April 2017 Three new undergraduate research assistants have joined the group! Sara Jacob is in the Park Scholarships program, Aaron Keeler is a Sophomore Chemistry major, and Gabriella Mamlouk is a Biological Sciences major in the Goodnight Scholars Program and Daniel L. Solomon Scholars Program in the NC State College of Sciences
March 2017 Our collaborative work with Tillman Weber and Sang Yup Lee is published in ACS Synthetic Biology and is selected as the journal cover!
March 2017 Congratulations to Kyle Bingham who has been selected as the recipient of the NC State Chapter of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi Award for Excellence!
March 2017 Congratulations to Samantha Meiser Carpenter and Edward Kalkreuter for winning 1st and 3rd place poster prizes, respectively, at the SBNP17 meeting in Cancun!
March 2017 Dr. Sean Lund successfully defended his Ph.D! He is now a research scientist at Amyris, Bay Area.
March 2017 Congratulations to Samantha Carpenter and Yiwei Li for winning the senior bio/organic section poster prize and the Comparative Medicine Institute Interface Award, respectively!
Feb 2016 Please welcome undergraduate research assistant Monique Reid to the group! Monique is a Freshman Engineering student with Biomedical intent.
Jan 2016 Gavin gave a talk at the Teen Science Cafe!
Nov 2016 Our latest polyketide synthase engineering is available online at ACS Chem Biol!
Nov 2016 Yiwei Li won a poster prize at the NIH Molecular Biotechnology Training Program Symposium!
Oct 2016 Please welcome two new PhD candidates – Lexie Malico and Lindsay Nichols!
Oct 2016 Rachael Hall and Yiwei Li passed their preliminary Ph.D. defense!
Oct 2016 Gavin, Katie, and Sam attended SERMACS 2016!
Sep 2016 Congratulations to undergraduate research assistant Katie Almasy -she has been selected to participate in the Provost’s Professional Experience Program!
Sep 2016 Please welcome new undergraduate research assistant Peiyi (Maggie) He to the group! Peiyi is also a Park Scholar – Class of 2020
Sep 2016 New undergraduate research assistant Grace Simaan joins the group!
Aug 2016 The Williams Lab is a recipient of the 2016 Chancellor’s Innovation Fund!
Aug 2016 Katie Almasy, Kyle Bingham, and Mounir Zerrad have received Fall 2016 Office of Undergraduate Research Grants!
July 2016 Gavin gave an outreach talk at the Museum of Natural Sciences – check it out here!
June 2016 Kim Castelli passed her M.Sc. defense!
June 2016 Christopher Ladner passed his final Ph.D. defense!
May 2016 Katie Almasy, member of the Goodnight Scholars Program – has been selected to receive funding from the Department of Chemistry to carry out research in the Williams Lab during the summer!
May 2016 Congratulations to Christian Kasey and Rachel Hall who were selected to receive the Percy Lavon Julian Award for Research and the Miles F. Anderson Award for Teaching – very well deserved!
April 2016 Christian Kasey won first place for his poster at the 2016 Biomanufacturing and Process Development Process Analytics Symposium at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.
April 2016 Vishwas Rao has been named a 2016 Barry Goldwater Scholar by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship Foundation! Three scholarships were awarded to undergraduates across North Carolina. The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,150 mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by the institutional representatives of 415 colleges and universities nationwide. This is a huge honor, well done Vishwas!
Feb 2016 Samantha Meiser has been selected to receive a Chemistry Graduate Scholars Research Assistantship! The fellowship includes a generous stipend for 12 months and funds to attend a conference. Well done Sam!
Jan 2016 Please welcome new undergraduate research assistant to the group – Katherine Almasy!
Nov 2015 Vishwas Rao won an award for “Outstanding Poster Presentation” at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Seattle, congratulations!
Nov 2015 Gavin has been selected as a 2015 University Faculty Scholar!
Nov 2015 Chris Ladner’s review on engineering assembly lines is now available in the JIMB special issue “Natural Product Discovery and Development in the Genomic Era”. Go check it out!
Oct 2015 Please welcome new PhD candidate Jared CroweTipton!
Oct 2015 Christian and Sam both won top 3 poster prizes at the Molecular Biotechnology Training Program poster session!
June 2015 Rachael Hall has been awarded a NIH Molecular Biotechnology Training Fellowship for a period of 2 years to support her research project ongoing in the group. Congratulations Rachael!
June 2015 Sarah Schultheis passed her Masters defense, June 23rd! She starts work at Novozymes next week!
May 2015 Congratulations to 3rd year graduate research assistant Sean Lund who has been selected by the Department of Chemistry to receive a Graduate Fellowship for Fall 2015
May 2015 Undergraduate research assistant Mounir Zerrad has been selected to receive an Atlantic Coast Conference Inter-Institutional Academic Collaborative (ACCIAC) Fellowship to continue his research in our lab during the summer!
May 2015 Undergraduate research assistant Taylor Courtney was chosen for the Department of Chemistry and College of Science Outstanding Senior Award for Scholarship!
April 2015 Congratulations to Dr. Steven Walsh who passed his final PhD defense!
March 2015 First year PhD candidate Kim Castelli was chosen for a poster award in the junior Organic/Chem Ed category of the 16th Annual Department of Chemistry Poster Session!
March 2015 Zhixia’s manuscript “Mapping a ketosynthase:acyl carrier protein binding interface via unnatural amino acid-mediated photocrosslinking” has been accepted for publication in Biochemistry!
