WCC Merck Research Award Symposium

 WCC MERCK RESEARCH AWARDS SYMPOSIUM 

ACS Fall 2025 Meeting

Monday, August 18, 2025 • 2:00 – 5:50 pm Marriott Marquis, University of DC 

Organizer: Anna Sromek • Presiders: Niharika Krishna Botcha and Amelie Dion 

2:00 pm Introductory remarks 

2:05 pm Dual-pathway light-initiated photodegradation of azo dye acid violet 3 

Domenica Fertal

2:25 pm Geminal wavefunctions inspired by Coupled Cluster: A novel approach to study strongly correlated electronic systems 

Pratiksha Balasaheb Gaikwad

2:45 pm Supramolecular stabilization of iron-sulfur clusters: Insights from cages and coordination polymers for enhanced catalytic performance 

Rupal Baliyan

3:05 pm Unlocking azole chemical space via modular and regioselective N–alkylation 

Adrian Matthews

3:25 pm Progress toward the total synthesis of rugulosone 

Vanessa Gonzalez

3:45 pm Intermission 

4:05 pm Chance Favors the Prepared Mind: An Analytical Odyssey 

Amanda K. Peterson Mann

4:45 pm Targeted protein O-GlcNAc reveals functions for O-GlcNAc on transcription 

Alison Mody 

5:05 pm Cysteine-based amino acid mimetics as a novel class of antitubercular agents: Structure-activity studies and therapeutic potential 

Destinee Manning 

5:25 pm Elucidating the molecular mechanism of interleukin-7 potentiation by a neutralizing anti-cytokine monoclonal antibody 

Emily Ariail 

4:45 pm Concluding remarks 

Merck is acknowledged for its support of the WCC Merck Research Awards program 

WCC Chair: 

Lorena Tribe 

WCC Program Chair: 

Danniebelle Haase 

Visit www.acswcc.org for more information about the Women Chemists Committee or send an email to WCC@acs.org