UNC Pembroke: Chemistry and Physics

05/06/2026

The 2026 Spring Graduate Social took place on April 22, bringing together a wonderful turnout of students, faculty, and staff. Attendees enjoyed an afternoon of great food and fellowship as the department celebrated its soon-to-be alumni. Congratulations to our graduating seniors: Maria A. Bogan, Amira D. Hammonds, Hannah L. Leviner, Philip C. Revels, Caleb Antwi, Sharon T. Daminabo, Gavin T. Hardison, Seobin Jenna Kim, Daniel K. Smith, and John T. Squier.

05/06/2026

The 20th Annual Pembroke Undergraduate Research and Creativity (PURC) Symposium took place on Wednesday, April 8th, at the Mary Livermore Library. This year’s symposium was a resounding success, featuring 144 presentations that showcased the scholarly and creative achievements of approximately 214 students. These projects were made possible through the dedicated guidance of 68 faculty mentors spanning 26 academic departments. Students presented research projects mentored by Chemistry and Physics faculty Mason Parkes, Cornelia Tirla, Paul Flowers, Siva Mandjiny, Benjamin Killian, Moira Lauer, Steven Singletary, Marcus Hunt, Tikaram Neupane, and Uma Poudyal. Dr. Tim Ritter attended to present the Ritter Amero Research Scholarship to Physics major Tyler Kossover. A special award was presented to Sailaja Vallabha for her exceptional contributions to fostering undergraduate research for UNCP students.

05/06/2026

Move over, pea and soy proteins! Researchers wondered if marigold flowers could have a second life as a potential source of plant protein.

“People are increasingly aware of food waste and are seeking innovative solutions,” says the paper’s corresponding author, Anand Mohan. “Demonstrating that something as common and overlooked as a flower can be transformed into a valuable food ingredient makes science both relatable and impactful.”

The team’s results, published in ACS Food Science & Technology, suggest that marigold proteins could be both nutritional and functional additions to foods, helping to improve the taste, stability, and texture of bakery products and emulsion-based foods.

Read more about the study: https://brnw.ch/21x259O

Image credit: Adapted from ACS Food Science & Technology 2026, DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.5c01215

04/28/2026

Trees may provide us with wood for materials, but can you imagine a smartphone with a wooden touchscreen? Or a house with wooden windows? Probably not — unless you’ve heard of transparent wood.

Made by modifying wood’s natural structure, this material has been proposed as a sturdy, eco-friendly alternative for plastic. Researchers are working to create transparent woods using almost entirely natural materials, and have explored making them electrically conductive, too. This research was presented at .

Read more: https://brnw.ch/21x1NOP

Image credit: Bharat Baruah

04/28/2026

04/28/2026

UNC Pembroke offers a free two-week bioprocessing course to prepare individuals for entry-level jobs in biopharmaceutical manufacturing with industry partners like Pfizer and Amgen.

04/20/2026

The FIRST-NC Pembroke District Robotics Competition was held March 28 - 29 in the Jones Gymnasium. Thirty-three teams of high school students from across the state (including two from Robeson County) competed with their robots as part of this year's event, titled Rebuilt. Dr. Benjamin Killian returned for his 9th year as a Judge. Several members of the Chemistry and Physics Club also served as invaluable volunteers, including Jacob Ramsey, Alisha McCrimmon, Enrico Bellamy, Andres Mijangos-Cruz, and Hailey Updike. Club President Hannah Leviner reprised her role as Judge Advisor Assistant for the second year.

More information can be found at https://www.firstnorthcarolina.org/
Thank you to all who made this event the success it was!

04/20/2026

On March 24th from 6-8 pm, some members of the Chemistry & Physics Club drove to Gray's Creek Middle to participate in their STEM night! We were able to do our baking soda and vinegar balloon pufferfish experiment with the middle school students to help get them a homework pass! It was lots of fun, and we hope to go back next year! Thank you to Andres Mijangos-Cruz, Alicia McCrimmon, and Hannah Leviner for volunteering!

04/16/2026

This teabag is not for brewing beverages — it’s for removing toxic arsenic from drinking water.

In areas where water treatment is not viable and arsenic contamination is widespread, these teabags could serve as a simple, inexpensive and effective way to make drinking water safe. The research team embedded cellulose-based teabags with iron oxide nanoparticles and filled with them crushed eggshells instead of tea leaves. In laboratory tests, one teabag removed more than 98% of arsenic in a small beaker of water in just six hours.

“Clean drinking water should not depend on access to expensive infrastructure. Our research shows that simple low-cost materials can be engineered into scalable solutions for arsenic remediation from drinking water, one of the world’s most urgent public health crises,” explains Vick Tan, a high school student and author on the paper.

Read more about this research: https://brnw.ch/21x1B4S

Advanced Science Research Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY

04/14/2026