Feb 2015 Undergraduate research assistant and Park Scholar Vishwas Rao has been selected to take part in the Amgen Scholars Program at Stanford! This is a huge achievement!
Oct 2014 Please welcome new first year PhD candidates Kim Castelli, Rachel Hall, and Yiwei Li to the group!
Sep 2014 Sean passed his preliminary PhD defense!
Aug 2014 John McArthur passed his final PhD defense! He is moving to UC-Davis to postdoc with Xi Chen.
Aug 2014 Kyle Bingham and Taylor Courtney have been selected to receive Undergraduate Research Grant Awards for both the Fall and Spring semesters!
June 2014 Steve’s riboswitch paper is one of the most downloaded papers in ChemBioChem!
May 2014 Sean Lund won the Miles F. Anderson Award for Excellence in Teaching!
May 2014 Phung passed her Masters final defense, congratulations!
May 2014 Irina Koryakina won the Percy L. Julian Award for Excellence in Research at the 2014 Graduation Presentation Ceremony!
April 2014 Zhixia’s Chemistry & Biology manuscript is now available online, and is highlighted by a NC State press release.
April 2014 Matthew Draelos is selected for an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!
March 2014 Zhixia passed her PhD final defense, congratulations!
March 2014 Steve’s paper “Intracellular light-activation of riboswitch activity” is accepted in ChemBioChem! Congrats to all those involved.
March 2014 Irina Koryakina passed her PhD final defense, congrats! The first of many!
Dec 2013 The Williams Lab research is featured on the NC State University homepage!
Nov 2013 Chris Ladner and Christian Kasey won first place and second place poster prize’s, respectively, at the NC ACS Local Section Meeting this month!
Oct 2013 The group welcomes three new graduate students: Robert Kalkreuter, Samantha Meiser, and Sarah Schultheis!
Oct 2013 Christian Kasey passed his prelim defense!
Sep 2013 Gavin presented our polyketide research at UNC
Aug 2013 Gavin gave a talk at the SIMB meeting in San Diego
July 2013 Irina presented her research during a recruiting trip to Russia!
June 2013 Irina’s OBC paper is selected as a HOT article!
June 2013 Chris Ladner gave his award lecture at BASF in Research Triangle Park!
May 2013 Steve Walsh won the Miles F. Anderson Award for Excellence in Teaching!
May 2013 Matthew Draelos has been selected to receive the F. Ivy Carroll NC-ACS Undergraduate Scholarship Award!
May 2013 Gavin’s NIH R01 grant is funded!
April 2013 Hemant Desai has been selected to receive the PAMS Spring 2013 Award for Scholarly Achievement!
March 2013 Chris Ladner won the Chemical Biology Senior poster prize and the BASF Innovation Award at the Department of Chemistry poster session!
Oct 2012 Please welcome new pre-doctoral candidates Phung Nguyen and Sean Lund!
Oct 2012 Irina’s paper on trans-AT promiscuity is accepted in ACS Chem Biol!
Aug 2012 Gavin presents an invited talk at the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology meeting in Washington D.C!
Aug 2012 Nicole Coggins successfully defended her Master’s thesis!
July 2012 Gavin presents an invited talk at the University of Missouri Bond Life Sciences Center!
June 2012 Undergraduate research assistant Matthew Draelos became a member of the Golden Chain Honor Society, which recognizes extraordinary contributions to only 12 rising seniors each year!
May 2012 Gavin’s talk at the ACS national meeting was selected as a “Best of Biotechnology” award winner!
May 2012 Chris Ladner (2nd year graduate) won the Percy Lavon Julius award for teaching excellence!
May 2012 Gavin is awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award!
April 2012 First year graduate student Christian Kasey won a poster prize in the Departmental Organic Division poster session!
March 2012 Undergraduate research assistant Hemant Desai won a prestigious North Carolina Biotechnology Center Undergraduate Research Award
March 2012 Gavin gives a seminar at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego!
March 2012 Congrats to Matthew Draelos, and our alumni Jessica Neville, for making the Falls Deans List and maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA!
Jan 2012 Our chapter contribution to the Protein Engineering Handbook is accepted for publication!
Jan 2012 Irina’s ChemBioChem paper is selected for cover artwork!
Nov 2011 Matthew Draelos wins an undergraduate research grant to fund his research in the group!
Nov 2011 Please welcome new graduate student Christian Kasey!
Oct 2011 Zhixia’s paper is now available online at Molecular Biosystems!
Oct 2011 Gavin presents an invited talk at Enzyme Engineering XXI in Vail, Colorado!
Sep 2011 Congratulations to second year graduates Irina Koryakina, John McArthur, and Zhixia Ye for all passing their prelim defenses!
Sep 2011 Irina’s ChemBioChem paper is now available online!
Aug 2011 The Williams Lab said farewell to REU student Morgan Bair this week, please join me in congratulating her for a fantastic effort this summer!
Aug 2011 Irina’s manuscript is accepted for publication in ChemBioChem!
July 2011 The Williams Lab wishes undergraduates Matthew Draelos and Jessica Neville all the best at their UC Berkely and NIH training internships this summer!
June 2011 Gavin is severely injured during a spectacular goal attempt in a game of soccer! Thanks for card and beer!
April 2011 Irina’s manuscript is accepted for publication in J Biomol Screening!
April 2011 Irina and John represent the Williams Lab at the Scope Academy!
March 2011 First year graduate student Nicole Coggins wins a poster award at this years poster session!