Yale Rigaku Symposium Speakers

Professor Alan Balch
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis

Professor Balch received his doctorate degree from Harvard University, where he studied chemistry with Professor Richard Holm. His current research interests include endohedral fullerenes and empty cage fullerenes, polymorphs, and luminescence in d8 metal complexes. He has been named as an American Chemical Society Fellow and is the recipient of the F.A. Cotton Award for Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry. In addition to his professorial duties, Professor Balch serves as an Associate Editor for the American Chemical Society's publication, Inorganic Chemistry.

Professor Linda Doerrer
Department of Chemistry, Boston University

Professor Doerrer received her doctorate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied chemistry with Professor Stephen Lippard. Her current research interests include highly fluorinated aryloxide and alkoxide ligands for the stabilization of high oxidation states in first-row transition metals and bottom-up synthesis of potentially conducting one-dimensional nanowires. She has been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship award and was named a Henry Dreyfus Fellow.

Professor James Mayer
Department of Chemistry, Yale University

Professor Mayer received his doctorate degree from the California Institute of Technology, where he studied chemistry with Professor John Bercaw. After a very productive tenure at the University of Washington, he joined the faculty at Yale University in 2014, where he is currently Professor of Chemistry. His the primary focus of his research is proton-coupled electron transfer reactions that involve bond formation and bond cleavage. He has been named an American Chemical Society Fellow and has served as chair at two Gordon Conferences.

 

Professor Kathryn Ferguson
Biological & Biomedical Sciences, Yale University

 

Professor Ferguson received her doctorate degree from Yale University, where she studied biochemistry with Professor Paul Sigler. Following an illustrious tenure at the University of Pennsylvania, she returned to Yale and joined the faculty in 2015, where she is currently Professor of Pharmacology. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of activation and inhibition of receptor tyrosine kinases and molecular mechanisms regulating cellular signaling and trafficking.

Simon Bates
Triclinic Labs

Dr. Simon Bates is a Research Fellow at Triclinic Labs in Lafayette, Indiana. He received his doctorate degree in applied physics from the University of Hull and subsequently completed a four-year fellowship in the Department of Physics at Edinburgh University. The primary emphasis of his work has been in the characterization and computational modeling of organic pharmaceutical materials using X-ray powder diffraction.

Michael Robertson
Yale University

Michael is a 4th year graduate student with Professor William Jorgensen at Yale University. He received his bachelor's degree in Biophysics from the University of Michigan. His work with Professor Jorgensen includes the study of macrophage migration inhibitory factor. His research routinely involves the use of single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques for the purpose of macromolecular structure determination.

 

Joseph Ferrara
Rigaku Americas Corporation

 

Dr. Ferrara received his doctorate degree from Case Western Reserve, where he studied chemistry with Professor Wiley Youngs. He is the Chief Science Officer of Rigaku Americas Corporation and Vice President of its X-ray Research Laboratory. Dr. Ferrara has spent the last 28 years developing tools for X-ray crystallography and imaging for the research community. In addition to his duties at Rigaku, Dr. Ferrara is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the BioTech Institute of the Lone Star Community College System and Books Editor for the American Crystallographic Association publication Reflexions.

Liam Sharninghausen
Department of Chemistry, Yale University

 

Liam is a 4th year graduate student with Professor Robert Crabtree at Yale University. He received his bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Oberlin College. His work with Professor Crabtree includes the study of iridium clusters and organometallic complexes. His research routinely involves the use of single crystal X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques for the purpose of structure determination.

Ankit Disa
Department of Applied Physics, Yale University

 

Dr. Disa is a postdoctoral research associate in Applied Physics at Yale University. He recently received his Ph.D. with Professor Charles Ahn. His research interests include surface and interface physics in atomic-scale thin films and heterostructures. His research routinely involves the use of powder and thin film X-ray diffraction techniques for the purpose of structure determination.