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.
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.
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.
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.
Leadership
Serving Chemistry & PME
people

aritrajit Gupta
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.

Lauryn Carver
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.

Abhirup Guha
abhirupg@uchicago.edu
Finance Committee Chair

Elizabeth Kelley
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.

Maia Czaikowski
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.

Joey Federico
jvfederico@uchicago.edu
Publicity Committee Member
Finance Committee Member
Joey is currently a second 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.

Ignas Masiulionis
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.

Matthew Styles
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.

Shubhashree Pani
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.

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.