Welcome to the Department of Chemistry

Chemistry, the central science, is an integral part of modern life and forms the basis for advances in nearly all areas of science and technology.  Students and faculty in Chemistry at the University of Maine work together to answer questions related to major societal issues:  energy, the environment, modern materials, and health and medicine.  We invite you to explore our undergraduate and graduate programs and to learn more about our research.  If you have questions or would like to make arrangements for a tour of our department, please contact Dr. Alice Bruce, Chair, 152/271 Aubert Hall, 581-1168/ 581-1182, abruce@maine.edu

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Department News

Chemistry Welcomes New Staff

Welcome to Dr. Karl Bishop, who has been hired as Instrumentation Specialist/Research Associate effective July 17, 2023.  Karl is well known to the department because he teaches our Quantitative Analysis course every fall for many years as an adjunct professor.  We look forward to Karl continuing in the role as instructor for the Quantitative Analysis class as well as his new full time opportunities maintaining all of our scientific equipment.


Chemistry Welcomes Two New Faculty

Alessia BattigelliAlessia Battigelli – After starting her independent career at the University of Oslo in Norway, Alessia joins UMaine as an assistant professor of Chemistry, where her research activity is focused on biomimetic self-assembled nanomaterials with applications in drug delivery and tissue engineering.  Prior to joining UMaine, she obtained her PhD from the University of Trieste and the University of Strasbourg in 2012.  She then joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where she investigated self-assembled peptoid-based nanomaterials.  In 2016, she moved to Brown University to develop new polymeric hydrogels for stem-cell therapy.  In 2018, she received the ACS PMSE Future Faculty Scholars award.


Tomas MarangoniTomas Marangoni – Dr. Marangoni joined UMaine as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and FIRST, where his research activity is focused on developing new organic materials for sensing and electronic applications.  After receiving his PhD from the University of Trieste in 2012, he moved to the University of California-Berkeley where he worked on the synthesis of atomtically precise Graphene Nanoribbons (GNRs).  In 2016, he joined DuPont E&I developing high-performance electronic materials for commercial applications.  In 2020 he received the Excellence in Science Award from DuPont E&I for his outstanding contributions in the field.


 

Chemistry news archives

Research and Publication Highlights

Graduate student, Robin Hurst, alumnus, Angel Nieves, and faculty member, Dr. Matthew Brichacek, published an article, “Synthesis of Small Molecules Flourescent Probes and their Applications from Sensing to Imaging” in a special edition of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049).  The link to the article is here.


Atik Faysal, recent PhD graduate, and others from the Gramlich research group, published a paper in the Journal of Polymer Chemistry,Pathway to fully-renewable biobased Polyesters derived from HMF and phenols.”  The image below is from his abstract.

Graphical abstract: Pathway to fully-renewable biobased polyesters derived from HMF and phenols


Seminar Series

Chemistry Department

Guest Speaker

October 3, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. 

Dr. Chris Reece

Fellow, Rowland Institute at Harvard

316 Aubert Hall