Compiled and edited for clarity by Melissa Leyden, UVA ChemSciComm

Gabe is a graduate student in the Personick Lab and involved in the DEI Committee, DEI Journal Club, and the UVA Parking Committee. Gabe recently received an ACS PRIDE-Merck Graduate Research Award at the 2024 ACS Spring National Meeting in New Orleans.

What brought you to UVA Chemistry?

I was in Connecticut, at Wesleyan, and my PI had gotten a job here and when she wanted to move, I was like-- I really like working with you, I like my research-- so I came to the visitation event, and I felt like everyone was super friendly to me and I got a good vibe overall from the department. I thought Charlottesville seemed really nice and I wound up being able to transfer here.

What are you currently working on in your lab?

My whole thing is making shaped noble metal nanoparticles from a more synthetic design perspective. The application that we are focused on is heterogeneous catalysis. Some people make them to use for catalysis, plasmonic, or light mediated synthetic work as well. The main thrust of my project is using time-resolved electrochemical measurement techniques to monitor the particle growth environment to try to get information about growth mechanisms and what happened to mixed solution potential in particle growth solution, then try to extract information from that about synthetic design.

What inspired you to get involved with the chemistry department and student groups?

I had done GSA (kind of like GSC) at Wesleyan, and I wanted to be involved. Being the only person from my lab that came here, I needed to join things to hopefully make friends and learn more about the department. I also tend to be quieter, so I feel like I’m much more likely to interact with people if it’s structured and kind of a job sort of thing. I’ve been interested in stuff that would fall under DEI that I wanted to bring into my career in the future. I thought it was cool that the DEI Journal Club exists here and thought, “oh, this is fun”. I’ve liked science journal clubs that I’ve done in the past, and the DEI journal club seems interesting. I went and people were friendly. I found it really cool because I met a lot of people I would never have met otherwise. Even though Sophie and John haven’t left yet, I’ll start stepping up to do some organizational stuff so that it can keep going.

I was really inspired by a lot of the work that the previous DEI committee members had done, and I know that there were a lot of things they wanted to do, and we were able to make that happen. I also have some ideas and I’ve realized, while doing the journal club, I think I want to be more involved in GSC and it’s a position that I think is really important. But I’m also really excited about it.

In the past I’ve been interested in community organizing and activism. Once I realized that there were opportunities in the department here, I thought this is an interest area and skill set I could bring into chemistry instead of having it be a separate thing.

Are there any outcomes from your involvement in the department that surprised you?

I’ve met people who I wouldn’t have intersected with otherwise, and I think because I didn’t take classes here, I’m a little more cutoff from my cohort. In some of the conversations we’ve had in journal club, I learned a lot about how different offices and systems at UVA work that I didn’t think I would have known about otherwise, which has been very helpful. We read an article about retention in academia and disability and wound up talking about the Student Disability Access Center and Human Resources. Graduate students can be referred to both for accommodations.

What challenges have you faced with participating in these various roles?

I sometimes think: “how do I balance and prioritize lab stuff, and stuff that’s for the department that’s not lab?” I want to do as much lab stuff as I would if I wasn’t involved, but also not cut into my personal time. I’ve been creating new organizational systems for myself and figuring out how I want to organize my time here.

Has there been a particularly memorable or rewarding aspect of your outreach experience?

I joined the parking committee when they asked for graduate student representatives, and we were really annoyed and confused with how parking works here. I was expecting it to be really negative and frustrating and it turns out that a lot of people on that committee are new to their roles and didn’t have any student feedback, so they didn’t know what people needed. They have been open to listening and seem responsive in general. I was anticipating that there would be a little more resistance to certain things or certain pieces of feedback. Instead, a lot of the times it’s been that people just didn’t know or have feedback on what students need. So, I think there wasn’t clear communication between what people need in their day-to-day life and the people making decisions about it.

What does it mean to you to be a part of the Chemistry community, either in the department or in a broader sense?

I feel like we are interested in and care about each other’s work and science, which is different from being part of a more general student community. There is a real effort to cultivate a friendship and sense of belonging among people. People know each other on both the scientific and personal level. Something I’ve found meaningful is the idea of being able to bring your whole self to chemistry. I got an award and was able to participate in a symposium at the ACS meeting for queer chemists that was a technical session, and I got to talk about my research. Being able to bring your whole self to work and not have queer identity or advocacy work or anything be separate from your scientific work or career. Within the DEI committee, we ask, “how do we make the chemistry community one where people can do their science, but also feel comfortable bringing what makes them who they are to the community?”

What advice would you give to students wanting to get more involved in relevant outreach or coming from a similar experience?

Going to GSC meetings has been the most helpful for me in knowing what’s going on in the department in terms of events and knowing the sorts of issues that are being worked on. The meetings are low commitment, an hour a month, and you can choose a couple of meetings that sound interesting to show up and get involved.