Joint Research Safety Initiative

aritrajit@uchicago.edu

President

Aritrajit grew up in West Bengal, India and joined the Chemistry Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago after completing his B.S. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore with a Chemistry major and Materials Science minor. He is presently a 4th-year graduate student in Prof. Dmitri Talapin’s lab; exploring the synthesis and optical properties of alloyed III-V colloidal quantum dots intended for display applications.

lcarver@uchicago.edu

Education Committee Chair

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.

ewkelley@uchicago.edu

Research Committee Chair

Elizabeth graduated from the College of William & Mary with a BS in chemistry and classical studies.  In addition to working with JRSI, Elizabeth is currently a Lead Fellow at the Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning, an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, a member of the Graduate Council’s funding committee, and a PhD Candidate with Prof. Scott Snyder in the Chemistry Department.  Her research spans organic chemistry and chemical education research.  She currently investigates topics in hands-on laboratory learning and the nature of graduate student training.

mczaikowski@uchicago.edu

Publicity Committee Chair

Education Committee Member

Maia is a third 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.

ignas@uchicago.edu

Publicity Committee Member
Finance 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.

mstyles@uchicago.edu

Education Committee Member
Research Committee Member

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.

spani@uchicago.edu

Finance Committee Member

Education Committee Member

Shubha is a third 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.