2021

August 21: The group celebrates the accomplishments of 2020-2021 PhD graduates! This is an extraordinary bunch of the founding members of the group who were pivotal in jump-starting the research program in the Mirica group. We commend them on completing their dissertations during the global COVID-19 pandemic, persevering through challenges, and pushing boundaries of scientific knowledge!
August 19: Congratulations to Dr. Robert Stolz on the successful defense of his PhD dissertation!
July 14: Congratulations to Dr. Nicholas Blelloch on the successful defense of his PhD dissertation!
July 1: Congratulations to Dr. Mirica on her official promotion to Associate Professor with tenure!
June 16: Congratulations to Dr. Aylin Aykanat on the successful defense of her PhD dissertation! Aylin is the second PhD graduate from the group. Best wishes to Aylin in the next chapter of her career at Rapiscan, Inc.
June 13: Congratulations to 2021 graduates of the Mirica Group: Colin Morrell, Brittany Cleary, Claudia Durbin, and Anna Brinks! Thanks for your contributions to the team and best of luck with your future endevours!

2020

December 22: The Mirica Group wishes everyone Happy Holidays! To celebrate, the Miricans created some fun videos as part of the  Mirica Group 2020 Kitchen Chemistry Video contest. Check out the top three winners featuring chemistrees, painting by pH, and Bismuth crystals:
December 2: Congratulations to Zheng Meng for having his work featured on the Cover of Nano Research, in a special issue entitled: "Future Directions of Reticular Chemistry".
November 10: The group officially welcomes two new graduate students: Hana Yarbrough and Evan Cline.
July 13: Our recent work is featured on the cover of Chemistry of Materials. Congratulations to Aylin, Zheng, and Georganna!
June 11: Congratulations to Carly Tymm '20 and Louisa Greenburg '20 on their successful defenses of their undergraduate honors theses! Additionally, Carly has been honored as a recipient of The Paul R. Shafer & Douglas M. Bowen Award for her outstanding performance as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, the Haseltine Chemistry Physics Prize for her promise in the study of these two subjects, and the John L. Zabriskie Jr. '61 Senior Chemistry Prize for excellence in undergraduate research. Furthermore, Louisa was also honored with the The Stephen W. Wright '81 Pfizer Green Chemistry Award for her work focused on energy storage and with the Elden Bennett Hartshorn Medal acknowledging her promise in the study of Chemistry and her plans to pursue a graduate degree at Stanford University beginning in 2020.
April 29: Congratulations to Michael Ko for a successful defense of his PhD Dissertation! #1MiricanPhD. The group celebrates on zoom while practicing physical distancing!
April 27: Sincere thanks to the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation to their support of our work through the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award! Congratulations to all the 2020 award recipients!
March 18: Our laboratory research in put on hold as we practice social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic.
March 10: Congratulations to the team on the publication in JACS entitled "Employing Conductive Metal-Organic Frameworks for Voltammetric Detection of Neurochemicals" where we demonstrate for the first time the ability of conductive MOFs for simultaneous detection and resolution of neurochemicals (dopamine and serotonin) in aqueous solutions.
February 29: The group manages to squeeze in some ice skating at the end of the winter season at Lake Morey on the Leap Day of 2020!
February 21: Prof. Mirica is extremely honored and grateful to have been selected as a recipient of the NSF CAREER award in the amount of $625,000 over 5 years made possible by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry of the National Science Foundation and co-funding from the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. This award will support the group's research efforts in developing conductive framework materials for chemical sensing and will enable outreach activities for increasing the participation of disadvantaged and underrepresented students in research.

