The Mason Group meets together weekly during the fall, spring, and summer terms. At these meetings, group members present either current group research or relevant literature. Below are the dates, times, and speakers for group meetings during the 2025-2026 academic year. Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 meetings are held in Naito 030, unless otherwise noted. Talk titles will be added as they become available.
This schedule is subject to change.
September 3rd, 1:30 PM - Hyukhun Hong (Research) - “Interactions of Molecules with Metal-Organic Frameworks in Aqueous Media”
September 12th, 12:00 PM – Illbong Lee (Literature) - “If it won't die, hit it harder: Mechanochemical upcycling of forever chemicals”
September 17th, 1:30 PM – Faith Chen (Research) - “Playing It Cool with Chemistry: Leveraging Chain-Melting Transitions in Layered Materials for Solid-State Cooling”
September 24th, 1:30 PM – Abby Jiang (Literature) - “Polymer-inorganic interfaces for magnetoelectric sensing”
October 10, 3:00 PM - Rahil Ukani (Research) - “Disorderly Conduct[ion]: Probing Thermal Transport across Phase Transitions”
October 15th, 3:30 PM – Dan Laorenza (Literature) - “Twisting Light for Phase Change Ferroics”
November 5th, 1:30 PM – Miranda Walter (Literature) - “Chemistry & Art: the Sequel”
November 7th, 12:00 PM – Lei Liu (Research) - “Zwitterion-coated silicalite nanoparticles as a low-fouling gas carrier”
November 12th, 2:00 PM – Yukyung Moon (Research) - “Understanding and Enhancing Transport Properties of Metal–Organic Frameworks for Gas Adsorption”
November 24th, 2:00 PM – Anusree Natraj (Literature) - “Teaching materials new tricks ~the out-of-equilibrium edition~”
December 3rd, 1:30 PM – Vidhya Dev (Research) - “Spinning Iron into Refrigerants: Controlling SCO Transitions for Barocaloric Cooling”
December 10th, 2:00 PM – Hyukhun Hong (Literature) - "The Science of Veisalgia: Blame it on Last Night"
December 17th, 1:30 PM – Qichen Song (Research) - “Observation of microscopic domain effects in the metal-insulator transition of thin-film NdNiO₃”
February 24th, 2:00 PM – Miriam Aziz (Research) - “Leveraging caloric responses for practical thermodynamic cycles”
March 6th, 2:00 PM (M217) – Elena Chen (Research) - “Pore Decisions: Harnessing Tunable Porosity in Microporous Water”
March 9th, 2:00 PM – Nate Malone (Research) – “Barocaloric Min-Maxing: Synthetic tunability of hysteresis and pressure sensitivity”
March 17th, 2:00 PM – Faith Chen (Literature) - “Alice Hamilton: Harvard’s ‘First Lady’”
March 27th, 1:15 PM – Dan Laorenza (Research) - “Some Assembly Required: Lessons in thermal material design"
March 31st, 2:00 PM – Rahil Ukani (Literature) – “Coffee Chemistry: Cherry to Cup”
April 21st, 3:00 PM – Abby Jiang (Research) – “Is 2 equal to 3? Correlating electronic and structural phase transitions in thin film nickelates”
May 1st, 11:30 AM – Yukyung Moon (Literature) –
May 5th, 2:00 PM – Lei Liu (Literature) –
May 12th, 2:00 PM – Ilbong Lee (Research) –
May 22nd, 12:00 PM – Vidhya Dev (Literature) –
May 26th, 2:00 PM – Bryan Tang (Research) –
June 2nd, 2:00 PM – Qichen Song (Literature) –
June 9th, 2:00 PM – Miranda Walter (Research) –
June 16th, 2:00 PM – Bryan Tang (Literature) –
June 23rd, 2:00 PM – Anusree Natraj (Research) –
June 30th, 2:00 PM – Elena Chen (Literature) –
July 7th, 2:00 PM – Miriam Aziz (Literature) –
July 14th, 2:00 PM – Nate Malone (Literature) –
July 21st, 2:00 PM – Rosemary Buhrman (Literature) –
July 28th, 2:00 PM – Owen Szeglowski (Literature) –