Keynote Speakers:

 

Dr. Laneta Dorflinger ’75 H’17

Laneta Dorflinger, Ph.D. ’75 (she/her) recently retired after a 35-year career at FHI 360 – an international nonprofit human development organization with activities in more than 60 countries. Throughout her career, she has been a passionate advocate for improving women’s health and has directed research and development programs to improve contraceptives and HIV prevention technologies, expand understanding of the interface between technology and behavior, and improve access to family planning in low resource settings. Laneta is a member of the second class of women at Lafayette and was the first woman to receive a BS chemistry degree. She received an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in physiology from Yale University and did post-doctoral training at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her commitment to a career addressing the reproductive health needs of women was sparked during her first job – a fellowship with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). She is a member of Lafayette College’s Board of Trustees and one of the founding members of the Council of Lafayette Women.  Her awards include the Science and Technology in Development award from USAID, and the George Washington Kidd Award for career distinction and an honorary Doctor of Sciences from Lafayette College. Laneta loves cooking, sports (especially basketball and running) and educational travel. She and her husband are involved in breast cancer fundraising and sponsor the Sir Walter Miler – a race focused on breaking mile records.

 

 

Dr. Roger Egolf

Dr. Roger Egolf, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and Coordinator of General Education at Penn State – Lehigh Valley. A graduate of Kutztown University, he received his PhD in organic chemistry from Lehigh University with Ned Heindel in 1990. His chemical training was in drug design and the synthesis of biologically active compounds, but his current research is in the general field of the history of chemistry. Dr. Egolf is a past Chair of both the Division of the History of Chemistry and the Lehigh Valley Section of the American Chemical Society. He currently serves as a Councilor from the History of Chemistry Division on ACS Council and is a member of its Committee on Divisional Activities. He also is a member of the Affiliates Council of the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. Dr. Egolf has served Penn State as a member of its University Faculty Senate since 2001, chairing numerous committees and currently serving as the Historian of the Senate and Chair of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Libraries, Information Systems, and Technology. He also serves as a faculty representative to the Penn State Board of Trustees and its Committee on Finance and Investment.

 Notably, Dr. Egolf is the author of “The History of Chemical Education at Lafayette College” (Bull. Hist. Chem. 2005), a definitive work that chronicles the development of one of the nation’s oldest chemistry programs.

 

 

Short Talks:

 

Dr. Andrea Wegrzynowicz ‘19

Andrea Killian Wegrzynowicz (BS Biochemistry ’19) is a women’s health researcher currently working as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Aleksandar Stanic in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying the role of the immune system in female infertility. At Lafayette, she worked with Dr. Justin Hines, and then earned her PhD in Biochemistry with Dr. Katherine Henzler-Wildman at UW-Madison, investigating a protein that contributes to antibiotic resistance in bacteria. During her PhD, she also discovered an interest in undergraduate teaching and ran a seminar course on “Biochemistry of Human Reproduction.” Dr. Wegrzynowicz has presented her work at several national conferences, most recently winning the President’s Presenter Award at the Society for Reproductive Investigation, and has published numerous papers about protein biochemistry, reproductive immunology, and infertility. Finally, this summer she will begin a new role as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Colby College, and is excited to be back at a liberal arts college and start the “W” lab!

 

Bella Lowdermilk ‘24

Bella Lowdermilk graduated from Lafayette in 2024 with a B.A. in Chemistry and a minor in Studio Art. During her undergraduate career, she conducted research with Dr. Kristen DeMeester, first at The Scripps Research Institute during Dr. DeMeester’s postdoctoral tenure and subsequently at Lafayette once Dr. DeMeester began her faculty appointment. On campus, Bella was a member of the varsity softball team, a resident advisor, and a teaching assistant. She went on to earn her M.S. in Chemistry from the University of New Haven in December 2025. Her graduate research with Dr. Pier Cirillo focused on LIMK2 degradation as a potential prostate cancer therapy, specifically designing LIMK2-CHAMPs with varying linker lengths.

