FRI Luminators Stream

We post more often on our Instagram account, follow us there!

June 13, 2022
We are excited to welcome 10 students in our lab this summer participating in the High School Research Academy

May 5, 2022
As the semester wraps up, we hope everyone has enjoyed our lab! Good luck to everyone on your finals!

April 26, 2022
Well done to our presenters last week at the Undergraduate Research Forum! We’re so proud of y’all!!

March 24, 2022
Congratulations to our professor, Dr. Lauren dePue (@drdepue), for being the 2021 winner of the Arthur E. Martell Early Career Researcher Prize, for our article “Visible Luminescent Ln42 Nanotorus Coordination Clusters” (https://doi.org/10.1080/00958972.2021.1877275)
Read about her achievement here https://t.co/IHo3Rr8trE!

September 12, 2019
Over 700 students came to the FRI Meet & Greet in the Union Ballroom!  Thank you to Brandon, Oscar, Miguel, Martin, and Diego for standing at our poster and talking to the freshmen about what we do in our stream and encouraging them to join our group!

August 2019
Philippe setting up a reaction this summer – so glad he joined us after his summer vacation!

July 2019
Summer students went to for a night of Top Golf!

Jun 2019
Three students went to Northwestern for the Summer ACA Workshop

April 12, 2019
Our students from Summer 2018 presented a poster at the URF and Lauren Ohman presented her work in the Que lab.

Mar 2019
The Luminators opened their lab to visitors for Explore UT

May 2019
Last class day with students and Mentors – check out our new stream shirts!

Oct 1, 2018
We have two Mentors who are taking a Science Communications course this semester and they have started an Instagram account for us!  Follow us @LuminastorsUTFRI and follow the FRI program @UTAustinFRI.

September 11-29, 2017
FRI Open Houses have begun!  Welcome to our website new students!  Please check out the links on the top of the page and on the left (not always visible on phones).  The search feature is also available if you are looking for something specific.  Our Open House hours are scheduled for Tues/Thurs 12-2pm in Welch 2.104.  We are not giving tours but asking you to come by to meet the RE, students, Mentors and ask questions.  We will pass out a flyer of handy fast-facts about our stream.

August 21, 2017
Bailey made a pin-hole box to view the solar eclipse and Alex has glasses that he shared with everyone.

April 17, 2017
The four Summer FRI Fellowship Recipients are Lizzy Ellison, Aidan Manning, Lauren Ohman, and Alex Ye.  The TIDES Summer Fellowship recipient is Bailey Bouley.  Congrats to all and we will have a big group of volunteers, students, and high schoolers in the lab this summer!

April 3, 2017
At the ASPIRE Banquet, Joe won two awards.  The first was a Professor’s Choice Award and the second was a Research Award.  Congrats Joe!

March 9, 2017
Our Mentor, Joe, has been recognized again!  He is the first CNS Student Spotlight.

March 4, 2017
Both SBRS and FMS streams worked the Explore UT one Saturday morning giving tours of our lab and telling families that came through about the FRI program and our research.

March 1, 2017
A few of us attended the NSC’s Star Party on the rooftop of RLM where we looked through telescopes at the moon and stars.

January 23, 2017
Here is a collection of photos from the first month of school:

January 17, 2017
A new school year is starting, looking forward to working with the new co-hort of FRI students!

December 5, 2016
The End of the Year party was well attended!  Thanks to everyone who came out for pizza, bowling, and pool.  Enjoy your winter break!

October 5, 2016
Joe Espinoza was featured with the Department of Philosophy for his many achievements (He’s a Philosophy major, did you know?)!
Joe Philosophy featured

September 27, 2016
The next step – the synthesis of lanthanide coordination complexes!
Ligand Lanthanide reaction

September 26, 2016
Students adding a seed crystal to promote crystallization of a ligand that was refusing to crystallize.
Seed crystal growth

September 12, 2016
Luminator Mentors Bailey and Amanda told this year’s freshman about our research at the FRI Picnic!
2016 Sept 12 FRI picnic

August 22, 2016
We ended a fabulous summer with our group moving into brand new lab space.  We celebrated with lunch at Mi Tradicion and played games at Pinballz.
2016 summer Pinballz and new lab

July 20-27, 2016
Dr. DePue gave a talk about undergraduates doing X-ray Crystallography of our Lanthanide Coordination Complexes at the American Crystallographic Association Summer Conference which was hosted in Denver, Colorado.
Lauren ACA Meeting

