Welcome Message from the Chair, Sarah Reisman
As we embark on a new academic year, it is my pleasure to write with our first newsletter since I’ve become Division Chair. I am particularly excited to welcome our new CCE graduate students to the division. These scholars had the opportunity to meet our current students, faculty and staff during orientation week, and to learn about our research at the CCE Seminar Day on October 4th. Please join me in giving them a warm welcome to CCE.
I would like to take a moment to celebrate our outstanding faculty members who have been recognized for their research, including Frances Arnold, who will receive the 2025 Priestly Medal, and André Hoelz, who was recently named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, to name a few. In addition, we will welcome several new faculty members to our division this year: Sujit Datta, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, and Biophysics; Sandeep Sharma, Professor of Chemistry; Isaac Fianu, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry; Kara Fong, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Johannes Morstein, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Read on to learn more about our new CCE colleagues.
We are also excited to announce the establishment of a new research center, the Rudolph A. Marcus Center for Theoretical Chemistry, made possible by a generous gift from Drs. Jack Zhang and Mary Luo. This endowed fund will help the division attract and support talented faculty, students, and post-doctoral researchers in theoretical chemistry.
Over the past few months, CCE researchers continue to publish their outstanding research findings. I encourage you to dive deeper into the recent breakthroughs happening across the division. Bil Clemons will open the 2024–25 season of the highly anticipated Watson Lectures – now in its 102nd year. Please refer to the division calendar for further details on this and all our upcoming seminar speakers.
Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion remains a top priority and we've continued to implement our student- and faculty-driven programs such as Rising Tide and Caltech Connection. Continue reading to learn more about these programs and meet our newest cohort of WAVE students supported by the Preer Gift.
On September 30th, we began teaching our first lab courses in the new teaching labs in the Resnick Sustainability Center. With three new teaching labs and ample study space, the RSC is the perfect environment to inspire the next generation scientists.
Finally, I’d like to close by thanking Dennis Dougherty for his service as Division Chair. Much of the news you’ll read in this newsletter is the result of Dennis’ hard work, and I am grateful for his leadership over the last five years.
I look forward to seeing the incredible things we will accomplish together this year. Let’s make it one filled with discovery, collaboration and connection.
Let me know your thoughts on this newsletter at cce@caltech.edu.
