Name: Oliver Solares
Pronouns: he/him/his
Institution: California State University, Fullerton
Department: Chemistry & Biochemistry
Biography:
Hello! I’m Oliver Solares, a 2nd year Chemistry Master’s student. I’m currently getting research experience so that I can apply for a PhD program and eventually apply to do research at a Department of Energy lab! I used to work full time as an analytical chemist, but I quickly changed my mind and found research to be much more exciting. Besides finding research fun and exciting, I think research is necessary in advancing towards more sustainable living as a society, and I want to contribute to research that will have a positive impact on the planet.
Academic Status: Masters Student
Year in program: 2nd
Research Area/Department: Chemistry; Materials Science; Physics
Other, specify:
Major/Specialty: My major is physical chemistry and I specialize in computational chemistry for my thesis work. I computationally model heterogenous catalysis using nanomaterials (graphene oxide) for cleaner alternatives to transition metal catalysts.
Degrees Earned or in Progress: M.S. Chemistry Spring 2024 (In Progress) B.S. Chemistry Spring 2022
What courses or academic preparation have you completed to prepare for a summer internship experience?
My research necessitates navigating python and so I’m very familiar with the language. I have over a year worth of experience connecting to clusters, editing scripts, and calculating properties such as energies and forces for molecular systems. During Summer of 2023, I worked with Hubertus van Dam of Brookhaven National Lab where I worked on implementing universal python modules and visualizers into the NWChem setup. I did this with the goal of finding and visualizing the transition state of the 2-propanol dehydration reaction over H-ZSM-5 zeolite using the Dimer method.
Have you published any research or worked on research/technical projects? Yes
Where has your research been published or where have you conducted research/technical projects? I’m currently on my 2nd year of doing research under Dr. Michael Groves at California State University, Fullerton. A publication is in progress for this work but a few more results still need to be calculated on the institutional cluster. I also worked on the NWChemEx project for 10 weeks at the Computational Science Initiative at BNL under Hubertus van Dam.
Please describe your research/academic interests:
I’m primarily interested in using computational methods, such as density functional theory (DFT), to further our understanding of molecular systems. DFT can be used to determine reaction pathways, acidic potentials, and much more and the endless applications really excite me. I’m also interested in seeing what other computational tools are used to further our understanding of molecular systems! Quantum computing is a field I am also very interested in, and I would be so excited to learn more about the field.
Computational and Data Science Areas:
Computational Science Applications, i.e., Bioscience, Cosmology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Nanotechnology, Climate, etc.; High-Performance Computing; Quantum Computing and Information Science
Research Synergy:
The endless number of applications that computational tools have to further our understanding of biology, chemistry, and physics is what makes me so interested in computational work. There is so much potential information just waiting to be discovered with computational work, and I think that is so exciting. My desire to use computational tools to advance our understanding of energy and molecular/atomic systems aligns pretty closely with the goals of the DOE labs.
Motivation:
I want to contribute to a more diverse field of computer scientists, and as a first-generation indigenous student, participating in this program can help me do that as well as allow me to make long lasting connections and collaborations to get more involved in the field. Ever since I left my position as an analytical chemist over a year ago, I’ve been hooked onto doing research and I’ve just been trying to get as much research experience as possible so that I can keep learning and eventually decide which field I want to focus on the most.
Lightning Talk Title: Analyzing acidity of graphene oxide as a function of hole defect size