Meet the team behind Beyond Benign’s 2023-24 Green Chemistry Connections webinar series: Graduate Student Liaisons Sara Catingan, Jasmine Hong, and Gagan Daliaho. Together, these McGill University Ph.D. students co-organized and led this season of Green Chemistry Connections with the guidance of faculty advisors Oyesolape Akinsipo of Tai Solarin University of Education and Cintia Milagre of São Paulo State University.
We are proud of this student leadership, which brought together 235 unique attendees from 31 countries over the course of the season for sessions ranging from biobased materials to life cycle assessment to green chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry. Thank you to the student leaders, faculty advisors, speakers, and attendees who made this season possible and are furthering the green chemistry movement!
Sara Catingan’s research focuses on using plasmonic nanomaterials to harness light more efficiently in pharma-relevant photocatalytic reactions. Prior to her graduate studies, Sara completed a 12-month internship at Environment and Climate Change Canada, where she studied the levels of aquatic contaminants in communities across the country.
Gagan Daliaho’s research focus is on investigating and characterizing the formation of velvet worm’s adhesive and mechanically-activated slime and fibers for future bio-inspired designs for novel biodegradable polymer materials. At McGill University, Gagan actively participates in several campus organizations, including the McGill Institute of Advanced Materials (MIAM) student committee, The Chemistry Outreach Group, the Green Chemistry McGill student group, and McGill Scientista.
Jasmine Hong’s research is centered around plastic waste, with a focus on artificially weathered microplastics and mechanocatalytic plastic recycling as an alternative to traditional chemical recycling. In addition to being a graduate student liaison, Jasmine is an executive member of Green Chemistry McGill, a student group that strives to spread awareness locally and implement actionable changes in line with green chemistry within the chemistry department at McGill.
In this conversation, the graduate student liaisons reflect on the series, its impact on the green chemistry community, and how they hope to continue fostering connections and sharing green chemistry resources.
Beyond Benign’s monthly Green Chemistry Connections series brings the community together to share resources and network. How have you seen the series contribute to fostering a community of green chemists and toxicologists?
Sara: While all the presentations from our speakers fall under the umbrella of green chemistry, we made a concerted effort to have a different theme for each month’s event. We wanted to highlight how green chemistry and sustainability are widely relevant to different types of people, professions, and fields. Naturally, this has brought together a diverse global community! We have featured a variety of undergraduate researchers, student leaders, professors, educators, government scientists, and industry professionals as speakers. Not only do the speakers share their expertise, but the breakout rooms we host after each presentation allow the speakers and audience to freely connect and exchange information and resources.
Gagan: Beyond Benign’s monthly Green Chemistry Connections series has been key in building a supportive community of green chemists and toxicologists. In the Green Chemistry Connections community, everyone is super supportive and always willing to offer help to others when they can. This year, we have seen many participants come to every event and interact with each other. By having some consistent participants, the community is able to form stronger connections and friendships over the course of the series. The series allows people from around the world to learn from each other’s experiences and work towards integrating more green chemistry into their local community with support from this global community!
Jasmine: Over the last year, it has been so fun to see an international community attend the Green Chemistry Connections events and embrace each and every one of our invited speakers. With the varied topics, we have been able to have been able to highlight excellent work from green chemistry experts in different disciplines from academia, education, and industry, as well as passionate student speakers. During the conversations, the participants are always eager to share their own experiences to help others in similar situations, building up each other with the tools they have. Green Chemistry Connections is a collaborative space, and it has been amazing to see the community grow over the past year.
How has organizing and leading the 2023-24 Green Chemistry Connections series impacted your green chemistry journey? How has this experience influenced how you learn about or share green chemistry?
Sara: Organizing this Connections series has really encouraged me to look at green chemistry from different perspectives. As a graduate student, I find that it is very easy to get tunnel vision and only think about green chemistry with respect to my research. By organizing and leading this series, I have truly been able to appreciate the broader scope of green chemistry. Not only have I had the opportunity to discover and reach out to experts in the field with different backgrounds, but I have also been able to start important conversations outside of the chemistry and teaching community. Many of my close friends and loved ones are not scientists, engineers, or educators, so when I mention that I am organizing a green chemistry webinar series, they get curious and start asking me about it. Being able to bring green chemistry outside of chemistry has been an unexpected but incredibly rewarding experience.
Gagan: Organizing and leading the 2024 Green Chemistry Connections series has been beneficial for my green chemistry journey. It has provided me with the opportunity to connect with experts from around the world, exposing me to diverse forms of green chemistry and various initiatives aimed at public engagement and education. Seeking speakers for each monthly event has allowed me to engage with passionate individuals driving initiatives in community outreach, education, and research design for green chemistry. This experience has directly influenced my own research and experiment design, as well as my involvement in community outreach activities and undergraduate teaching lab modules. For outreach, I’ve learned to simplify explanations and tailor them to the audience’s age and education level, drawing inspiration from activities conducted by other institutions. In designing lab modules, I’ve discovered metrics that are easily calculable and useful for evaluating reactions, aiding students in determining the best reactions that adhere with green chemistry. Overall, organizing the series has enabled me to connect with leaders in green chemistry, learn from their approaches to teaching and research, and implement this knowledge to enhance outreach and education at my institution.
