Professor Hutchison

Geoffrey R. Hutchison

Geoffrey R. Hutchison

Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry
Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering
B.A. Chemistry, Williams College, 1999 (Lee Y. Park, advisor)
Ph.D. Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2004
(Tobin J. Marks, Mark A. Ratner, co-advisors)
Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemistry, Cornell University, 2004–2007
(Héctor D. Abruña, advisor)

Founder and Lead Developer, Avogadro
Founder and Lead Developer, Open Babel

Selected Awards and Honors
• 2023 Codacy Pioneer in Open Source
• 2018 Tina & David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award
• 2017 Scialog Fellow in Advanced Energy Storage
• 2012 Cottrell Scholar Award
• 2012 Class of 1960 Scholar Lecturer in Chemistry, Williams College
• 2006 Blue Obelisk Award in Cheminformatics
• 2002 IBM Graduate Student Computational Chemistry Award (American Chemical Society)
• 2001–2003 Northwestern University Materials Research Center Fellowship

Current Graduate Students

Caroline Chun

Caroline Chun

Peptide AFM Virtuoso (2020–)
Caroline is working to find oligopeptides and other self-assembled monolayers with piezo activity using piezo-force microscopy (PFM/AFM) and calculations. Caroline grew up in Philadelphia, South Korea, and Virginia and received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Virginia. Some of her interests include traveling, strolling around, and reading magical realism literature.

Omri Abarbanel

Omri Abarbanel

Machine Learning Maestro (2020–)
Omri combines his interest in chemistry and coding to find ML methods for rapid screening of complex molecular properties. Omri was born in Israel and moved to the United States in 2011. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from CUNY Hunter College in 2017, and did a research internship on second harmonic generation imaging of peptide self-assembly structures with Dr. Rein Ulijn at CUNY Advanced Science Research Center. After that, he moved to Pittsburgh in 2018 to start his graduate program in Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh.

Brianna Greenstein

Brianna Greenstein

Organic Solar Cell Explorer (2020–)
Brianna utilizes computational methods and data science to optimize organic solar cells. Brianna grew up in New York and received her B.S. in Chemistry from SUNY Binghamton University, where she did research on metal alloy nanoparticles as catalysts for CO2 reduction. Here at Pitt, she was lured away from nanoparticle research during the COVID-19 lockdown. During her free time she enjoys painting and drawing.

Keren Lee

Keren Lee

Photovoltaic Pioneer (2022–)
Born and raised in Memphis, TN, Keren received her B.S. in Chemistry from Rhodes College where she conducted research on solvatochromic molybdenum dyes for potential use in dye-sensitized solar cells. In her free time, she enjoys knitting, tending to her houseplants, and foisting plant cuttings upon friends and random passerby.

Ben Shen

Ben Shen

Computational Explorer (2022-)
Ben was born in China and moved to the United States in 2016. He got his B.S. in Chemistry from South China University of Technology, where he did research on different metal phthalocyanines relating to materials in automotive batteries. Then he got his M.S. in Chemistry from Cal Poly Pomona, where he did research on “Computational Analysis And Machine Learning For Characterization of the Electronic Properties of Organic Molecular Crystals.” During his free time he enjoys reading and playing different kinds of chess, such as gomoku.

Maya Hayden

Maya Hayden

Piezoeletronic Potions Master (2022–)
Maya grew up in Bucks County, PA and received her BS from Smith College with a chemistry major, and music minor. At Smith she worked with Dr. Kevin Shea on synthesizing Neurolenin D analogs for use in lymphalic filariasis . She was drawn away from natural product synthesis into organic electronics, and hasn’t looked back since. In her free time she rock climbs, plays French horn in chamber ensembles, tends to her 90+ plants, and watches detective shows with her two geriatric cats.

Terry Paske

Terry Paske

Chiral Spin Commander (2023–)
Terry grew up in western Pennsylvania and received her BS from the University of Pittsburgh, where she did research with the Hutchison group pertaining to novel patterning methods for piezoelectric materials. After completing her degree Terry worked in industry in various fields such as coatings, pharmaceuticals and contact testing where she developed analytical testing methods and maintained regulatory compliance standards for companies. Some of Terry’s other interests are crochet, knitting, board games and taking care of her dog Broccoli.

Current Undergraduate Students

Rojin Mortazavi

Rojin Mortazavi

Synthesis Deputy (2024–)
Rojin was born in Iran, followed by a brief stint in Australia, before making a home in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She is an undergraduate currently pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.A. in Sociology. She plans on graduating in 2025 to then continue on for a Ph.D. in Chemistry. In her free time, Rojin keeps a nose in her books and indulges in home renovation shows.

