Joint Research Safety Initiative

Chemistry happens. Don’t let it happen to you.

JRSI

sustainable safety culture
educational tools
organized and centralized resources

By Researchers, For Researchers

The Joint Research Safety Initiative (JRSI) is a new safety community run by students, post-docs, and research assistants on campus that aims to provide centralized and accessible safety and educational resources for students and faculty. Our safety and efficiency is up to us, and only us.

What We Do

gather departmental data

We develop and implement surveys to measure the effectiveness of our initiative and the culture of our departments.

w

facilitate open dialogues

We put on events, safety demos, vendor fairs, and safety programs to encourage open dialogue and participation.

train lab safety contacts

We are working to improve the quality and availability of training resources for current and future LSCs.

gather departmental data

We develop and implement surveys to measure the effectiveness of our initiative and the culture of our departments.

LEARN MORE

w

facilitate open dialogues

We put on events, safety demos, vendor fairs, and safety programs to encourage open dialogue and participation.

LEARN MORE

train lab safety contacts

We are working to improve the quality and availability of training resources for current and future LSCs.

LEARN MORE

gather departmental data

We develop and implement surveys to measure the effectiveness of our initiative and the culture of our departments.

LEARN MORE

w

facilitate open dialogues

We put on events, safety demos, vendor fairs, and safety programs to encourage open dialogue and participation.

LEARN MORE

train lab safety contacts

We are working to improve the quality and availability of training resources for current and future LSCs.

LEARN MORE

Contact Us

jrsi@uchicago.edu

Leadership

Serving Chemistry & PME

people

Lauryn Carver

lcarver@uchicago.edu

Co-President

Lauryn is a PhD Candidate in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering co-advised by Profs. Matthew Tirrell and Yun Fang. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma in May 2019 where she received B.S. in Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology. Her current research surrounds the use of nanoparticles in medical applications, specifically for the potential treatment of cardiopulmonary diseases and fibroses.

Joey Federico

jvfederico@uchicago.edu

Co-President

Joey is currently a third year PhD student in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering co-advised by Prof. Bana Jabri and Prof. Samantha Riesenfeld. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University with his B.S.E. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, after which he spent several years working in the biotechnology industry. Upon returning to academia, he has shifted his scientific focus on the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases using various ‘omics techniques.

 

Colleen Foley

crfoley@uchicago.edu

Education Committee member

Publicity Committee member

Colleen is a third year PhD candidate in PME (Immunoengineering). She works in Melody Swartz’s lab, where she studies effects of lymphangiogenesis on immunotherapy response and metastasis in melanoma. Outside of lab, she volunteers with middle and high school students, and enjoys running and hanging out with her cats. She is excited to advocate for biosafety as a member of JRSI.

 

Ivan Vuong

ivuong1@uchicago.edu

Education Committee member

Research Committee member

Ivan is a second-year PhD student in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering advised by Prof. Jeffrey Hubbell. He earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a minor in Entrepreneurship and Management from Johns Hopkins University. In the Hubbell Lab, Ivan studies protein-protein interactions and engineers protein therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. He joined JRSI to help equip researchers across departments with safety practices and resources.

 

Maia Czaikowski

mczaikowski@uchicago.edu

Publicity Committee Chair

Maia is a fourth year in the Department of Chemistry and a member of the Anderson Lab. Her research incorporates inorganic synthesis and electrocatalysis using base metals. In the JRSI, she serves on the Education and Publicity subcommittees. She joined the JRSI because she wanted to contribute to a culture of safety in the University and engage with graduate students across departments about safe research practices. In her free time, Maia enjoys running and skiing.

Andrea Diaz

andreadiaz@uchicago.edu

Education Committee member

Research Committee member

Diaz was born in California, raised in the Chicago area, and received her BSE in Chemical Engineering from the University of Iowa. Prior to PME, she worked at Clorox as an R&D scientist focusing on water filtration and sustainable packaging materials, at Honeywell as a chemical engineer, and at Fresenius Kabi as a validation engineer for new pharmaceuticals. Diaz’s current research in the Patel group focuses on upcycling plastics, and she also conducts her research at Argonne National Lab. Andrea joined JRSI as her experience in industry and National Lab has motivated her to help promote better safety practices across university laboratories.

 

 

 

Ignas Masiulionis

ignas@uchicago.edu

Finance Committee Member
Education Committee Member

Ignas is a second year PhD Candidate in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and is a part of Prof. Supratik Guha’s group and spends most of his time at the Argonne National Lab. He graduated with B.S. in Astronomy and a secondary major in Physics from the Case Western Reserve University. His current research involves development of thin-film devices to be used as quantum repeaters.

Anna Slezak

annaslezak@uchicago.edu

Education Committee Member

Publicity Committee Member

Anna is a third year PhD student in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.  She works in the lab of Jeff Hubbell and is developing polymeric drug delivery strategies for cancer immunotherapy and regenerative medicine.  Previously, Anna studied Chemistry and Computer Science at Duke University.

Shubhashree Pani

spani@uchicago.edu

Finance Committee Chair

Shubha is a fourth year grad-student in the Department of Chemistry and a member of the Dickinson group. Her research interests include synthesizing functional molecules to study biological processes. In the Dickinson group, she is working on developing a anew class of probes to study biomolecule localization and interaction in a subcellular context.

 

Matt Styles

mstyles@uchicago.edu

Research Committee Chair

Matt is a Postdoc in the Department of Chemistry in the Dickinson Lab. He received his PhD in 2021 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he worked in the Blackwell Lab at the intersection of biophysics, chemistry, and microbiology. His research in the Dickinson group focuses primarily on method development for directed evolution of protein-protein interaction modulating biomolecules.

Jelena Momirov

momirov@uchicago.edu

Education Committee member

Research Committee member

Jelena is currently a third year grad-student in the Department of Chemistry and a member of the Dickinson group. She graduated from Barry University with BS in Chemistry, after which she spent several years as a research tech in the Boger Lab at Scripps Research. Her research interests include developing new chemical biology platforms to make drug discovery safer and more efficient. In the Dickinson group, she is  developing new protein engineering approaches for targeted prodrug activation and extracellular protein labeling. Jelena joined JRSI in order to learn and promote more precautionary lab safety techniques among her peers