Jasmine: Through organizing the Green Chemistry Connections series, I have broadened my network and met many amazing people across disciplines. Organizing the connections has made me think differently about what green chemistry can be. It has given me a lot of inspiration for the work I do with science outreach to share green chemistry more with my local community. The connection in April highlighting the success of ACS Green Chemistry Student Chapter Award Winners inspired me to work more on incorporating green chemistry into my own science outreach. Green chemistry is a topic that can be accessible to audiences of all ages, and learning about how the different community members engage in this has been really inspiring and motivating for me to work harder at my own initiatives.
Can you share a favorite moment or insight from one of this season’s webinars? Tell us about something that inspired you!
Sara: Our February event was a highlight for me. During the previous months of this Connections series, I met a lot of educators who were eager to incorporate green chemistry into their teaching but were not sure where to start. We were able to address this in our February event, which had the theme “At the Bench: Incorporating Green Chemistry into Lab Modules and Beyond.” We had lab coordinators and professors from different institutions share how they have integrated green chemistry into their undergraduate lab curricula and practices over the years. This was particularly inspiring for me since I never had the opportunity to learn about green chemistry during my own undergraduate studies. In fact, the first time I read the words “green chemistry” was when I was looking for PhD supervisors! It was empowering to see educators learn from each other and be excited about introducing green chemistry to the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Gagan: One memorable moment from this season’s webinars was Prof. Philip Jessop’s discussion on green chemistry teaching and metrics. As someone passionate about teaching green chemistry and public outreach, his insights were very valuable. Jessop was able to break down the complex topic of life cycle assessment (LCA) into a more manageable format for teaching. By doing so, the material would allow students to focus on identifying the least harmful possible options instead of being overwhelmed by doing a proper LCA. This resonated with me because it highlighted the significance of simplifying concepts, even if it means deviating from research standards. Understanding that simplicity fosters better understanding, I’ve adjusted our outreach activities at McGill to ensure clear explanations of green chemistry concepts, helping us be more effective in engaging our community and fostering a deeper appreciation for green chemistry principles.
Jasmine: In April’s session, we had talks from student leaders’ representatives from ACS Green Chemistry Student Chapter Award Winners, and I loved the passion the students had for sharing green chemistry and their commitment to outreach and science communication to benefit their communities. It really inspired me to work more on incorporating the green chemistry outreach that I do in the student group I work with at my school (Green Chem McGill – GCM) to develop new outreach activities.
Aside from that, my favorite moment happened in the first Connections event we formally organized for November 2023. The focus of this event was Life Cycle Assessment and Green Metrics. When we were selecting our themes for the series, I was especially drawn to this topic because I think teaching green metrics and other assessment methods is key to connecting the idea of greenness to real change, but these techniques can be hard to parse if you do not have experience in the field. It was an amazing opportunity to reach out to Prof. Phil Jessop and Dr. Taylor Uekert and to see both of their perspectives on this field and how it can be taught to students.
Now that the 2023-24 series is complete, how do you hope to continue fostering connections and sharing resources with peers interested in green chemistry and sustainable science?
Sara: Attending conferences and events focused on green chemistry and sustainability is a great way to continue fostering these connections and is something I am always excited about. Our series is called Green Chemistry Connections for a reason, and there are people who I met for the first time during these virtual Connections who I was later able to re-connect with in person at these events. Some events I am looking forward to this year are the University of Toronto Green Chemistry Initiative Symposium in May, the Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Atlanta in June, and the Green Chemistry Gordon Research Conference in Spain in late July.
Gagan: To continue fostering connections, I will be sharing and referring to all the resources that have been shared by the speakers throughout the series and referring my peers to them as well. Particularly I will highlight the Green Chemistry Teaching and Learning Community (GCTLC), as it has been a valuable resource for me to design teaching and outreach activities as it offers a wide range of tools and information for both purposes. I’ll also encourage my peers to join the next Connections series, as it’s a great chance for us to keep learning about the new research, teaching, and outreach initiatives and allow us to connect with others passionate about green chemistry and sustainable science while continuing to build this wonderful community!
Jasmine: Moving forward, I hope to continue interacting with the wonderful people I met during the monthly Connections events, both in person and online. I am working to create a stronger local network in my home city, Montreal, to share resources with other students on ways to implement green chemistry and sustainable science at different institutions. Through my work with Beyond Benign, I have been able to connect with the Green Chemistry Initiative at the University of Toronto, and through collaboration with them, I’ve seen how invaluable connecting to others working towards similar goals is in terms of kick-starting change. Making connections between my global and local networks is a key part of my green chemistry journey. It allows for a sharing of resources that makes it easier for everyone to work towards a greener and more sustainable future in chemistry research, education, and outreach.
How you can get involved:
- Explore the recordings from the 2023-24 Green Chemistry Connections series
- Connect with Sara Catingan, Jasmine Hong, and Gagan Daliaho in the GCTLC to keep up with their work
- Subscribe to Beyond Benign’s newsletter to get the latest green chemistry news and opportunities delivered to your inbox
