In this presentation, I hope to showcase how influential and transformational undergraduate researchers can be in the context of research oriented academia. Undergraduate students are an essential piece in a larger organization composed of graduate students, post doctoral fellows, technicians and faculty members. I will present three recent examples from my group in which undergraduate students made a key contribution in a research project, in a way that enabled or drastically accelerated discovery. Pierre-Olivier Ferko (undergraduate researcher in 2016) has developed along with then MSc candidate Michael Malca a novel mechanochemical method for the functionalization of the terminal position in poly-ethylene glycol polymers.¹ Tracy Liu (undergraduate researcher since May 2019) has developed single-handedly a method for the synthesis of nanopolysaccharides by mechanochemistry, before joining forces with PhD candidate Tony Jin on applying them for hydrogel synthesis.² Finally, Georgia Douglas (undergraduate researcher since May 2019) made key contributions towards the development of two mechanochemically based syntheses, with PhD candidate Blaine Fiss. First she studied the synthesis of Ni₂P nanoparticles, applied to water splitting, before working on 2D doped carbon materials.
M. Y. Malca, P.-O. Ferko, T. Friščić, A. Moores, Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2017, 13, 1963–1968.
T. Jin, T. Liu, E. Lam, A. Moores, unpublish results
B. Fiss, N.-N. Vu, G. Douglas, T.-O. Do, T. Friščić, A. Moores, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2020, 8, 32, 12014-12024.
B. Fiss, G. Douglas, T. Friščić, A. Moores, unpublish results

Michael Malca

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