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

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

Abhirup was born and raised in Kolkata, and attended St. Xavier’s College for his undergraduate education in Chemistry. He then moved to IIT Delhi for a Masters in Chemistry, and eventually started his PhD in Physical Chemistry at University of Chicago in 2018. He is currently in the Tokmakoff group where he works towards developing Fluorescence Encoded Infrared Spectroscopy as a novel  technique to perform single-molecule vibrational measurements.

 

 

 

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.