2019

November 12: We are delighted to welcome three new first-year graduate students to the group: Georganna Benedetto, Emma Ambrogi, and Priyanshu Chandra!
August 23: Prof. Mirica and Carly Tymm '20 are featured in 3D: Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
June 29: The group celebrates the beginning of summer with a Group Picnic!
August 22: We are grateful for the support provided by U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) for collaborative research with the Irving Institute for Energy and Society and Thayer School of Engineering focusing on developing ​Resilient Energy System Solutions for Extremely Cold Regions
June 26: Congratulations to Zheng Meng and Robert Stolz on the recent publication in JACS describing our efforts to synthesize a new conductive covalent organic framework material, which we termed COF-DC-8.
March 1: We gratefully acknowledge financial support administered by the Army Research Office to support a new project on the development of stimuli-responsive adhesives for wearable protection. This project will strengthen our collaborative interactions with U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) .
February 11: The group's work in research and pedagogy is honored with a 2019 Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. These awards provide $100,000 to each recipient identified as a leader in integrating science teaching and research at a top U.S. research university or a primarily undergraduate institution. We are extremely grateful for this honor.
February 8: Great outreach event today with Upward Bound high school students who visited our lab from Vermont and NY! My group had fun sharing our enthusiasm for materials chemistry, chemical sensing, and metal-organic frameworks!
February 2: We are looking for motivated high school and undergraduate students to work with us on developing wearable sensors through a paid 10-week summer internship. More information is available here for high school students: https://www.usaeop.com/program/hsap/ and for undergrads: https://www.usaeop.com/program/urap/. Application deadline is February 28.
January 2: Ringing in the New Year with three new publications. Check out our recent work in J. Am. Chem. Soc., Chem. Mater., and Chem. Rev.! Congratulations to the team!
January 1: The group receives a pilot grant from the Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society to support our collaborative work with Prof. Fiona Li at the Thayer School of Engineering.

2018

November 6: Aileen Eagleton, an incoming graduate student from SUNY Albany, officially joins the group. Welcome to the team, Aileen!
November 3: The group celebrates 4th Annual Oktoberfest with some pumpkin carving!
September 15: The Mirica Group is excited to be part of a fantastic team across the state of New Hampshire on a $20 Million project funded by NSF EPSCoR to develop better biomaterials: https://engineering.dartmouth.edu/news/dartmouth-unh-team-up-for-20-million-project-to-develop-better-biomaterials …
September 12: A new undergraduate researcher, Colin Morrell '21, joins the group as a Sophomore Scholar. Welcome, Colin!
June 27: Dr. Mirica's research and teaching are featured in Dartmouth News in a "Focus on Faculty" series!
June 21: Congratulations to Michael Ko and Lukasz Mendecki on the publication of our Feature Article in Chem. Commun. This work is part of a thematic collection of 2018 Emerging Investigators.
June 11-12: Dr. Mirica visits 3M as one of the recipients of the 2018 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award.
May 18: Dr. Mirica's use of technology in the classroom is featured by The Dartmouth.
February 15: Dr. Mirica is selected to receive the 2018 Sloan Research Fellowship: https://sloan.org/fellowships/2018-Fellows! We thank Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for supporting our work! Read more on Dartmouth News about our work.
January 10: Dr. Mirica has been selected as the American Chemical Society’s 2018 PMSE Young Investigator!  The 2018 PMSE Young Investigators include 21 young scientists from academia, industry, and national laboratories who have made significant contributions to their fields within Polymer Science and Engineering. These scientists and engineers are emerging as leaders in the fields the synthesis, processing, characterization, and physics of soft materials and their applications. The awards are supported by the PMSE (polymer materials science and engineering) division of the American Chemical Society.  The awardees will be honored with a symposium at the 256th national meeting of the American Chemical Society to be held in Boston, MA August 19-23, 2018.
January 3: The group welcomes three new undergraduate interns through the Women in Science Project (WISP): Claudia Durbin, Anna Brinks, and Connie Huang!

2017

November 22: Our JACS communication describing electrochemically-actuated capture and release of ethylene is published.
November 22: Our recent work is featured as Cover Art in JACS.
November 20: Dr. Mirica has been selected to receive the 2018 Thieme Chemistry Journal Award.
October 31: Merry's paper describing self-organized integration of conductive metal-organic frameworks into textiles to create porous sensors capable of simultaneous filtration and capture of gases is now published in JACS! 
September 23: Our open access contribution featuring a rapid prototyping approach for making chemiresistive sensors from metal-organic frameworks is now published in a special issue of Sensors: "Chemiresistive Sensors: Status and the Future"!  Congratulations to Michael, Aylin, and Merry!
August 2: We thrilled to announce that our work on magnetoelectronic sensors for gasotransmitters has been selected for funding by the Army Research Office Young Investigator Program!
June 14: Our new laboratory module on the topic of functional nanomaterials and chemical sensing is published in the Journal of Chemical Education! Congratulations to Merry, Daphnie, and Polina!
May 23: The synergistic integration of undergraduate and graduate research in our group is featured by the School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.
March 16: Our work is featured by the Dartmouth's News Office.
February 25: Our collaborative work with Prof. Douglas Van Citters from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth is now published in Chemistry of Materials. Congratulations to the team!
January 17: Congratulations to Robert Stolz on passing his 2nd year qualifying examination!
January 14: The group celebrates winter with the second Annual Winter Party!
January 4: We start the New Year by welcoming three new researchers to the group: Dr. Lukasz Mendecki and two WISP interns Louisa Greenburg and Carly Tymm.

