Awards

Grace Scofield  and Haleigh Bos have been awarded the 2026 Department of Education GAANN Fellowships . The Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship is a prestigious program designed to train the next generation of teachers and scholars in critical areas of national need. This fellowship offers a unique opportunity for students committed to advancing both research and teaching. Fellows engage in cross-disciplinary research, collaborating with two disti

We're thrilled to announce that Professor Peng Liu has been honored with the 2025 Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring by the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences ! This prestigious award celebrates faculty who demonstrate outstanding commitment and effectiveness in mentoring graduate students and fostering a supportive environment for research and professional development. Since joining the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Chemistry in 2014, Professor Liu has mad

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that former undergraduate researcher Corrinne Stahl (now a graduate student in our group), graduate student Grace Scofield , and former graduate student Luke Jesikiewicz  have been recognized as winners of the prestigious David Pratt Award by the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh! David Pratt Awardee Corrinne Stahl The David Pratt Award is a particularly meaningful honor within our department. It was established to

Christian Knox , a third-year PhD student, has been selected to the Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program. The SCGSR program offers PhD students the opportunity to advance their thesis research while working at a Department of Energy national laboratory. SCGSR provides its participants with training, expertise, resources and access to state-of-the-art facilities. Knox is one of 79 students from 56 universities across 26 states sele

We are delighted to announce that graduate student Mithun C. Madhusudhanan  has been awarded the Andrew Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship  for the 2025-2026 academic year. This highly competitive fellowship is awarded by the University of Pittsburgh to doctoral students of "exceptional ability and promise" to support their full-time engagement in dissertation research. Research Excellence Since joining the Liu Group in 2022, Mithun has established himself as a talented researche

We are proud to announce that graduate student Turki Alturaifi  has been selected for the 2025 CAS Future Leaders Top 100 program . This prestigious initiative by CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, recognizes early-career scientists from around the world who demonstrate exceptional leadership potential and scientific achievement. As part of the Top 100 cohort, Turki joins a select group of Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars chosen from a record-breaking p

Third-year graduate student Mithun Madhusudhanan received a Pittsburgh Quantum Institute (PQI) Fellowship in the Spring 2025 semester. Originally from Irinjalakuda, Kerala, India, he completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Thiruvananthapuram. His research focuses on Computational Organic Chemistry, where he employs quantum mechanical calculations to investigate reaction mechanisms and conducts detail