Join us at our seminar series

For the current term, seminars are held each Friday afternoon and start at 3:30 PM in the Vernier Science Center, Room VSC 105, 1025 SW Mill St, Portland, OR 97201. Chemistry seminars are in person unless noted otherwise; seminars are free and open to the public. Light refreshments provided.

The Department of Chemistry hosts eminent scholars from throughout the field of chemistry at our weekly seminar series.

We have an exciting lineup of scientists who will be joining us. If you would like to be added to our seminar mailing list, please send an email to chemistry@pdx.edu and let us know!  

Stock image of an orangey-yellow sparkly solution in a clear glass flask, top of flask is cut off from photo.

February 13th, 2026

Dr.  Jonathan Gross

Researcher at Google Quantum


Presentation Title: TBD

Michael Cohen, a white person with shorn black hair and a beard. They are leaning against a doorframe and smiling at the camera.

February 27th, 2026

Michael Cohen

Professor, OHSU

I am a Professor at Oregon Health & Science University, studying how NAD⁺ signaling and PARP-driven ADP-ribosylation influence cell functions. Our lab has developed orthogonal “bumped” NAD⁺/engineered-enzyme pairs and selective PARP inhibitors to precisely map and manipulate mono-ADP-ribosylation, yielding new insights into this process. Recently, in collaboration with the Pruneda lab at OHSU, we identified MARUbylation—a direct ubiquitin attachment to ADP-ribose—shedding light on the long-debated relationship between ADP-ribosylation and ubiquitylation. Our team also creates translational chemical probes, such as PARP7/11 inhibitors and type-I PARP1 modulators, to explore innate immune responses and DNA repair pathways with therapeutic implications. I earned my B.S. in Chemistry from UC Irvine in 2000, completed a Ph.D. in Chemistry & Chemical Biology at UCSF in 2006, and conducted postdoctoral research in Cell & Molecular Neurobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College from 2006 to 2011.

Presentation Title: Decoding ADP-Ribosylation: Chemical Tools and Therapeutic Frontiers

Professional head shot of Marilyne Stains, a white woman with short blonde hair and glasses.

March 6th, 2026

Dr. Marilyne Stains

Professor, PhD, University of Virginia


Stains received her B.S. in Chemistry from the Université des Sciences de Luminy, France; her M.S. in Chemistry from the Université Paul Sabatier, France; and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Arizona. She conducted her postdoctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She started her academic career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2011 and was promoted to Associate professor with tenure in 2016. Stains joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Virginia in August 2019 and was promoted to full professor in 2022. 

Stains’ research is focused on characterizing the extent, nature, and factors involved in the gap between instructional practices in science college classrooms and education research. Stains is specifically interested in exploring how instructors think about their teaching, as well as identifying individual, departmental, and institutional factors that influence instructors' teaching decisions.

Stains’ work has been published in Science, PNAS, CBE- Life Sciences Education, and the Journal of Chemical Education. She has received funding from the National Science Foundation, including a CAREER award (2016). In 2019, she was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and the American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee Rising Star Award. 
 

Presentation Title: TBD

MRI

March 13th, 2026

Dr. Lyniesha Ward

Indiana U.


Presentation Title: TBD