The Krishnamurthy Lab

Sydney Morris, a recent graduate of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, with a major in Chemistry, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She is one of two winners this year from GW - the other is Jane Olmstead-Rumsey, a Distinguished Scholar in the Elliott School of International Affairs.You can read more about Jane here.

About the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship:

The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to help ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees in science and engineering. The GRFP provides three years of support for the graduate education of individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant achievements in science and engineering.

At GW, Sydney conducted research with the laboratory team of Dr. Peter Nemes, where she helped to develop and apply analytical technologies to probe biological processes at the single-cell level. She was also a member of GW’s NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Team. This Fall, Sydney will enter the PhD program in Chemical and Biological Sciences at the prestigious Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, with three years of full funding from NSF.

Outside of the Nemes lab, Sydney dedicated herself to educational outreach and civic engagement in DC communities, participating with DC Science Fests, the USA Science and Engineering Festival, and the Grassroots Project. The latter recruits NCAA Division I athletes to teach a health education program devoted to informing DC youth about HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.

In the Summer of 2014, Sydney joined the research team of Dr. Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy at the Scripps Research Institute as a summer undergraduate research fellow. In the Krishnamurthy lab, she synthesized modified ribulose sugars to study ribulose nucleic acids as potential prebiotic informational systems and for drug development.

Ultimately, Sydney plans to become a professor and research scientist, and one day, to head her own research team.

We talked with Sydney to learn her thoughts on applying for this prestigious award.

How did you hear about NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and what inspired you to apply to this award?

I heard about the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship through the CUFR [Center for Undergraduate Fellowships and Research]. During the summer, I was applying for a Fulbright [Research/Study Award]. Then, I was working with [Assistant Director] Dr. Steve Wright and he mentioned that I was a perfect candidate for the NSF. After learning more about the fellowship and the opportunities that become available to fellows once they are selected (opportunities for international research and professional development), I became really excited about the fellowship. Ultimately, Steve’s encouragement and the opportunities for growth inspired me to apply.

What was the application process like for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship? How did you use our office?

Initially, I was overwhelmed with the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship application process because there are several parts to the application to include an original research proposal, personal statement, and three references. However, with the help of the CUFR office I learned exactly what the NSF Application Review Committee looks for in applications and this knowledge helped me to draft each document accordingly and select appropriate references.

I worked very closely with Steve Wright. We met at least once a week until the NSF Fellowship application deadline to discuss and review my progress. His help was instrumental in helping me communicate why I was most qualified for the award. I also worked with my research advisor here at GW (Dr. Peter Nemes) to come up with an idea for my research proposal.

What advice would you have for students interested in applying for a fellowship?

My advice for students interested in applying for a fellowship is to get in contact with the CUFR! Most likely there is someone in the office that worked with another student that applied to the fellowship you are interested in. Moreover, the individuals that work in the office are very helpful. They are willing to meet with students regularly to help them submit the best application possible.

Day 1 : Wednesday	December 6^th 2023
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM	Registration
2:30 PM – 3:00 PM	Inauguration and opening remarks
Session I (3:00 PM - 4:20 PM)	Chair Person: Prof. R. Murugavel

3:00 PM – 3:40 PM	Prof. Clare Grey, University of Cambridge "Towards a Net Zero World: Developing and applying new tools to understand how batteries function and fail."
3:40 PM – 4:20 PM	Prof. Suman Chakrabarty, S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences "Role of Metastable Conformational States in Proteins: From Function to Drug Discovery"
4:20 PM – 4:50 PM	Coffee/Tea Break

Session II (4:50 PM - 6:10 PM)	Chair Person: Prof. Krishna P. Kaliappan

4:50 PM – 5:30 PM	Prof. Brian Stoltz, California Institute of Technology "Natural Products as a Driving Force for Basic and Translational Science"
5:30 PM – 6:10 PM	Prof. Harinath Chakrapani, IISER Pune "Precision Redox Chemical Biology Tools"
7 PM - 9:30 PM	Dinner

Day 2 : Thursday	December 7^th 2023
Session III (9:00 AM - 10:20 AM)	Chair Person: Prof. Anindya Datta

9:00 AM – 9:40 AM	Prof Eufranio da Silva Jr., Federal University of Minas Gerais "On the Application of Diverse Catalytic Methods towards Bioactive Quinones Focusing on Generation and Capture of Benzyne and Electrochemical Processes"
9:40 AM – 10:20 AM	Prof. Suresh Valiyaveettil, NUS "Plastic pollution – Our attempts on understanding the environmental and health impact, tracking of movement and removing plastic particles from environment"
10:20 AM – 11:20 AM	Coffee + Group Photo Session