2016

December 9: Prof. Mirica is featured on the Nature Chemistry's blog.
September 17: The Group enjoys 2nd annual Oktoberfest at Dr. Mirica's home.
July 14: Congratulations to Merry Smith, Kennedy Jensen, and Polina Pivak on having their paper accepted to Chem. Mater. Well done!
July 1: The group welcomes Roisin O'Brian as a visiting undergraduate researcher from the University of San Diego through the "Bridges to Doctoral Institutions" program.  We are also delighted to welcome back Nicholas Blelloch as an incoming PhD student and Polina Pivak as Summer II ACS SEED high school student!
June 3: Congratulations to Alice Hsu '19 for being awarded Barbara E. Crute Memorial Internship for her research in the group!  Also, congratulations to Daphnie Martin '19 and Benjamin Lee '19 for receiving Sophomore Science Scholarships!
May 28: Four group members present at Dartmouth's Fluorine Symposium organized by the Department of Chemistry to honor careers of Prof. Russell Hughes and Prof. David Lemal.
May 26: Five of the Mirica Group undergraduates present at the Dartmouth's annual Karen Wetterhahn Symposium!
May 24: Congratulations to Kennedy Jensen '18 being selected as a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar Research Assistant for 2016-2017 by the Undergraduate Advising and Research Office at Dartmouth.  We are very grateful for the generous support of Kennedy's research from this program!
April 5: The group welcomes a first year graduate student Robert Stolz!
March 10: Congratulations to Samwel Bahebe '18 on being awarded a Sophomore Science Scholarship to sponsor his work in the group during the Spring Term 2016!
March 3: Congratulations to Kennedy Jensen '18 on being selected as a Neukom Scholar for the Spring Term 2016!
Jan. 23: The group celebrates Winter with the First Annual Winter Party.
Jan. 4: We are delighted to welcome three freshman undergraduate interns to the group sponsored by the Women in Science Project (WISP).  Welcome Sharon Bian, Alice Hsu, and Daphnie Martin!

2015

Dec. 22:  We are grateful for the support of our research from the Walter and Constance Burke Research Initiation Award.
Dec. 1: Samwel Bahebe '18 joins the group.
Nov. 19: Dr. Mirica's course assignment on editing Wikipedia is featured on Dartmouth EdTech blog!
Nov. 9: The Mirica Group hosts an outreach event with the Upward Bound high school students from Vermont.
Nov. 1: The group welcomes Dr. Xiaoping Zhang as a Postdoctoral Scholar.
Sept. 29: We are excited to welcome Melvin King '16, a Dartmouth College Senior, to the group!
Sept. 15: Dartmouth undergraduate student Kennedy Jensen '18 joins the group.  Congratulations to Kennedy on winning the Sophomore Science Scholarship that will sponsor her research in the group during the fall term!
Sept. 1: We are delighted to welcome Dr. Merry Smith as a Postdoctoral Scholar and Haydn Mitchell as a Research Scientist.
Aug. 28: The group bids farewell to Nicholas Blelloch and Polina Pivak.  Thank you for your contributions to launching our research program this summer!
Aug. 6-8: Dr. Mirica attends the Cottrell Scholars Collaborative New Faculty Workshop and learns about some fantastic active learning strategies to implement in her classroom.
July 17: We celebrate our first week of experiments in the lab with a group dinner at the Simon Pearce Restaurant in Quechee, VT.
Mirica Team Summer 2015 (left to right): Polina Pivak, Aylin Aykanat, Nicholas Blelloch, Michael Ko, Katherine Mirica
July 16: Experiments begin!  N2 filled balloon in "Dartmouth Green" color for extra school spirit!
July 1: Mirica Group welcomes its first members!  We are delighted to welcome two incoming PhD students Michael Ko and Aylin Aykanat, summer undergraduate researcher Nicholas Blelloch, and ACS SEED sponsored high school student Polina Pivak.  Welcome to the team everyone!  
May 19: Mirica Group launches a website!