News & Updates

Graduate students Isis and Rahul represented the Fenton Lab at the 2026 Inorganic Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar in Newport, RI. Both delivered poster presentations (pictures below!). We're grateful to Penn State Chemistry for travel award support.

Devin Schwaibold passed his second-year committee exam last month, and is officially the group's seventh PhD candidate! Well done, Devin! We are excited to see your projects develop in the next few years!

Introducing Dr. Rick Josey, the Fenton Lab's first PhD! Rick gave a beautiful defense of his dissertation work in May. He will start a new position at PPG in Pittsburgh in August. Congratulations, Dr. Josey!!

Isis's paper, with contributions from Adelaide Kerenick, was recently accepted and published in CrystEngComm! In this work, we report a new hybrid copper(I) phosphate framework that undergoes reversible three-state color switching (from yellow to red to cyan) in response to solvent uptake and removal. Each color corresponds to a distinct crystalline phase with a unique copper coordination environment, making this a rare example of a material where structural and optical chang

We are excited to welcome new members to the Fenton Lab! Kara Musteikis has joined as our newest graduate student. Kara hails from Cary, North Carolina, and joins us after completing a bachelors degree in chemistry at North Carolina State University in 2025. As an undergraduate student, Kara did research at NCCU with Dr. Ryan Chiechi. She moved to Penn State after graduation to begin her PhD in chemistry, joining our group for a fall rotation and accepting an official positio

We are excited to welcome new members to the Fenton Lab! Shibartha Dutta has joined as our newest graduate student. Shibartha is originally from Kolkata, India, and joins us after completing a masters degree in chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 2025. He also holds a bachelors degree in chemistry from Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur. Shibartha completed his masters thesis work with Dr. Partha Pratim Jana at IIT-Kharagpur. He moved

Congratulations to the Fenton lab's original undergraduate researcher, Lucas Madak, who earned his bachelors degree in chemistry and forensic science from Penn State in December 2025. Lucas will enroll in the PhD program in chemistry at University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, starting in Fall 2026. We are so proud of his accomplishments in our group and know he will be a success in graduate school and beyond. Congratulations, Lucas!!

Rick's second paper was recently accepted and published in Chemistry of Materials. In this paper, we report the synthesis and structural...

Rahul's paper, with contributions from Danni Landry and Alex Leffel (Hodges/Schaak group member), was recently accepted and published in...