P.O.C.C.

John A. Milligan

Chair, Assistant Professor at Thomas Jefferson University

John Milligan is an Assistant Professor in the College of Life Sciences at Thomas Jefferson University. After earning his B.S. in chemistry from Allegheny College, he undertook graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh in Prof. Peter Wipf's research group and earned his Ph.D. in 2018. He then joined Prof. Gary Molander's group at the University of Pennsylvania as a postdoctoral researcher, where his research focused on developing radical/polar crossover reactions with bis(catecholato)silicate reagents. His current research interests focus on the development of other transformations with these reagents. These efforts have been funded in part by the Organic Syntheses grant program for research at primarily undergraduate institutions.

Contact John: john.milligan@jefferson.edu

Christopher Kelly

Chair-Elect & Webmaster, Senior Scientist @ Johnson and Johnson

A native New Yorker, Chris’s interest in synthesis was sparked during his undergraduate studies at Stonehill College. At Stonehill, Chris worked under Prof. Leon Tilley and completed a targeted synthesis of 1-(trifluoromethyl)bicyclo[1.1.0]butane. Chris moved to UCONN in 2010 to perform his doctoral work under Prof. Nicholas Leadbeater. At UCONN, he worked in the areas of organofluorine chemistry and sustainable oxidative processes. In 2015, he continued his training under Prof. Gary Molander at the University of Pennsylvania as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow. At Penn, Chris’s research utilized photoredox catalysis to enable C–C bond construction. After a short stint (2018-2019) in academia as an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, he joined JnJ's Discovery Process Research team to tackle problems relating to human health. However, because of his passion for teaching, Chris also serves as the lecturer for CHEM 746, a graduate-level organic chemistry course at Penn, since Fall 2020.

Contact Chris: Ckelly5@its.jnj.com

Joseph M. Karpinski

Treasurer, Chemistry Laboratory Coordinator @ University of Delaware

Joseph Karpinski graduated from Ursinus College with a bachelor’s degree in Biology, and from Lehigh University with a master's degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. After a 23-year career as a synthetic organic chemist, he taught full-time for 10 years and now works as a Laboratory Coordinator at the University of Delaware. He lives in Kennett Square, PA, and has three adult children. He enjoys, golfing, reading, and winemaking.

Contact Joseph: jkarpins@eastern.edu

Craig A. Zificsak

Secretary, Chemist @ Adesis, Inc.

Craig grew up in Wisconsin and attended UW-Stevens Point for his BS and Univ. of Minnesota for graduate school. Following a post-doc at Johnson & Johnson, he worked for 14 years in small molecule discovery at Cephalon and Teva Pharmaceuticals. Since 2018, he has been working on small molecule discovery and process development projects at Adesis, Inc. He enjoys travel and watching his son play baseball.

Contact Craig: secretary.pocc@gmail.com

Jordan Artzy

Assistant Secretary, Graduate Student @ the University of Pennsylvania (Trauner Laboratory)

Jordan was born in Miami FL. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Florida State University in 2022, where he worked on natural product synthesis via pyridinium dearomatization in the Joel Smith lab. He is now a PhD student in the Trauner laboratory at UPenn and has a strong interest in total synthesis and medicinal chemistry.

Contact Jordan: jartzy@sas.upenn.edu

Jassie Kaur

Student Representative, Graduate Student @ Temple University (Wengryniuk Laboratory)

Jassie is from Delaware County, PA. She received her B.S. in chemistry with a minor in philosophy from Drexel University where she performed undergraduate research in the lab of Dr. Hai-feng Ji. She also worked at the University of Pennsylvania in the lab of Dr. Marisa Kozlowski through an NSF REU where she worked on the synthesis of PAH molecules. Jassie is currently an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Wengryniuk lab at Temple University working on an umpolung SNAr process of electron-rich arenes using N-HVI reagents. In her free time she likes to read, go to concerts, and hang out with her two cats.

Contact Jassie: jasjit.kaur@temple.edu

Bill Motsch

Social Media Director, Graduate Student @ Temple University(Wengryniuk Laboratory)

Bill was born in Erie, PA and received a BSc in chemistry from McGill University where he worked on various organocatalysis projects in Dr. James Gleason’s lab. After living in Tampa, FL for three years where he completed an MA at the University of South Florida with Dr. Juan Del Valle and worked as a formulation scientist at CoreRx, Bill moved to Philadelphia to do a PhD with Dr. Sarah Wengryniuk at Temple University. His thesis work focused on C–H bond amination using hypervalent iodine and electrochemistry. As of summer 2024, Bill is a postdoctoral researcher at GSK in discovery chemistry.

Contact Bill: bill.motsch@temple.edu

Tessa Lynch-Colameta

EWOC Liaison, Investigator @ GSK

Tessa Lynch-Colameta is originally from Boston, MA. She stayed local to receive her BA/MA in Chemistry from Boston University, where she worked on flow photochemical transformations with professor Aaron Beeler. She then went on to graduate school and joined the laboratory of professor Scott A. Snyder at the University of Chicago. Her thesis focused on methodology development with application to complex natural product synthesis. Upon completion of her Ph.D, Tessa began her career in industry as an Investigator in Medicinal Chemistry at GSK. Outside of GSK and POCC, Tessa is an founding member of the EWOC Mid-Atlantic Board.

Contact Tessa: tessa.j.lynch-colameta@gsk.com