Sadie Olrogg and Brandon Landis with their poster presentations at the American Chemical Society’s Spring National Meeting.
Sadie Olrogg and Brandon Landis, juniors majoring in Chemistry, represented the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the recently concluded American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring National Meeting with the theme "Bonding Through Chemistry," held March 20-24 at the San Diego (Calif.) Convention Center.
The ACS national meeting is the largest scientific conference attended by chemists/researchers from all over the world. The spring meeting attracted a total of 12,566 participants with 9,282 as in-person attendees. There were more than 11,300 abstracts programmed at the event that was also held virtually.
Ms. Olrogg, of Springville, and Mr. Landis, of Penfield, presented their respective posters in the Inorganic Chemistry Division where most of the presenters were graduate students and research professors. Olrogg presented her study on developing catalysts for hydrogenation reactions which allows efficient reduction of carbon dioxide. Brandon presented his effort on capturing nitric oxide, a biologically and industrially relevant molecule, using compounds modelled after enzymes and proteins.
What Mr. Landis liked most about the ACS conference is attending scientific talks and being able to relate his experiences and results to the most current research in chemistry. One molecule he actually synthesized in the laboratory of Assistant Professor Allan Jay Cardenas was actually featured on one of the talks he attended.
Olrogg appreciated the environment of the conference where everyone appreciated what she does for research. She also mentioned that it’s fun to discuss science and find out the other chemists’ perspectives and strategies in solving a certain topic or problem. Both students made the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry proud by delivering great presentations, and they even got recruited to join a research laboratory for graduate school.
Landis and Olrogg acknowledge the Office of Student Creative Activity and Research at SUNY Fredonia and Raffaele Borriello, M.D., and the Suzanne T. Casden Chemistry Department endowment, established through the Fredonia College Foundation, for travel funding.
