By Jenna Kurtzweil
An Illinois chemistry graduate student and postdoctoral research have been chosen for the Beckman Institute's Postdoctoral Fellows Program.
Zane Thornburg, a PhD candidate in professor Zaida Luthey-Schulten's group, and Kelly Powderly, a postdoctoral researcher in professor Cathy Murphy's group, will begin their postdoctoral fellowships this fall along with four other researchers in the Postdoctoral Fellows Program.
With research projects encompassing early childhood development, advanced medical imaging technology, and the intricacies of chemical catalysis, the fellows share a commitment to interdisciplinary discovery.
- Three are recipients of the 2023 Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship, which has supported an annual cohort of researchers since its establishment by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation in 1991.
- And one — Kelly Powderly — is the recipient of the Beckman-Brown Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellowship. Since 2015, the institute has supported one Beckman-Brown Fellow per year. Also funded by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, this opportunity honors Dr. and Mrs. Arnold Beckman as well as the institute's founding director, Theodore “Ted” Brown, a professor emeritus of chemistry.
- And two, including Zane Thornburg, are recipients of the newly-established Cancer Center at Illinois – Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship, which supports projects that bridge engineering and basic cancer sciences. Fellows work with faculty mentors from CCIL and the Beckman Institute to develop transdisciplinary skills that support their career development.
One of the fellowship’s two inaugural recipients, Thornburg said he is excited to work at the forefront of biological computation and push the limit of what is currently possible.
"I couldn't imagine a better place to do my research than in the Beckman community,” he said.
Fellows across all three awards are selected in accordance with the core values of the Beckman Institute: excellence, collaboration, integrity, transdisciplinarity, exploration, and diversity.
Beckman-Brown Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellow
Kelly Powderly: Studying metallic nanoalloys to combat climate change
Powderly, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemistry at UIUC, earned her Ph.D. in chemistry and materials science from Princeton University in September 2022.
Her research focuses on controlling the ratios of gold, silver, and copper in alloy nanoparticles and understanding how this impacts their properties. Nanoparticles made from these three metals can be used to fine-tune the structure and composition of other molecules. For example, converting carbon dioxide into organic materials comprised only of hydrogen and carbon atoms, thus helping to mitigate the long-term impacts of climate change. Achieving a detailed understanding of nano-Au-Ag-Cu systems will also help make composition-controlled nanomaterials more accessible to the wider scientific community.
Powderly’s project, “Closed-loop optimization of automated synthesis for Au-Ag-Cu nanospheres,” will combine automation, high-throughput characterization, and machine learning. She will collaborate with Beckman researchers Catherine Murphy, a professor of chemistry; Charles Schroeder, a professor of materials science and engineering; and additional members of the Artificial Intelligence for Materials Working Group at the Beckman Institute.
Cancer Center at Illinois – Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellow
Zane Thornburg: Generating whole-cell simulations of yeast
Thornburg expects to earn his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from UIUC in fall 2023.
There’s no cell like whole cell. Whole-cell modeling, the practice of simulating an entire cell at once, provides researchers with the comprehensive information needed to make predictions about all aspects of a cell’s composition and behavior. Since simulating a complete human cell is quite complicated, many researchers study yeast cells, which are similar to human cells because they carry DNA in a nucleus. As a CCIL – Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Thornburg will use whole-cell modeling to simulate a population of yeast cells, investigating how genetic modifications and environmental changes might cause variations between cells of the same population. By accurately simulating how the cells move and change in the face of environmental stimuli, the model will generate valuable information about yeast cells as well as insights about modelling that will allow the technology itself to advance.
Thornburg’s project, “3D whole-cell models of yeast and quantifying cell-to-cell variations,” will be conducted in collaboration with Beckman and CCIL researchers Emad Tajkhorshid, a professor of biochemistry; and Rohit Bhargava, the Founder Professor of Bioengineering and the director of the CCIL.
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Applications for the 2024 Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows Program will be made available in the fall of 2023. To learn more about past Beckman Institute Postdoctoral Fellows and stay abreast of future opportunities, please visit: beckman.illinois.edu/research/fellowships-and-awards/postdoctoral-fellows-program.
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