Philadelphia Organic
Chemists' Club

Christopher Beaudry

Chair

Christopher M. Beaudry is a Professor of Chemistry at Temple University. He received his BS in Chemistry and Mathematics (double major) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2000. He earned his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005 as one of Prof. Dirk Trauner’s first students. Chris conducted postdoctoral research in the group of Prof. Larry Overman at the University of California, Irvine. In 2009, Chris accepted a position at Oregon State University to start his independent career. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015 and Professor in 2021. In 2024 Chris moved to Temple University in Philadelphia. His group works in the area of synthetic chemistry, natural products, biology and catalysis.

Kendricks Lao

Chair-Elect

Kendricks Lao is a Senior Manager of Business Development at a leading CDMO company, where he works with biotech and pharmaceutical companies to advance small-molecule drug programs from early development through commercial manufacturing. He has more than a decade of experience spanning business development, project management, operations, and chemical development within the pharmaceutical and CDMO industry. Kendricks earned his doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut. Prior to his current role, he worked at Boehringer Ingelheim and several CDMOs, gaining experience across pharmaceutical development, manufacturing, and client engagement. In his current business development role, he works closely with emerging and established pharmaceutical companies on drug substance and drug product development and manufacturing. He currently serves as Chair-Elect of the Philadelphia Organic Chemists’ Club (POCC), supporting the organization’s mission of bringing together academic and industry chemists and creating opportunities for students, postdocs, and early-career scientists.

Joseph M. Karpinski

Treasurer

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.

Robert Dyer

Secretary

Originally from New Orleans, Rob received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Virginia, where he worked under Prof. Timothy Macdonald synthesizing sphingosine kinase inhibitors. Rob continued his doctoral studies at UVa under Prof. Mike Hilinski. His research focused on synthetic methodology, specifically selective organocatalytic functionalization. Upon completing his Ph.D., Rob began his industrial career at Adesis as a Research Scientist in OLED discovery.

Andrew Shen

Assistant Secretary

Andrew was born in New York, NY. He received his B.A. in Biochemistry from Skidmore College in 2025, where he worked on isotopic labeling methods in the Jessada Mahatthananchai lab. He is now a PhD student in the Trauner laboratory at UPenn and has a strong interest in total synthesis.

Jake Cuzick

Student Representative

Jake is from Baker City, Oregon. He received a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Computer Science from Mount St. Mary’s University in 2025. During his undergraduate studies, he conducted research in the laboratory of Dr. Sarah Krueger and completed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) with Dr. Claire Xiong at Boise State University and Dr. Martin Burke at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Currently, Jake is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Kozlowski Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, where his research focuses on developing new photocatalytic methods for C-C bond formation between phenols and various heterocycles.

Kyra L. Samony

Social Media Director

Kyra grew up local to Philadelphia in Gilbertsville, PA. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. During her time at Dickinson, she worked under Dr. Jason Gavenonis on the synthesis of fluorescent bifunctional probes for intracellular reaction monitoring. She also interned at MaxPower, Inc., a local R & D facility focusing on the development of special purpose lithium-ion batteries. She completed her doctoral studies with Professor Daniel K. Kim at Temple University, where her thesis work was focused on novel reagent design directed towards the installation of trifluoromethyl ketones. Following the completion of her PhD, Kyra continues her training as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Agricultural Research Service Northeast Area (ARS-NEA) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Email coming soon.

Christopher Kelly

Webmaster & Former Chair

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. Chris served as the Chair-Elect of POCC in 2024-2025 and as the Chair for POCC's 80th year in 2025-2026.

Catherine Mudd

EWOC Liaison

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Catherine Mudd graduated with a degree in biochemistry from Loyola University Chicago. She started at the University of Delaware in fall of 2023, joining the lab of Dr. Don Watson. In 2024, she joined the Chemistry-Biology Interface program at UD as a CBI fellow. Her work focuses on understanding the mechanism of nickel-catalyzed atroposelective reductive couplings and using that knowledge to develop novel routes to access complex tetra-substituted biarenes.

Veronica Charyna

Student Representative

Veronica grew up in Collegeville, PA. She earned a BS in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from Saint Joseph’s University where she worked under Dr. Catherine Bentzley developing zoological Mass Spectrometric techniques to determine origins of artifacts from the Barnes Foundation. She is now working in Dr Chris Beaudry’s lab at Temple University studying HAT cyclization reactions. Outside of the lab, she enjoys cheering for the Flyers and Phillies, watching Formula 1 and going to the Jersey Shore.