P.O.C.C.

Jing Li

Chair, President of Pharmablock USA

Jing is currently president of PharmaBlock(USA) focusing on team building, process capability building and site expansion. Prior to work at PharmaBlock since 2016, Jing had over eight year API process development experience with Merck, led and supported many API development projects. She also had six years medicinal chemistry experience and advanced two molecules into clinical stage. Jing graduated from Nanjing University (China) with PhD in Chemistry, and had postdoc training with Prof Patrick Harran on total synthesis of Diazonamide A. She lives in Worcester PA, with her husband, two daughters and three furry friends. She enjoys reading, traveling and horse riding.

Contact Jing: li_jing@pharmablock.com

Sarah Wengryniuk

Chair-Elect, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Temple University

Dr. Sarah Wengryniuk was born in Frederick, MD. She conducted her undergraduate studies at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC graduating Magna cum laude with B.S. degrees in chemistry and biology. From 2007-2012 she conducted her doctoral studies at Duke University as an NSF Graduate Fellow, under the direction of Professor Don Coltart, working on auxiliary-based asymmetric ketone alkylation. In 2012, she joined the laboratory of Professor Phil Baran at The Scripps Research Institute as an NIH Ruth L. Kirchstein postdoctoral fellow. In 2015, she began her independent career at Temple University where her laboratory has explored novel umpolung reactivities enabled by hypervalent iodine reagents. Her research and teaching efforts have been recognized with several awards including the Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, the Italia-Eire Teacher of the Year, the Robert L. Smith Early Career Professorship and an NSF CAREER Award.

Contact Sarah: sarahw@temple.edu

Joseph M. Karpinski

Treasurer, Chemistry Laboratory Manager and Adjunct Instructor @ Eastern University

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 has been teaching full-time since 2012. 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

Aria Fodness

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

Aria received her B.S. in Chemistry from MIT in 2020, where she worked on continuous flow chemistry in Tim Jamison’s group. She is now a PhD student at UPenn in the McCallum laboratory, where she studies natural product total synthesis.

Contact Aria: fodness@sas.upenn.edu

Jonathan Nadraws

Student Representative, Graduate Student @ the University of Pennsylvania (Smith Laboratory)

Jonathan was raised in Allentown, PA, and received his BS in chemistry from Moravian College, where he studied under the mentorship of Professor Michael Bertucci. He is currently a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania in the lab of Professor Amos B. Smith, III, where he studies natural product total synthesis and medicinal chemistry.

Contact Jonathan: jnadraws@sas.upenn.edu

Derek Yang

Social Media Director, Graduate Student @ the University of Pennsylvania (Smith Laboratory)

Derek grew up in Sunnyvale, CA and attended UC Santa Barbara for undergrad where he got a B.S. in biochemistry and a B.A. in political science. At UCSB, Derek studied under Professor Tom Pettus and investigated o-Quinone Methide intermediates as a means of making benzoxazine rings. After graduating in 2020, he now is a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Professor Amos B. Smith, III, where he works on small molecule synthesis to study and treat HIV

Contact Derek: dyangg@sas.upenn.edu

Christopher Kelly

Web Master, Scientist @ Janssen R & D

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 Janssen'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