2024

• Justin has his third and final stay in Germany for the summer.

• Welcome Pritam Mahawar - a new postdoc in the lab!

• Alex and Jason's work on oxidizing Ce(III) to Ce(IV) with Cu(I) salts is now out in Inorganic Chemistry!

• Congratulations to Alex Gremillion who is Ph.D. #6 from the group! Good luck at TerraPower! Z-O-U!

• Our collaboration with the Gessner group on thorium and uranium yldiides along with a rare bis(yldiide) with mercury is now out in Chemical Communications!

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2023

• Welcome new graduate students, Mahdee Muhamed and Emily Truesdell! M-I-Z!

• Welcome new undergraduate student, Emme Atzemis!

• Robert and Ken's paper on U-Al and U-Ga bonds doing H2 activation is now out in Chemical Science!

• Summer, Justin is in Erlangen, Germany this summer with Karsten Meyer's group.

• Congratulations to Henry Jemison for earning his B.S. Chemistry with Honors! Henry is headed to Texas A&M University for graduate school.

• January, Congratulations to Robert Ward who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation! Z-O-U!

• Robert's paper on CO functionalization is now out in Chemical Science!

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2022

• June, Robert's paper on CO2 and CS2 reduction with U(III) metallocene aryloxides was accepted to Organometallics!

• Summer, Justin is in Bochum, Germany this summer working with Viktoria Gessner's group at Ruhr Universität Bochum.

• Congratulations to Jason Ross who successfully defended his M.S. thesis dissertation! Z-O-U!

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​2021

• December, Congratulations to Xhensila Xhani who successfully defended her M.S. thesis dissertation! Z-O-U!

• Michael gets 5 papers published: 2 Inorg. Chem.; 1 Organometallics, 1 Chem. Eur. J., and 1 Acta Cryst E.

• August 2021, Congratulations to Henry Jemison on being selected as a McNair Fellow!

• August 2021, Congratulations to Alex Gremillion who was awarded a DOE SCSGR to work with Dr. Richard Wilson at Argonne National Lab!

• August 2021, Welcome to the lab Patricia Lupu! M-I-Z!

• May 2021, Welcome to the lab Nethra! M-I-Z!

• March 2021, Congratulations to now Dr. Michael Tarlton on his graduation and postdoc at Argonne National Lab! Z-O-U!

• February 2021, Welcome to the lab Henry Jemison! M-I-Z!

• Justin was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers. He will work with his hosts, Prof. Viktoria Daeschlein-Gessner and Karsten Meyer, in the summers of 2022-2024.

 

2020

• Oct, 23, 2020, Congrats to Robert Ward on his 2nd publication of the year, "Two-Electron Reduction of a U(VI) Complex with Al(C5Me5)", published in Inorganic Chemistry! 

• May 2020, Congrats to Robert Ward on his publication of "Divergent uranium- versus phosphorus-based reduction of Me3SiN3 with steric modification of phosphido ligands" published in Chemical Science!

• May 2020, Congrats to Michael Tarlton for his publication of "Insertion Reactivity of CO, CO2, tBuCN, and tBuNC into Thorium– and Uranium–Phosphorus Bonds" published in Organometallics!

• Jan 2020, Welcome to the lab Xhensila and Jason! 

 

2019

• Sept 2019, Alex Myers’ paper on the isolation of a Np(III) hydrocarbyl complex was published in Angewandte Chemie.

• Aug 2019, Congratulations to Bruce Bursten! He will be the recipient of the ACS Award for Distinguished Service to Inorganic Chemistry.

• June 2019, Justin was awarded as a Fuldner Fellow.

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2018

• Nov 2018, Sean and Michael’s paper on functionalization of CO and tert-butyl nitrile was published in Angewandte Chemie.

• August 2018, Alex Myers’ neptunium papers are published in Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Communications!

• August 2018, Justin was awarded as a Fuldner Fellow.

