Elena Thomas – NSF Recipient

Elena is interested in using spectroscopy to further investigate the chemical properties of molecules, and using that information to further learn more about the world. Previously, she interned at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a physical chemistry lab using Raman and IR spectroscopy on compounds relevant to the surfaces of planetary objects in our solar system, specifically Enceladus, Europa, and Ceres. She wrote and published two scientific papers with her mentors during her year as an intern at JPL, the second of which was published this past December. After transferring to UCI, she joined the organic synthesis laboratory of Elizabeth Jarvo. Beginning this July, Elena will be starting a Ph.D. program in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Washington, where she plans to use Stimulated-Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy on bioorganic molecules and apply these techniques to study cellular processes in cells.