her B.S. degree in 2004 from Saint Joseph University and a M.S. degree from the Graduate School of Physics and Chemistry of Bordeaux (France) in 2008. She will be working in the field of structural characterization of polyolefins.
Email: atallah@chem.ufl.edu
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Diane Turek
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Diane is currently a second year graduate student. She comes from Pau ( France ) and did her undergrad in Bordeaux ( France ) in a graduate engineering school of physics and chemistry called ENSCPB. Diane's research deals with bio-olefins with a focus on drug delivery.
Email: turek@chem.ufl.edu
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Jason Heffley
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Jason is a third year undergraduate from Coral Springs, Florida who plans on pursuing an M.D. after graduating in 2011. He is currently working with Brian Aitken in the field of precision ionomers and ionenes from ionic liquids.
Email: jheffley@ufl.edu
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Andree Koop
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Andree is an undergraduate Biology major from Naples, Florida who became interested in the field of organic chemistry after taking a course with Dr. Wagener during the fall of his sophomore year. He is currently assisting Pascale Atallah in her research and hopes to attend medical school after graduation. Email: koopan@ufl.edu
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