RCP Symposium
Program, highlights, and photos
June 5, 2026
Second annual Rutgers Chemical Physics (RCP) Symposium
8:30 AM – 6:00 PM. Featuring faculty talks from all three Rutgers campuses, alongside student and postdoc talks, a poster session, and collaborative brainstorming discussions.
2026 program
Program schedule
Food: Lunch is not provided. Fruit and breakfast pastries will be available during morning registration; fruit and snacks during the poster session.
Morning
- 8:30–9:00 · Registration
- Session I — Chair: Rick Remsing & Michele Pavanello
- 9:00–9:15 · Welcome & symposium introduction — Michele Pavanello and Rick Remsing
- 9:15–9:30 · Ryan Sills (Rutgers NB, Materials Science and Engineering)
- 9:30–9:45 · Claudiu Stan (Rutgers Newark, Physics)
- 9:45–10:00 · Kristina Keating (Rutgers Newark, Earth and Environmental Sciences)
- 10:00–10:15 · Xuejian Wu (Rutgers Newark, Physics)
- 10:15–10:35 · Coffee break
- Session II — Chair: Olivia Martin (PhD student, Rutgers NB)
- 10:35–10:50 · Sylvie Rangan (Rutgers NB, Physics)
- 10:50–11:05 · Shaunna Morrison (Rutgers NB, Earth and Planetary Sciences)
- 11:05–11:20 · Chong Sun (Rutgers NB, Chemistry and Chemical Biology)
- 11:20–11:40 · Harender Dhattarwal (Postdoc, Remsing Lab, Rutgers NB, Chemistry and Chemical Biology)
- 11:40–12:05 · Morning discussion — Identifying new questions
Midday
- 12:05–1:20 · Lunch break (lunch not provided)
- During lunch · LSM lab tour (Sylvie Rangan) — Laboratory for Surface Modification, Nano Physics Laboratory (NPL), Busch campus. ~20–30 min; 8–10 participants per tour. One or two tours depending on interest.
Afternoon
- Session III — Chair: Valeria Rios-Vargas (PhD student, Rutgers Newark)
- 1:20–1:35 · Katherine Bermingham (Rutgers NB, Earth and Planetary Sciences)
- 1:35–1:50 · Hong Fang (Rutgers Camden, Physics)
- 1:50–2:05 · Piotr Piotrowiak (Rutgers Newark, Chemistry and Physics)
- 2:05–2:25 · Daniel Kaplan (Postdoc, Rutgers NB, Physics)
- 2:25–4:10 · Poster session (fruit, snacks, and coffee) — sponsored by Advanced Intelligent Discovery (AIDI), an open access journal by Wiley
- Session IV — Chair: Harender Dhattarwal
- 4:10–4:25 · Zheng Shi (Rutgers NB, Chemistry and Chemical Biology)
- 4:25–4:45 · Bhaskar Rana (Postdoc, Pavanello group, Rutgers Newark, Physics)
- 4:45–5:00 · Meenakshi Dutt (Rutgers NB, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering)
- 5:00–5:15 · Gabi Kotliar (Rutgers NB, Physics)
- 5:20–6:00 · Closing round table discussion
Poster session sponsored by Advanced Intelligent Discovery (AIDI), an open access journal by Wiley.
Outcomes · June 2026
Community ideas discussed
- Establish a live hub for the RCP community
- Short bios for each group with keywords describing research interests
- A shared list of equipment and facilities available across the RCP community
- Coordinate department seminar committees to share RCP-related seminars and Zoom links
- Monthly club meetings on RCP themes to develop a common language
- Partnerships with companies that could leverage RCP expertise and facilities
Planned next steps
- Establish a live hub for the RCP community
- Continue organizing the yearly RCP symposium
- Broaden participation to Camden faculty and students
- Work towards building Rutgers-wide teams for big center grants
Photo gallery
Scenes from the 2026 symposium
Poster prize winners (AIDI Best Poster Award): Kushal Somayaji, Valeria Rios Vargas, and Dylan Klein.
June 6, 2025
Inaugural symposium overview
The inaugural symposium created a forum for researchers from a wide range of departments to learn about one another’s interests and to discuss ways of strengthening chemical physics interactions across Rutgers.
In addition to research talks throughout the day, the program concluded with a round-table discussion focused on future community-building ideas and new cross-campus activities.
2025 program
Program schedule
Morning
- 8:30–8:55 · Registration and breakfast
- 8:55–9:00 · Welcome remarks — Rick Remsing and Michele Pavanello
- 9:00–10:40 · Session 1 talks from Darrin York, Colin Kinz-Thompson, Lu Wang, and Grace Brannigan
- 10:40–10:55 · Coffee break
Midday
- 11:00–12:40 · Session 2 talks from Li Zhu, Deirdre O’Carroll, Julianne Griepenburg, and Rick Remsing
- 12:45–2:00 · Lunch
Afternoon
- 2:00–3:40 · Session 3 talks from Neepa Maitra, Ashley Guo, Jed Pixley, and Michele Pavanello
- 3:40–3:55 · Coffee break
- 4:00–4:50 · Session 4 talks from Jenny Lockard and Andy Nieuwkoop
- 4:50–5:50 · Round-table discussion on the future of chemical physics at Rutgers
Outcomes · after June 2025
Community ideas discussed
- A virtual RCP newsletter with highlights from all three campuses
- A Slack space and website for the RCP community
- Summer schools and tutorials for trainees across campuses
- Continuation and expansion of the annual symposium
- Student and postdoc social events and focused symposia
- Advertising RCP-relevant seminars and courses across campuses
Planned next steps
- Establish an RCP Early Career Committee
- Support communication efforts such as a newsletter and Slack site
- Continue the annual symposium series with rotating host campuses
- Expand participation through oral talks, posters, and cross-campus networking
Photo gallery
Scenes from the 2025 symposium
