The 32nd annual Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference (WCUCC) was recently held at the University of Winnipeg on April 30-May 3, 2018. Over the course of three days, participants delivered oral or poster presentations that displayed the diversity and quality of research being conducted at the undergraduate level at universities throughout western Canada. WCUCC was partially funded by the CIC Chemical Education Fund.

WCUCC was commenced with a plenary lecture entitled “Eavesdropping on bacteria” given by Jon Clardy, Harvard University. The other invited speakers were Christopher Wiebe, University of Winnipeg, Darren Derksen, University of Calgary, Laurel Schafer, The University of British Columbia, Doug Goltz, University of Winnipeg, Rebecca Davis, University of Manitoba, and Alex Brown, University of Alberta. These presentations from chemistry professors were interspersed by the student presentations.

32nd Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference (WCUCC) Group photo

32nd Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference (WCUCC) Group photo.

Congratulations to all participants and to the following student presentation winners:

Organic

Oral presentation 1st place: Wenyu Qian, University of Alberta

Oral presentation runner up: Bi Liting, University of Manitoba

Poster presentation 1st place: Hannah Shumka, University of Victoria

Poster presentation runner up: Micaela Lisogorsky, University of Manitoba

Inorganic

Oral presentation 1st place: Alexandra Predy, University of Alberta

Oral presentation runner-up: I Teng Cheong, University of Alberta

Poster presentation 1st place: Brooke Richtik, The University of Winnipeg

Poster presentation runner-up: Tianyi Wang, University of Victoria

Biochemistry

Oral presentation 1st place: Abhi Aggarwal, University of Alberta

Oral presentation runner-up: Liam Berry, University of Manitoba

Poster 1st place: Morgan Graham, Brandon University

Poster presentation runner-up: Marc Brizuela, University of Manitoba

Physical & Theoretical

Oral presentation 1st place: Zhongren Jin, University of Alberta

Oral presentation runner-up: Maria Matlinska, University of Alberta

Poster presentation 1st place: Chris Sitko, Brandon University

Analytical

Poster presentation 1st place: Gabriel Cohen, University of Manitoba

 

The bid to host the 33rd Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference is now open! Contact student@cheminst.ca if you are interested.