Current Members

Mike Reppert
Assistant Professor

A Kansas native, Mike completed his BS at Kansas State University in 2009 in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Math. It was also at Kansas State (during four years of undergrad research) where he became fascinated by the molecular mechanisms of photosynthesis. After a year of Fulbright research at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, he went on to work in 2D IR spectroscopy and peptide structural analysis with Andrei Tokmakoff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago. After obtaining his PhD in 2016, he worked as a Banting Scholar with Professor Paul Brumer at the Chemical Physics Theory group of the University of Toronto, investigating quantum effects in biological light harvesting. In summer 2019, he moved to Purdue to begin his own research group in Physical Chemistry, working to develop both experimental and computational tools to quantitatively understand structure/spectrum relationships in biomacromolecules, particularly photosynthetic proteins.

Curriculum Vita

Amala Phadkule
Graduate Student

Amala completed B.Sc. Chemistry and M.Sc. Organic Chemistry from the University of Pune (India). In December 2020, she graduated from the University of Alabama with MS Chemistry degree. Amala is interested in molecular biology and spectroscopy. After work, you can find Amala cooking, baking or painting. Favorite cake: Tres leches.

Chientzu Lin
Undergraduate Researcher

Chientzu is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Chemistry ACS. She is from Taiwan and grew up in Shanghai, China. She is currently working on running simulations involving WSCP and other chlorophyll proteins. Favorite Food: French Fries

Elena Stephanie
Undergraduate Researcher

Elena is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Chemistry. She grew up in Tangerang, Indonesia, and moved to Auburn, WA when she was 17. She is working on the enantiomers of chlorophyll a with grad student Jacob. She enjoys baking in her free time.

Jacob Hnatusko Wat
Graduate Student

Jacob completed his degree in chemistry with a minor in studio art at DePaul University. At DePaul Jacob was a part of Dr. Graham Griffin's research group and did excited state energy calculations and coding to study organic semiconductors. In his free time he enjoys photography, creating art and gardening. His research interests are in photo and phytochemistry. Favorite plant: Oleander.

Safa Ahad
Graduate Student

Safa graduated in 2019 with a B.S. degree in chemistry from West Virginia University. At WVU, Safa was part of Dr. Lisa Holland's research group working on steroid separations using UV-vis capillary electrophoresis. Her hobbies include working out, painting and cuddling her cat.

Sajal Salim
Undergraduate Researcher

Sajal is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Biomedical Health Science and minoring in Psychology. She is currently working on purifying WSCP mutants for UV Vis analysis. Her hobbies include reading, traveling, watching TV and spending time with friends and family.