Session IV (11:25 AM - 12:45 PM)	Chair Person: Prof. Suvarn S. Kulkarni

11:25 AM – 12:05 PM	Prof. Sayam Sengupta, IISER Kolkata "Catalyst development for sustainable oxidation reactions"
12:05 AM – 12:45 PM	Prof. Benjamin Swarts, Central Michigan University "Chemical probes for mycobacterial glycans: from tuberculosis research tools to new diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities"
12:45 PM – 3:00 PM	Lunch and Poster Session

Session V (3:00 PM - 4:20 PM)	Chair Person: Prof. Raghavan B. Sunoj

3:00 PM – 3:40 PM	Prof. Umesh Desai, Virginia Commonwealth University "Synthetic, Orally Bioavailable, Selective, Highly Sulfated Mimetics of Natural Glycosaminoglycans as Drugs"
3:40 PM – 4:20 PM	Prof. Naga Phani Aetukuri, Indian Institute of Science "Ionics with Redox-Active Organic Semiconductors"
4:20 PM – 4:50 PM	Coffee/Tea Break

Session VI (4:50 PM - 6:10 PM)	Chair Person: Prof. Arindam Chowdhury

4:50 PM – 5:30 PM	Prof. Mohan Srinivasarao, Georgia Institute of Technology "Emergence of Chiral Structures in Achiral Lyotropic Liquid Crystals"
5:30 PM – 6:10 PM	Prof. Neil Cameron, Monash University "Tailored Polymer Scaffolds to Enable the Regeneration of Functional Tissue"
7:00 PM - 9:30 PM	Banquet Dinner

Day 3 : Friday	December 8^th 2023
Session VII (9:00 AM - 10:20 AM)	Chair Person: Prof. I. N. N. Namboothiri

9:00 AM – 9:40 AM	Prof. Karthish Manthiram, California Institute of Technology "Electrification and Decarbonization of Chemical Manufacturing"
9:40 AM – 10:20 AM	Prof. P K Madhu, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research "NMR from a High-Field and a Low-Field Perspective"
10:20 AM – 10:45 AM	Coffee/Tea Break

Session VIII (10:45 AM - 12:45 PM)	Chair Person: Prof. Prasenjit Ghosh

10:45 AM – 11:25 AM	Prof. Yogesh Surendranath, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Using Electrochemistry to Understand Thermochemical Catalysis"
11:25 AM – 12:05 PM	Prof. Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, Scripps Research Institute "Origins of Life: Searching for the Prebiotic Chemical Roots of Biology – Discovery or (re)Invention?"
12:05 AM – 12:45 PM	Prof. Kamendra P Sharma, IIT Bombay "Simple Coacervation to Fibrillation: A Tale of pH-dependent Amine Functional Polymers "
12:45 PM – 3:00 PM	Lunch and Poster Session

Session IX (3:00 PM - 5:00 PM)	Chair Person: Prof. Sandip Kar

3:00 PM – 3:40 PM	Prof. Garima Jindal, Indian Institute of Science "Merging Experiments and Theory for Mechanistic Insights into Carbene Insertion Reactions"
3:40 PM – 4:20 PM	Prof. Dattatraya H. Dethe, IIT Kanpur "Asymmetric Total Syntheses of Meroterpenoids and Atisane type Diterpenoids"
4:20 PM – 5:00 PM	Prof. Nandita Madhavan, IIT Bombay "Cyclic Peptide Drugs: Minimalistic Scaffolds and Sustainable Synthesis?"

5:00 PM - 5:15 PM	Closing Remarks - Prof. Anil Kumar

5:15 PM – 5:45 PM	High Tea

Group News

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2022

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2021

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Suddath Symposium Program

2020

2019

Physical Organic Chemistry, June 23-28, 2019

The annual meeting of the SFB 749 , March 11-14, 2019

CRC 235 The Emergence of Life , March 20, 2019

2018

The chemistry of the origin of life

CAS Fellowship to Ram Krishnamurthy as part of

Dr. Subhendhu Bhowmik has been selected as NASA Post-Doctoral Fellow

2017

Farewell to Tim Efthymiou

2016

3rd NoR HGT & LUCA conference: The landscape of the emergence of life

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2015

Dr. Tim Efthymiou has been selected to receive the NASA Astrobiology Postdoctoral Fellowship for “Study of a Novel Acyclic Oligonucleotide as an RNA Progenitor and Mimic”

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SIXTH ANNUAL STANLEY L MILLER MEMORIAL LECTURE

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Interview With Sydney Morris - National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Winner

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QOMSBOC 2014

The department of Chemistry and Biology at Ryerson University is pleased to host the 25th annual Québec-Ontario Mini-Symposium in Synthetic and Bioorganic Chemistry, at the Ryerson University campus in downtown Toronto, Ontario

on

November 7, 8 and 9, 2014.

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2014

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2013

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2012

Group - August 2012

The department of Chemistry and Biology at Ryerson University is pleased to host the 25^th annual Québec-Ontario Mini-Symposium in Synthetic and Bioorganic Chemistry, at the Ryerson University campus in downtown Toronto, Ontario