May 7-8, 2026
Online and In Person
Sacramento City College
3835 Freeport Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95822
This follows in the footsteps of our Fall 2025, Spring 2025, and Spring 2024 Undergraduate Research Conferences.
6pm Introductory Comments
6:10pm 1. Simreet Josan, Omar Aysheh, William J.W. Miller, and Will DeSnoo, "Solvent Effects on Oxidative Addition of Aryl Halides to Palladium Complexes" tie 2nd Place- Zoom Oral Presentations
6:25pm 2. Meclina Silva, Katherine Davies, Karla Vargas, and Dayton Pierce, "Loss of SYD-2 leads to decreased short-term memory in Caenorhabditis elegans" 1st Place- Zoom Oral Presentations
6:50 Break
7:00pm 3. Kim Do, Anthony Barajas, Lupita Aguirre and Osvaldo Gutierrez, "Computational Study of Three-Component Iron-Catalyzed Difluoromethylation Reaction"
7:15pm 4. Evelyn Nguyen and Alexandria Cartoscelli, "How does a Carnivore Diet Impact Gut Microbiome Diversity?"
7:30pm 5. Brandon Barco, Jashuwa Robinson, River Samet, Deborshee Das, and Osvaldo Gutierrez "Mechanistic insights into 𝛼-boryl urea synthesis" 3rd Place- Zoom Oral Presentations
7:45pm Break
7:55pm 6. Isabel Wong, Katayoon Formal, Alicia Ross, and Dean Tantillo, "Computational NMR Evidence for the Revised Structure of Pestalustaine A"
8:10pm 7. Devin Dich, Patrick Bernardino, Abhay Potluri, and Dean Tantillo, "Methyl-Shifting of Humulyl Cation and Following the Carbocation" tie 2nd Place- Zoom Oral Presentations
Introductory Comments by Albert Garcia, SCC President, and Devoun Stewart, SCC Vice President of Instruction
Listing of Posters:
Category: General Posters
8. Katherine Davies, Meclina Silva, Karla Vargas, and Dayton Pierce, "Loss of SYD-2 leads to decreased short-term memory in Caenorhabditis elegans" 1st Place- General Posters
9. Isaias Campiz, Ismael El Tareb, Amethyst Pasquiers, and William J.W.Miller, "Trends in the Refractive Indices of Binary solutions of a n-Alkane and a 1-Alcohol"
10. Shakwa Salihe, Suhaib Raja, Jedidiah Wells, and William J.W. Miller, "Trends in the Refractive Indices of Binary solutions of a n-Alkane and a 1-Chloroalkane"
11. Kimberly Trujillo, Kya Young, and Dayton Pierce, "The effects of elevated glucose levels on learning in Caenorhabditis elegans"
tie 2nd Place- General Posters
12. Elohor Gborogen, Simreet Josan, and William J.W. Miller, "Ground Coffee as a Simple Method for Demonstrating the Density Changes of Two Differently-Sized Types of Particles" tie 2nd Place- General Posters
Category: Computational Chemistry
13. Evan Cline, Abir Algazairy, Tapas Maity, and Osvaldo Gutierrez, "Mechanistic Investigation of Regioselective Alkene Formation from Mono Sulfonium Intermediates" tie 2nd Place- Computational Chemistry
14. Elijah Pascua, Hanshika Arya, Justin Boston, and Zachary Gvildys, "Wavelength Dependent Reactivity of Iron Halide Complexes via Ligand-to-Metal Charge Transfer" tie 2nd Place- Computational Chemistry
15. Allan Godinez, Poulami Mukherjee, Mac Guerrero, Nicholas Q. Froehlich, Osvaldo Gutierrez, and Karl A. Scheidt, "Computational Analysis of the Spirolactonization via Radical Brook Rearrangement" 1st Place- Computational Chemistry
22. Adren Crisostomo, Jane Okafor, Emilio Leal Cárdenas, and Osvaldo Gutierrez, "Controlling Fe(III)/Fe(IV) Reactivity Through Ligand Design: A Computational Study"
Category: Instrumental Analysis
16. Yoke Chang and Matthew Parziale, "Analysis of Gelatin from Different Commercial Gummy Bears Brands Using Ethanol Precipitation and Low-Field NMR"
