Join us at our seminar series

For the current term, seminars are held each Friday afternoon and start at 3:15 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!  

Flyer for Making Bonds With The Chemistry and Physics Departments, includes the information listed below. Text is brightly covered and flyer includes clip-art images of shaved ice, electron rings and chemical vials.

Making Bonds with Chemistry and Physics Departments (3rd Annual Event)
October 10th, 2025
 

12:30pm - 2:30pm
SRTC 2nd Floor Lobby

A professional portrait of Irfan Rahman, a middle aged man with short dark hair, tan skin and brown eyes.

October 17th, 2025 
Irfan Rahman, Associate Professor

Irfan Rahman, PhD is a Dean’s Professor of Environmental Medicine, Medicine (Pulmonary), Public Health Sciences and General Dentistry at the University of Rochester Medical Center (School of Medicine and Dentistry), NY., and Director of Flavoring Inhalation Toxicology Center. Dr. Rahman has completed his postdoctoral trainings at the University of Miami, Florida, and Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He obtained further training at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland followed by a faculty appointment in the same University. He then joined the University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester in 2004.

Dr. Rahman’s research interests include oxidative stress, inflammation, molecular clock, mitochondrial dysfunction, epigenetics, and cellular senescence by environmental tobacco smoke/tobacco products (cigarette smoke, e-cigarettes, waterpipe/hookah, and cigars), airborne particulate matter, nanoparticles and PFOS/PFAS/microplastic/styrenes in lung (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis), as well as oral/periodontal diseases. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and he is the PD/site PI for the TCORS U54 and TriState SenNet U54 consortium. He has published over three hundred (300) publications in peer-reviewed journals, and invited to write chapters in textbooks and editorials in journals (h-index = 122, i-index 258), total citations >65,000, Highly Cited Researchers, 2014, 2015, and 2016 by Thomson Reuters). He has been ranked #16 (out of 52,718 active Respiratory & Allergy Researchers) by Ioannidis et al 2020. He is the editor/author of Inflammation, Aging, Diet and Nutrition - a book published by Elsevier in 2013. He has been serving as a member of several panels of National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections (SIEE, chartered member), a chartered member of USA Veterans Administration panel on Pulmonary study section, and chair of California Cardiopulmonary tobacco research program.

He is a member of American Thoracic Society (ATS), American Physiological Society, and Society of Toxicology (SOT), and President for Inhalation Respiratory Specialty Section of the SOT 2020-2021, and Chair of Lung Aging Interest Group of the ATS. Dr. Rahman won numerous awards, such as an outstanding Senior Investigator Award by the Oxygen Society of California, USA in 2006, Senior Toxicologist Award by the SOT in 2017, and International Chemical Society in 2019, and American Thoracic Scientific Accomplishment Award in 2022, and Basic Science Leading Edge Award by the SOT in 2023.

Presentation Title: Toxicology, human health, and Emerging Tobacco-Nicotine and THC products

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

November 7th, 2025 
Paul Blakemore

Presentation Title: TBD

A professional portrait of Douglas Reed, a person with short black hair, light tan skin and brown eyes. He is wearing round black rim glasses and a periwinkle blue collared shirt.

November 14th, 2025 
Douglas Reed, Assistant Professor

Dr. Reed received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied metal–organic frameworks with Prof. Jeff Long. He then was a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University with Prof. Colin Nuckolls and Prof. Xavier Roy, where he investigated single cluster junctions. He currently is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the University of Washington.

Presentation Title: Supramolecular Approaches to New Porous Conductors and Magnets

A professional portrait of Eric Wiedner, a middle aged man with short dark hair, white skin and brown eyes.

December 5th, 2025 
Eric Weidner, PhD

Dr. Eric Wiedner is the Team Leader for Molecular Catalysis at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He received his B.S. degree from the Missouri University of Science & Technology (2004), then earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (2009) under the guidance of Prof. Marc Johnson. Eric next moved to PNNL where he studied as a postdoctoral fellow with Dan DuBois and Morris Bullock and was subsequently hired as a research scientist in 2013. His research is focused on catalysis for sustainable chemistry, electrochemistry and electrocatalysis, fundamental thermodynamics, and reaction mechanisms. 

Presentation Title: Design Principles for Accelerating Hydride Transfer in Molecular Catalysis