• CHEM 101. General Chemistry
• CHEML 101. General Chemistry Lab

• Ph.D. in Chemistry, Pennsylvania State University, 2023
• B.S. in Chemistry, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2017
• B.S. in Mathematics, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2017

Prior to joining SBU, I was a graduate student at the Pennsylvania State University where I was involved in computational and theoretical chemistry research. I also have experience in analytical chemistry research from my undergraduate career. During my time at Penn State, I was a teaching assistant for both general chemistry (undergraduate) and quantum chemistry (graduate). Additionally, I taught a course on science communication and outreach for two years. I was the primary editor for the graduate student newsletter within the Eberly College of Science, and I wrote articles for general audiences regarding activities within the college. I served as the Grad School 101 co-chair for four years within the Graduate Women in Science and worked with students across the US who were considering graduate school. I also worked with incoming graduate students from underrepresented groups through an onboarding pilot program at Penn State.

Selected Awards

• 2023 Materials Visualization Competition, Imaging: Computational Rendering, 1st Place
• Chemistry Graduate Student Teaching Award, Honorable Mention
• American Chemical Society Younger Chemist Committee Leadership Development Award
• National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP) Fellow
• Outstanding Graduate of the Ray P. Authement College of Sciences at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Spring 2017

Publications

• Rebekah L Thimes, Alyssa VB Santos, Ran Chen, Gurkiran Kaur, Lasse Jensen, David M Jenkins, and Jon P Camden. "Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy to Unravel the Wingtip-Dependent Orientation of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes on Gold Nanoparticles." J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2023, 14, 4219-4224.
• Nathaniel L Dominique, Ran Chen, Alyssa VB Santos, Shelby L Strausser, Theodore Rauch, Chandler Q Kotseos, William C Boggess, Lasse Jensen, David M Jenkins, and Jon P Camden. "Ad aurum: tunable transfer of N-heterocyclic carbene complexes to gold surfaces." Inorg. Chem. Front. 2022, 9 (23), 6279-6287.
• Alyssa V Bienvenu and Gerald Knizia. "Efficient Treatment of Local Meta-generalized Gradient Density Functionals via Auxiliary Density Expansion: The Density Fitting J+ X Approximation." J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2018, 14 (3), 1297-1303. 

I believe that, as scientists, we have a duty to share our science broadly, clearly, and concisely with everyone—our colleagues, the public, and the next generation of scientists and professionals. Science education should be objectively useful and thorough, but it should also feel useful to the students. If students leave the classroom feeling overwhelmed and defeated, then we have not done our due diligence to communicate our science with them effectively. Broadly speaking, my philosophy on teaching is to approach learning in a way that is student-centered, active, and rooted in effective communication.

I am interested in how molecules interact with and bind to metal nanoparticles. Metal nanoparticles have applications in a wide range of fields, including medicine, materials science, and sensing. However, unanswered questions are still present regarding the binding of ligands to these metal nanoparticles. These ligands dictate much of the functionality of the nanoparticles. I am interested in studying how changes in these ligands change the overall binding strength and applicability of these nanoparticles.

In my free time, my husband and I love to dance West Coast Swing, which is a modern social dance that stems from its roots in Lindy Hop and is danced to current popular music. I am originally from Louisiana (about 15 minutes from the Tabasco factory), and I love to cook Cajun food. When I am home, I am often reading a book or playing a video game while hanging out with my two cats, Xenon and Copper.