• June 2018, Welcome Alexander Gremillion (graduate), Jonathan Fajen (undergrad), and Steven Renfroe (undergrad) to the group! M-I-Z!

• June 2018, Ken’s papers on thorium-phosphidos, U(III)-phosphido, and thorium and uranium carbene complexes were published in Inorganic Chemistry, Dalton Transactions, and Organometallics, respectively.

• May 2018, Congratulations to Pokpong (Ken) Rungthanaphatsophon, the third Ph.D. awarded from the group! Ken will postdoc with Jamie Neely at St. Louis University. Z-O-U!

• March 2018, Sean and Michael’s paper on insertion of benzophenone into thorium-phosphorus bonds was published in the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry as a special issue in honor of Justin’s Ph.D. advisor, Bill Evans.

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2017

• October 2017, Ken’s paper on thorium carbene complexes was published in Angewandte Chemie!

• Sept. 2017, Congratulations to Alex Myers who was awarded a DOE Fellowship! Alex will spend three months at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory working with Dr. Wayne Lukens.

• August 2017, Kira’s paper on tris(pyrenyl) pnictogens was published in Dalton Transactions!

• May 2017, Congratulations to Andrew Breshears, the second Ph.D. awarded from the Walensky group! Andrew will postdoc at Argonne National Laboratory.

• Farewell to Kira who will return to Herriot-Watt University to finish her M.S. degree. Z-O-U!

• April 2017, Justin received the MU President’s Award for Early Career Excellence!

• March 2017, Justin received a Faculty Fellowship Summer Institute in Israel! He will spend June 1-14, 2017 traveling the country.

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2016

• Dec. 2016. Behrle and Myers paper on uranium(III) and thorium(IV) DMBA complexes was published in Chemical Communications.

• Welcome Robert Ward as a graduate student to the group! M-I-Z!

• August 2016, Welcome Sean Vilanova as a postdoctoral researcher! Sean obtained his Ph.D. from Notre Dame with Vlad Iluc.

• Pokpong’s (Ken) paper on copper clusters was published in Dalton Transactions!

• June 2016, Farewell to Andrew Behrle. This dude did work!

• Welcome Robert Ward as a summer student! M-I-Z!

• April 2016, Behrle’s paper on thorium bis(phosphido) and bis(arsenido) complexes was published in Dalton Transactions as part of a special issue on New Talent: Americas!

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2015

• Dec. 2015, Behrle’s paper on alkyl dithio- and diselenophosphinate complexes was published in Inorganic Chemistry!

• Nov. 2015, Behrle’s paper on the first thorium phosphinidene complex was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society!

• August 2015, Congratulations to Alison Tamasi, the first Ph.D. awarded from the Walensky group! Alison will work at the Air Force Technical Applications Center.

• Welcome Stephen Belford, an exchange student from Herriot-Watt University, Scotland, to the group!

• Congratulations to Annie Kersting, Justin’s undergraduate research mentor at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, who is the recipient of the ACS Olin Medal!

• Congratulations to Eric Schelter, winner of the ACS Harry Gray award for young inorganic chemist!

• June 2015, Justin received a Department of Energy Early Career Award!

• Justin was named Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies of the chemistry department. We are not sure if congratulations are in order…

• May 2015, Farewell to Andrew Lane who will be attending Medical University of South Carolina’s School of Dental Medicine. Z-O-U!

• April 2015, Congratulations to Matt Vollmer who received an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship! Matt joined Connie Lu’s group at the University of Minnesota.

• Congratulations to Andrew Lane who successfully defended his M.S. dissertation!

• Jan 2015, Congratulations to Matt Vollmer on his nuptials as well as his paper getting the cover of Organometallics!

• Welcome Michael Tarlton as a new graduate student to the group! M-I-Z!

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2014

• Dec 2014, Alex Myers officially joins as a member of the group! M-I-Z!

• August 2014, Congratulations to Justin’s former Ph.D. advisor Bill Evans who will receive the ACS Award in Organometallic Chemistry!

