Chem Club Hosts Second Q&A Session For Department Seminar Speaker At CSUN

Deepali Bhandari came to CSU Northridge from CSU Long Beach to give her research seminar on February 28, 2018. She was kind enough to set aside 30 minutes for students to interact with her to learn a little bit about her research field and also about research as a career path.

We had a great turnout with 7 undergraduate students, 1 graduate student, 1 staff member, and 1 faculty member from CSUN. We sat around the table in the Chemistry & Biochemistry conference room EH 2102B. After a round of introductions, where each student shared their major and who (if anyone) they were doing research with. Then Deepali told us more about her career.

She was educated in India, completing her undergraduate and Master's degree in microbiology by the time she was 22 years old. The system in India requires that students choose in the 10th grade whether they want to do down a medical path or a non-medical path (leading to engineering).

Deepali found her first job in industry through her department chair. The company was looking to start a lab from scratch. Her advisor was the only molecular biologist in her department. She had experience with thermostable restriction enzymes and the company wanted her to design a DNA ladder, as well as easy kits (like Qiagen MiniPrep) for RNA purification.

When she arrived at the company, she was given a completely empty room and she was able to choose all the equipment, reagents, and coworkers (she interviewed candidates and built her team). Another aspect of her job was to be a liason to her former university. She was tasked with arranging the curriculum and instructional labs, which fostered a love of teaching. This motivated her to go back to school after working in industry for 2 years, because she needed a PhD to teach at university.

She studied molecular biology at Loyola University in Chicago, which took her 5 years to complete. For her post-doc she came to University of California San Diego, for another 5 years. During that time she studied cellular traffic in both yeast and cancer cells. She became interested in how cancer cells survive lack of oxygen and lack of nutrients. Healthy cells undergo programmed cell death under the same conditions. This is termed ER stress which arises in misfolded proteins.

One question that came from the students was, "Why do a PhD?" Deepali explained how her PhD experience taught her resiliency in the face of months of failure in the lab. She now has a poster hanging up in her lab that encourages her students to be persistent when faced with adversity.

A special thanks goes out to everyone who helped make this a great "Student Time" with the speaker. The next outside speaker is Dr Gregory Fu from Caltech who will be visiting CSUN on Wednesday, April 4th.

Learn about Opioids 2/27/18 at 3:45pm in JR 354

You're invited to attend our American Chemical Society (ACS) Program-in-a-Box (PIB) where we will learn about opioids on Tuesday, February 27, 2018 from 3:45 pm - 5:15 pm in JR 354.

Program-in-a-Box is a fun event because you get to network with other chemists, learn about a topic, and win raffle prizes. Use the hashtag #ACSPIB to have your questions answered via social media.

opioid molecular structures

Some of the past PIB events we've hosted here at CSUN include:

• October 11, 2016 Chemists' Code for Success: 3 Essential Skill Sets for Your Career
• October 20, 2015 Tales of Lab Safety: How to Avoid Rookie Accidents
• February 24, 2015 Chemistry on the Silver Screen
• October 7, 2014 Speaking Simply: Communicating Your Science

It's called Program-in-a-Box because if you RSVP your group, the ACS will send you a box filled with goodies and games. And we've RSVP'd for the opioid event, so join us!

October 2015, LO1231

October 2016, SH286

iHeart Science Day 2018

When? February 16 from 9AM to 1 PM
Where? on CSUN campus, rooms TBA
Who? One-hundred twenty 6th graders from Patrick Henry Middle School 
What? walk the 3 miles to CSUN

Four classes rotate through four activities (chemistry, biology, physics, geology) in four different classrooms here at CSUN. 

Botanical Bingo

Each room is a hands-on science event with a somewhat competitive aspect. 

Aluminum Foil Boats

There’s a winner in each room. Prizes are Valentine’s day candy. 

Borax Glue Slime

Why? If you plan to apply to medical, dental, pharmacy or graduate school, outreach activities will set you apart as an applicant. Good grades aren't everything. Applicants who have outreach on their resume will be noticed. Applicants who have no outreach experience may be excluded from the search for scholarships or admission.

We NEED VOLUNTEERS!!!!! Signup here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v2QZzFUEW8J8ZAeGsomtfTkVP7w0lUMDO3XmnoXnQDg/edit?usp=sharing

American Chemical Society award!

The Chemistry & Biochemistry Club at CSUN was chartered on December 17, 1968. The leadership has changed hands many times since that date.

Dr. Kayla A. Kaiser became the advisor in Summer 2013 and aimed to reinstate the club as a Student Chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS), but first we had to regain university standing here at CSUN.

