Rebecca Black (UChicago, Chemistry, PhD ’18), is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at New College of Florida. Her background is in synthetic organic/organometallic chemistry and polymerization catalysis. She and her team of undergraduate New College research students are focused on synthesizing a series of phosphine ligands and their metal complexes for use in catalytic acceptorless dehydrogenation, a clean organic reaction that generates hydrogen gas as its only byproduct. She is also passionate about fostering her student’s scientific communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and information/chemical literacy skills, and enjoys sharing her projects and course design experiences with colleagues and at Chemical Education symposia at American Chemical Society meetings. Professor Black serves on the Chart Your Course (new general education program) Steering Committee and Writing Advisory Committee at New College. She also co-organizes New College’s weekly Natural Sciences Seminar series and has served as the secretary of New College United Faculty of Florida union for the past two years. She is excited to take her pre-tenure research leave this coming Fall!

Dr. Emina A. Stojković received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Chicago. She is a distinguished professor in the Department of Biology at Northeastern Illinois University, a 4-year public Hispanic Serving Institution with a primarily teaching mission in Chicago, IL. During her tenure, she has developed an NSF and NIH-funded international and interdisciplinary research program with an outstanding track record on recruiting URM students for high-impact research. Many of her undergraduate and graduate students are co-authors on the recent peer-reviewed publications in high-impact scientific journals.