Alumni

Former Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Dr. Marcus Hanwell (2007–2009) — Group Leader, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Former Graduate Students

  1. Aaron Crandall (2008–2010) — Scientific Librarian, Merck
  2. Xialing Chen, Ph.D. (2008–2013) — Chief Operations Officer (COO), UGOLED
  3. Xinfeng Quan, Ph.D. (2009–2013) — Associate Professor, Sichuan University – Pittsburgh Institute (SCUPI)
  4. Tamika Madison, Ph.D. (2009–2011) — Director of Undergraduate General Chemistry Laboratories, University of Pittsburgh Department of Chemistry
  5. Adam Gagorik, Ph.D. (2010–2013) — Senior Computer Vision Algorithm Engineer, Continental
  6. Andrey Sharapov, Ph.D. (2010–2013) — Senior Product Data Scientist, Schwarz IT KG (Germany)
  7. Paula Hock, Ph.D. (2010–2015) — Technical Director, PreScouter Inc.
  8. Steve Owens, M.S. (2011–2013) — Senior Associate Scientist, Covestro
  9. Chris Marvin, Ph.D. (2011–2017) — Senior Consultant, KPMG Nederland
  10. Ilana Kanal, Ph.D. (2012–2017) — Data Scientist, PNC Bank
  11. Kyle Reese (2014–2015)
  12. Nathaniel Miller, Ph.D. (2015–2020), Postdoctoral Associate, Tevis Jacobs Lab, University of Pittsburgh
  13. Christopher Petroff, Ph.D. (2015–2021), Postdoctoral Associate, John Marohn and Lara Estroff Labs, Cornell University
  14. Dakota Folmsbee, Ph.D. (2017–2022), NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, David Koes Lab, University of Pittsburgh
  15. Jacob Edmonds (2017–2018)
  16. Elena Kusevska (2017–2018), Graduate Student, Peng Liu Lab, University of Pittsburgh
  17. Julisa Rozon (2018–2020), Graduate Student, Jenny Laaser Lab, University of Pittsburgh
  18. Ryan Wheat, M.S. (2019–2021)
  19. Cpt. Brett Ondich, M.S. (2021–2022)
  20. Danielle Elsey, Ph.D. (2018–2023)
  21. Anneliese Schmidt, Ph.D. (2017–2023)
  22. Brianna Greenstein, Ph.D. (2020–2024)

Former Undergraduate Students

  1. Arthur Davis (’10), August 2008 — August 2010
  2. Casey Campbell (’10), August 2008 — April 2010
  3. Alexandra McSorley (’10), January 2009 — April 2010
  4. Evan Richards (’11), January 2010 — April 2011
  5. Leah Seebald (’11), September 2010 — April 2011
  6. Bryan Siegfried (’12), September 2010 — July 2011
  7. Terry Paske (’12), September 2011 — April 2012
  8. Valerie Lentz (’13), September 2011 — April 2012
  9. Matt McCain (’13), May 2012 — April 2013
  10. Jonathon Bechtel (’13), September 2012 — April 2013
  11. Shannon Davies (’13), September 2012 — April 2013
  12. Leandro Gil-Silva (’14), May 2013 — August 2013
  13. Benjamin Frank (’14), September 2013 — April 20141
  14. Isabel Foreman-Ortiz (’15), September 2013 — April 2015
  15. Eric LeCato (’15), May 2013 — April 2015
  16. Michael Moody (’15), September 2013 — August 2015
  17. Michelle Hu (’15), May 2014 — December 2015
  18. Taylor Cornell (’16), September 2015 — April 2016
  19. Michael Cole (’17), January 2016 — April 2017
  20. Erin Christensen (’18), September 2016 — April 2018
  21. Kyle Oswald (’17), January 2017 — December 2017
  22. Luke Langkamp (’18), September 2017 — April 2018
  23. Dingfang Abraham Yang (’20), January 2018 — April 2019
  24. Jeremy Stundon (’19), May 2018 — April 2019
  25. Sean Donahue (’19), May 2018 — April 2019
  26. Taylor Shoun (’19), September 2018 — April 2019
  27. Dacia Scott (’20), May 2019 — October 2020
  28. Ben Richardson (’21), January 2021 — May 2021
  29. Nishka Edlabadkar (‘24), August 2022 — May 2023
  30. Kyler Daas (‘24), January 2023 — May 2024
  31. Montez Newsome (‘24), January 2023 — May 2024

Former High School Researchers

  1. Anjali Premkumar — North Allegheny HS
  2. Cameron Selby — Pittsburgh Allderdics HS
  3. Michal Hajlasz — Pittsburgh Allderdice HS
  4. Ni Nyoman D. Gayatri — Pittsburgh Allderdice HS
  5. Michal Hajlasz — Pittsburgh Allderdice HS
  6. Bennett Matthews — Pittsburgh Allderdice HS