That first year 2013-14, we did 4 outreach events and held 2 social events.

Our constitution was updated Oct. 19, 2013 by Christine Dimirjian, at the time she was serving as graduate student senator of the CSUN Associated Students (AS). Christine is now a Ph.D. Candidate at University of California, Davis.

The second year 2014-15, we did 1 professional development program, 3 outreach events, and 2 social events.

Our constitution was accepted by the Matador Involvement Center (MIC) on March 9, 2015 thanks to Kimberly Madhwani, who had experience serving as a senator for CSUN AS. Kimberly is now a PhD student at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

We grew our membership as a club in good standing with the university, participating in Meet the Clubs for the first time under my direction. The third year 2015-16, we did 5 outreach events and 1 social event.

We started using social media, including twitter and facebook, in addition to keeping a Moodle page to keep our growing membership informed of upcoming events. Before switching to Canvas, our Moodle page had 327 enrolled users.

Ravinder Abrol was added as a co-advisor in August 2016. He brought fresh enthusiasm for mentoring students to pursue careers in chemistry. Ravi and Kayla both share experiences having been members of an ACS student chapter as undergraduates, and we both agreed that being a part of an active ACS student chapter was a formative experience for us.

In 2016-17, our club received two honors at the MIC Clubs & Organizations Awards Ceremony. That year, we did 4 outreach events. Our club organized a STEM mixer for 18 science-related clubs. We held 4 professional development events. We hosted 2 social events. We got club t-shirts.

The first award was for Creative Marketing, for our use of the hashtag #MemeMonday and for sharing chemistry-related images on Instagram and our other social media platforms. The second award was for Outstanding Organization. That year’s success was a result of leadership from Angela Cannata who is currently a MARC U*STAR Scholar here at CSUN.

On January 23, 2017 our club was reactivated as an ACS student chapter. For reporting on our activities for that date forward to the end of the spring 2017 semester, we were awarded an Honorable Mention award. CSUN’s chapter will be honored at the 255th ACS National Meeting in New Orleans, LA.

Our current president, Fiorella Betdashtoo is doing a fantastic job so far this year. We’ve done our annual Fall hands-on chemistry program at the Valley Academy of Arts & Sciences (outreach), the club has hosted a research panel (professional development) and we’ve just had our end-of-year potluck (social event) and pizza party (fundraiser).

I wish I could mention every single one of our dedicated student members, they are the true stars of this story!

Chem Club Hosts First Q&A Session For Department Seminar Speaker At CSUN

Over the last year, we (the CSUN Chem Club) have been working hard to become an established club representing the chemistry students at CSUN.  Our efforts have been multi-faceted through different avenues.  Recently, we held a 'research panel' discussion which was popular and will be written about in the near future.  We were excited to host our first 'Question & Answer' session with incoming (outside) research faculty members to learn more about them.  Our first speaker was Dr Jevgenij Raskatov from the University of California at Santa Cruz.  Below is a brief description of the wonderful discussion.



Dr. Raskatov was asked a couple of great questions.  One of which was to briefly layout the timeline of his journey in chemistry starting with his undergraduate adventure up through his faculty position.  Originally, Dr. Raskatov wanted to pursue a profession in music in Heidelberg (Germany).  He is a native of Moscow, Russia.  Upon arrival in Heidelberg, he discovered the difficulty with pursuing a professional career in as a musician.  This led him to try to discover what other topic of study he might be interested in by enrolling into the University of Heidelberg.



Originally, he started out as a 'biology major'.  Over time and under the influence of a few mentors, he discovered that he was more comfortable with the molecular description of biological processes. Therefore, he chose to study molecular biology and found computational chemistry to be the instrument of choice by which to pursue a career in chemistry.


His current research focuses on the study of "aggregation prone (amyloidegenic) polypeptides" which play a pivotal role in certain neurological disorders, namely, Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease. He considers his field to be CHEMICAL NEUROSCIENCE. His early work in computational chemistry provided him with the understanding of chirality which led to his recent studies of enantiopure D- or L- or racemic Aβ42.

Thanks to Dr. Raskatov for spending time with undergraduates here at CSUN!

Friday, December 1, 2017

Welcome To The CSUN Chemistry Club Blog!!

Hello and thank you for visiting the California State University at Northridge Chemistry Club blog site.  We are super excited that you are here.  Currently, the site is under construction. Meaning, we just got up and running.  We are in the process of creating content for future posts.  Please check back for blog posts in the near future.  In the mean time, hop on over to our main website which is being developed also by clicking here.


We look forward to seeing you soon.  Have a wonderful day!