Officers and Contact Information

Michelle Watt, UOWGS President
Michelle is a 4th year chemistry graduate student in the labs of Professors Darren Johnson and Mike Haley. She works on making new molecules to bind and sense anions. In her free time she enjoys playing soccer, rock climbing, reading, and rocking out to great music.

Emma Downs, UOWGS Seminar Chair

Kat McCormick, UOWGS Treasurer
Kat McCormick is a graduate student in the Institute of Neuroscience. She studies how small neural circuits work in a tiny soil-dweilling worm. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, following her cats around, and sandwiches.

Leticia Montoya, UOWGS Fundraiser
Leticia Montoya is currently a graduate student in Michael Pluth's laboratory, developing bright and selective fluorescent probes for Hydrogen sulfide. She is interested in understanding the important biological applications of hydrogen sulfide as a signaling molecule. In her spare time, she enjoys running, dancing, camping, and supports the Ducks at football games.

Jackie McGrath, UOWGS Outreach Co-Chair
Jackie McGrath is third year in the Chemistry Department. She is a researcher in Mike Pluth's lab and is working on syntheisizng monodentate ligands that can self-assemble through complementary interactions to create modular bidentate ligands for high through put screening. In her free time she enjoys hiking, camping, reading, and sampling delicious Oregon beers.

Kara Sherman, UOWGS Outreach Co-Chair
Kara Sherman is a chemistry graduate student in Darren Johnson's lab. She works on functionalized mesoporous materials to remove various contaminates from water. Outside of lab she enjoys camping, hiking, swimming, and daydreaming about when she will finally have enough time for a dog.

Sam Sommer, UOWGS Public Relations Chair
Sam Sommer is a third year chemistry graduate student in Mike Pluth's lab. She is interested in synthesizing and characterizing novel self-assembling ligands and investigating their applications in catalysis. She enjoys coffee, puppies, camping, and happy hour.

Lara Letaw, UOWGS Webmaster
Lara Letaw is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Computer & Information Science and is also a Web Developer for the UO Career Center. Apart from school and work, she enjoys creating elaborate rabbit houses, fashion design dress forms, stained glass polyhedra, and crochet approximations to the hyperbolic plane.

Laura McWilliams, UOWGS Recorder Chair
Laura McWilliams is a third-year chemistry graduate student in the Richmond lab. She shoots laser beams into toxic gas most days but is known to enjoy a garden, a good cup of tea, a hike, and a bike tour when time allows. She is steadily transforming her apartment into a giant succulent terrarium.

Kate Karfilis, Social Chair
Kate is a 3rd year grad student in the Insitute of Molecular Biology and a member of the Stankunas Lab. She is working on identifying the molecular targets of a key signaling pathway that controls the development of the vascular network and plays important roles in heart development. She is also a huge Oregon Ducks football fan, and since coming to Oregon 3 years ago she hasn't missed a home or bowl game yet! Go Ducks!

Chantal Balesdent, UOWGS President

Jennifer Hoy, UOWGS PR Chair

Lara Letaw, UOWGS Webmaster

Michelle Watt, UOWGS Social Chair

Kat McCormick, UOWGS Outreach Chair

Lena Trotochaud, UOWGS Funding Chair

Emma Downs, UOWGS Treasurer

Sarah Brady, UOWGS Seminar Chair

Ellen Robertson, UOWGS Recorder Chair