June 12-19, 2016
Alex Bard and Joe Espinoza went to the ACA Summer Workshop to learn from world class crystallographers about single crystal X-ray crystallography and powder diffraction.  This summer’s workshop was hosted at Notre Dame University.
2016 ACA Summer Workshop

May 2, 2016
Dr. DePue received not one, but two teaching awards this semester!  Students were asked to nominate teachers that have shown outstanding dedication to the education of their students.  Lauren won one of the Faculty Service Award which gave her a framed certificate and two books of her choosing.  She also won their most prestigious award, the Natural Science Foundation Professor award which came with a plaque and a cash award.  Of the many entries Joe and Nar’s were picked to award Lauren with these two awards.  Thanks guys!
Awards May 2 2016

May 2, 2016
FMS Mentor, Amanda Oakley, is the Chemistry Department’s “Stellar Student Spotlight”!  Congrats, Amanda!
Amanda Oakley Student SpotlightApril 15, 2016
Undergraduate Research Forum:  Every Spring, the CNS celebrates its student-scientists at this one-day event. More than 200 students present posters describing their research. The best and most innovative posters and presentations are recognized with awards judged and sponsored by the university, faculty, alumni and industry.  We had Alex Bard presenting his Dean Scholars Thesis work, Tyler King presenting his work in the Jones Lab, and our four summer fellowship winners presenting a poster on the work they’ve done (Jason Ross, Colton D’Ambra, Huy Lam, and Bailey Bouley).  Tyler King won a chemistry award!
Apr 15 URF 1Apr 15 URF DePueApr 15 URF Alex BardApr 15 URF 4 BaileyApr 15 URF Tyler

April 2, 2016
State Science Olympiad: High schools came to compete, FMS hosted the Chemistry Lab and Mentors Linh Dinh, Alex Bard, Colton D’Ambra, Bailey Bouley, and Courtney Thomas helped develop the experiments, write test questions, administered and graded exams that day.  We celebrated at Trudy’s that evening!April 2 Science Olympiad 1April 2 Science Olympiad 2April 2 Science Olympiad 3April 2 Science Olympiad 4

March 3, 2016
This is what opening a package of chemicals entails:  Open a box to find a bag, in the bag is another box, in that second box is a can, pop the can and find another bag.  Open that bag to find the chemical, yay!03-03-16

February 24, 2016
UT’s Chemistry Department updated their website and two chemistry FRI students made the homepage!  In the image below Colton (FMS) and Priscilla (SBRS) are working hard during the Summer of 2015.02-24-16

February 20, 2016
Several FMS Mentors ran the Regional Science Olympiad Chem Lab for high school competitors.  Thanks to Colton D’Ambra, Bailey Bouley, Courtney Thomas, Linh Dinh, and Emily Reynolds for such a successful event!02-20-16_1 02-20-16_2 02-20-16_3

February 19, 2016
FMS Mentors, Joanna Jia and Daniela Carrizales, answered questions about our research to a visiting group (TTI Vanguard) attending a conference at UT.Feb 19 TTI Vanguard visit Joanna and Lauren 1Feb 19 TTI Vanguard visit 2

January 27, 2016
Three of our Mentors (Alex, Joanna, & Colton) were present at Lee Elementary’s Science Night where they explained our research to the students and their families and showed them some lanthanide compounds that luminesce!Science Night

December 9, 2015
We won the best ornament award at the TIDES Holiday Party!  Our ornament will be displayed outside the FRI office in Painter over the winter break.  The ornament is made of vials that contain the europium and terbium compounds the students made in Spring 2015.  When you shine a UV light on the vials, they glow green and red.
FMS Xmas 1

Oct 17, 2015

Former FMS Mentor, Tyler King, presented his work at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium at Rice University.  Tyler started in FMS and has been working independently in the Jones lab.  Tyler’s presentation was titled Decreasing the Cost of Lanthanide Luminescent Bioprobes (LLBs).Tyler Gulf 2015

Oct 16, 2015
FMS Mentor, Alex Bard, presented a poster at UT’s Art in Sciences symposium where he wowed the visitors with the photoluminescent Eu and Tb compounds by exciting them using a UV lamp.  The work he presented is in manuscript stages and will be sent for publication soon.Alex poster oct 2015