17. Sanvi Dalla and Matthew Parziale, "Comparing the PFAS concentrations among American, Sacramento and Cosumnes River in the Sacramento area using IR Spectroscopy and HPLC" tie 2nd Place- Instrumental Analysis
18. Alaba Donpedro and Matthew Parziale, "Effect of Temperature on Ethanol-Based Extraction of Cannabinoids from CBD Analyzed by GC-MS" tie 2nd Place- Instrumental Analysis
19. withdrawn
20. Madison Dean and Matthew Parziale, "Determination of Lead Concentrations in Guajillo and Arbol Chiles by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy" 1st Place- Instrumental Analysis
21. Thomas Mathew and Tonya Atkins, "Comparative Removal of Chromium(VI) and Calcium Ions Using Acid-Modified Coconut Shell Charcoal in a Flow-Through System" tie 2nd Place- Instrumental Analysis
About the speaker: Chris Dicus is a Senior Process Scientist II at SK pharmteco in Rancho Cordova. He obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UC Davis in 2007 and his MBA from Sacramento State in 2024. He has 18 years of experience in pharmaceutical process research and development, scale-up, and Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) manufacturing. His experience includes significant work to promote pharmaceutical manufacturing in the United States, work supported by both Republican and Democratic administrations that proved critical during and after the pandemic.
1:30pm Introductory Comments by Lorena Jauregui, SCC MESA Faculty Coordinator
1:35pm 22. Abhay Potluri and Dean Tantillo, "The Methylation of Farnesyl Diphosphate and Trailing Away from Pentalenene"
2pm Alicia Ross, Mac Guerrero, Tapas Maity, and Hanshika Arya, "Graduate Student Panel: UCLA and UCD Grad Students Discuss Their Pathways to Graduate School"
2:50pm Break
3pm 23. Andres Rico, Matt Scurria, and Sequin Thomas, "Insight into Iron-Catalyzed Asymmetric C(sp2)-C(sp3) Cross Coupling Reactions Using Fe(I) ate Complexes Generated from a Bridging Fe(I) Dimer" 1st Place- In Person Oral Presentations
3:15pm 24 withdrawn
3:30pm 25. Allan Godinez, Poulami Mukherjee, Mac Guerrero, Nicholas Q. Froehlich, Osvaldo Gutierrez, and Karl A. Scheidt, "Computational Analysis of the Spirolactonization via Radical Brook Rearrangement"
Zoom presentations will be 10 min with 5 min of questions. Poster session will require students to be present by their poster for the entire poster session.
Are you a student or faculty researcher? If so, please register here. Registrations are due by Friday April 17, 2026 at 11:59pm. Registration is currently closed. Please email millerw@scc.losrios.edu with questions. Invited guests, please email millerw@scc.losrios.edu if you do not have your staff parking permit (for the day) at least one week before the conference.
Due to generous funding from the American Chemical Society-Sacramento Section, we are pleased to be able to award our oral and poster presenters this year. Judging criteria can be found here for poster and oral presentions.
Thank you to Drs. Ling Huang and Marisa Alviar-Agnew for judging the oral presentations on Thursday night. Thank you to Tapas Maity, Hanshika Arya, and Mac Guererro for judging the poster session and In person oral presentations.
The Chemistry Department at Sacramento City College
The Sacramento Chemical Education Foundation
MESA Program at SCC
American Chemical Society, Sacramento Section
Tonya Atkins, Professor of Chemistry, SCC
Bill Miller, Professor of Chemistry, SCC
Marisa Alviar-Agnew, Professor of Chemistry, SCC
NAS: Natural Sciences Building, site of the Conference
NAS is at the corner of Freeport Blvd. and Sutterville Rd on the southwest corner of campus.
