Below is the Fall 2026 Chemistry Seminar Schedule!

All Seminars are on Fridays in SQU 338 at 1:00pm (unless denoted otherwise).

Cookies and coffee are served for attendees!

Fall 2026 Seminar Schedule

Date	Speaker	Seminar Title/Topic
September 4	Dr. Ben Gherman	Syllabus and Seminar Overview
September 11	Dariel Aficial (graduate student)	Analyzing Volatile Organic Compounds Linked to Neurodevelopmental Disorders Using Gas-Chromatography Mass Spectrometry
September 18	Isabel Magana (graduate student)	Identification and Quantification of Carbohydrates in Biological Samples Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
September 25	Akmal Kharpoutly (graduate student)	Properties Studies of (Ethanol)X and (CO₂)Y (X = 1-2, Y = 0-6) Molecular Clusters Through Computational Analysis and Rotational Spectroscopy
October 2	Mathew Dominguez (graduate student)	Evaluation of performance in preparation methods for environmental water analysis: A comparison between offline-SPE and online-SPE extraction
October 9	Luc-Tanton Tran (graduate student)	Ultrasonic-Assisted Alkaline-Catalyzed Biodiesel Synthesis
October 16	Veronica Vyvoda (graduate student)	pH-Regulating Polybenzimidazole Composite Separators for Aqueous Zinc Metal Batteries
October 23	Nataliya Datsyuk (graduate student)	Characterization of Natural and Synthetic Macromolecules by SEC-MALS
October 30	Prof. Mike Payne (alumnus) American River College	There and Back Again: A Community College Teacher’s Tale
November 6	Prof. Joseph Harrison University of the Pacific	TBA
November 13	Prof. Liang Shi University of California, Merced	Toward Accurate Atomistic Modeling of Condensed-Phase Optical Spectroscopy
November 20	Ghaleb Barakat (graduate student)	Assessment of Insecticide Impact on Voltage Gated Calcium Channels and Calcium Dysregulation in Neuronal PC 12 Cells
November 27	No Seminar	Holiday
December 4	Prof. Johannes Bauer California State University, Sacramento	TBA
December 11	Marie Garcia Senior Environmental Scientist Department of Pesticide Regulation (CalEPA)	TBA