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.

Devin Hiatt
Graduate Student

Devin completed his BS at Indiana State University in 2024 in Chemistry. During his time at ISU, Devin did computational chemistry work under Dr. Eric Glendening. Devin is interested in spectroscopy and computational chemistry. In his free time, Devin enjoys astronomy, watching and playing sports, and playing guitar.

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.

Sarah Alvarez
Undergraduate Researcher

Sarah is an undergrad pursuing a degree in Biochemistry with minors in plant science and biology. She is currently working on studying the spectroscopic properties of photosynthetic proteins in cyanobacteria. Outside of research you will find her hanging out with her pets, plants, and friends, probably drinking tea. She also enjoys cooking/baking, painting (not well), and going for hikes or trips to the beach.

Savannah Rain Holt
Graduate Student

Savannah completed her B.S. in chemistry at Brigham Young University where she did research with Dr. David Dearden. She is interested in just about everything, whether it be chemistry related or not, and loves watching educational YouTube videos on new subjects. In her free time, Savannah enjoys going on walks with her husband, playing board/card games, and doing puzzles.

Current Members

Group Alums

Amit Srivastava

Alex Flohr

Kevin Chelius

Chientzu Lin

Elena Stephanie

Safa Ahad

Sajal Salim