 

 

Emily Lugos ‘20

Emily Lugos graduated from Lafayette College in 2020 with a degree in Chemistry and a minor in Writing. Since then, she has worked as a computational chemist, an applications engineer, and is currently a graduate teaching assistant at Villanova University. Her work focuses on the intersection of disciplines, which led her to specialize in machine learning and natural language processing. Her research explores how semantic modeling can improve automated event coding by better capturing narrative structure and context in news articles. Emily will be graduating from Villanova University with a master’s degree in Computer Science and plans to continue working in data science and machine learning. Outside of her research, she enjoys crocheting, baking sourdough, and spending time with her beagle, Concha Ramirez.

 

Anna DiFelice ‘24

 

After graduating from Lafayette College in 2024 with a BS in Chemistry, Anna continues her research journey at the University of Michigan. Equipped with a strong analytical chemistry background from Lafayette, she now studies surfaces and interfaces at a molecular level using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy.

 

Aaron Shoemaker ‘22

Aaron graduated from Lafayette College in 2022 with a B.S. in Biochemistry. He was an EXCEL researcher starting with Dr. Swails in the spring semester of his freshman year working on organometallic complexes and transitioned to synthetic organic chemistry with Prof. Griffith during the sophomore year. After graduating, Aaron came to Northwestern University and joined the labs of Profs. Karl Scheidt and Bryan Hunter working on synthetic photo-electrochemical methodologies. Aaron’s passion for teaching, which started in his roles as a Supplemental Instructor and Peer Tutor at Lafayette, as well as experimental research have only strengthened since starting graduate school. He will soon be pursuing academic and industry positions as he enters his fifth year.

 

Becky Hartman ‘23

Rebecca Hartman is a Lafayette Alumnus, (BS Biochemistry ’23) who worked in the Bertucci Lab and was on the Cross Country and Track & Field teams while at Lafayette. Now she is a PhD candidate in the Sun Lab at UMass Amherst. Rebecca’s research combines engineering with neuroscience and her work is focused on developing a neural organoid that contains separate regions of striatal cells and midbrain cells to model the circuit that is affected by Parkinson’s Disease. This system is patterned through the use of a gradient-producing device, with the goal that it will be used for Parkinson’s Disease drug testing. In addition, she was part of the planning committee for a science outreach program to a local middle school. Outside of the lab, she enjoys running and traveling with friends.

 

Daisy Grace ‘20

Daisy Grace is currently a PhD candidate in Dr. Carsten Prasse’s Lab in the Environmental Health & Engineering Department at Johns Hopkins University (defending in less than 2 weeks from the Lafayette Bicentennial!). She graduated from Lafayette with a B.S. in Chemistry in 2020 and is an alumna of the Galloway Lab, a Goldwater Scholar, and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Her current research involves the development of novel analytical approaches to simultaneously extract, prioritize, and identify toxic contaminants within environmental water matrices. In her lab, Daisy specializes in trace-level quantification of toxicants as well as applying non-targeted analyses to identify unknown chemical exposures in our environment.

 

 

Dr. Christine Thomas ‘01

Christine Thomas received her B.S. in chemistry from Lafayette College in 2001, where she worked with Professor Chip Nataro. She received her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry in 2006 at the California Institute of Technology under the direction of Professor Jonas C. Peters, then completed 2 years of postdoctoral work under the direction of Professors Marcetta Y. Darensbourg and Michael B. Hall at Texas A&M University. In 2008, Christine began her career as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Brandeis University and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013 and to full Professor in 2016. In 2018, Christine relocated to The Ohio State University, where she is currently the Phyllis and Richard Leet Endowed Chair. Throughout her career, Christine has won awards for her research, teaching, and mentorship, including the DOE Early Career award, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, the NSF CAREER award, the Michael L. Walzer Award for Excellence in Teaching (Brandeis), the Harlan Hatcher Distinguished Professor Award, and the Susan M. Hartmann Award for Mentoring and Leadership. Christine served as an Associate Editor for Dalton Transactions for 9 years and is currently a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards for Dalton Transactions, Chemical Science, Inorganic Chemistry, and Polyhedron.