• Congratulations to Jackie Kiplinger, winner of the ACS Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry!

• July 2014, Welcome Alex Myers as a summer student!

• March 2014, Congratulations to Alison Tamasi who received a Troutner Radiochemistry Scholarship Award!

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2013

• Dec. 2013, Welcome Vickie, Pokpong, and Andrew as graduate students to the group! M-I-Z!

• Congratulations to Matt Vollmer on graduating with honors with a B.S. in chemistry! Matt is staying with the group until he goes to grad school. Z-O-U!!

• Justin gave the December 2013 commencement address for the College of Arts & Science!

• Nov. 2013, Justin received another round of funding through the Nuclear Forensics Junior Faculty Award Program!

• October 2013, Mitch’s collaborative paper with the Bart and Shores groups was accepted to Chemistry – A European Journal.

• Sept. 2013, Welcome to Julia Garza as an undergraduate in the group! M-I-Z!!

• August 2013, Behrle’s paper on dithio- and diselenophosphonate actinide complexes was accepted to Inorganic Chemistry.

• Farewell to Morgan Moody and Agnes Mrutu who will be leaving but not too far. Morgan is moving to St. Louis and Agnes will be teaching here at Mizzou.

• June 2013, Welcome Neal Lacey to the group as a Stevens Summer Fellow! Neal is from New College of Florida.

• Justin is guest editor for Comments on Inorganic Chemistry for a special issue (volume 34, issues 3-4) in honor of John Fackler.

• May 2013, Congratulations to Alison Tamasi who received a Nuclear Forensics Graduate Fellowship through the Department of Homeland Security, Domestic Nuclear Detection Office!

• Agnes’ paper on thorium with a diazabutadiene redox-active ligand was accepted to European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry as part of a special issue on small molecule activation by reactive metal complexes.

• Congratulations to John Clizer on graduating Summa Cum Laude and with honors with a B.S. in chemistry! John will pursue a law degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Z-O-U!!

• Congratulations to Andrew Lane on graduating with a B.S. in biological sciences! Andrew will attend Dental School. Z-O-U!!

• April 2013, Our collaborative effort with the Hayton group at UC Santa Barbara was (finally) published in Inorganic Chemistry for a forum issue on Aspects of Inorganic Chemistry Related to Nuclear Energy.

• Alison’s paper on uranyl salicylaldiminate complexes was accepted in Radiochimica Acta.

• Congratulations to Matt Vollmer for being named a part of the College of Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Research Mentorship Program! Matt will work over the summer to synthesize transition metal complexes.

• March 2013, Agnes, Andrew, and Jon’s paper on transition metal salicylaldiminate complexes was accepted in Polyhedron.

• Feb. 2013, Justin was awarded an SEC travel grant to work with Dr. Gregory Robinson at the University of Georgia.

• Jan. 2013, Welcome Andrew Breshears, a new graduate student in the lab! M-I-Z!!

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2012

• Dec. 2012, As part of his Howard Hughes Fellowship, Andrew Lane helps explain the nuclear fuel cycle and how the Walensky group research attempts to learn more about closing the fuel cycle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqy4y5zf7tY

• Congratulations to Morgan and Maya Moody on the birth of their beautiful baby girl!

• Nov. 2012, Farewell to Alison Tamasi who will be finishing her Ph.D. research at Los Alamos National Laboratory with Marianne Wilkerson!

• Oct. 2012, The group was awarded a subcontract with Lawrence Livermore National with Dr. Patrick Huang to study lanthanide-ligand bonding.

• August 2012, Welcome Andrew Behrle, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab! Andrew obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Toledo with Joe Schmidt.

• Congratulations to Ashley Dame who was awarded a Division of Inorganic travel grant to attend the American Chemical Society meeting in Philadelphia.

• June 2012, Welcome Morgan Moody, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab! Morgan obtained his Ph.D. from Mizzou with Paul Sharp.