GRFPogging out

A little bit late to the blog, but better than never: we're incredibly proud of our grad students, Brooke (left) and Jay (right), who received a GRFP fellowship and GRFP honorable mention, respectively! The excitement of the PI allowed the cake to make slight contact with the sides of the box...

Out of the freezer; into the boiling pot

12/11/2025: The title is not intended to serve as a metaphor for grad school. The Handford Lab's first outing as a group, in which we made our way to Haidilao in Tustin and enjoyed some hot pot! Pictured: Back row (left to right): Rex, Mike, Jay, Brooke. Front row (left to right): Jayne, Sanya, April. Not pictured: Katherine.

Wasserfrei

The lab's first Schlenk line, constructed from some new components, and some inherited ones. We're pulling sub 10 microns! If you look to the top left, you can see a portion of our gas-addition quick connect fitting. There's also a needle valve to allow users to evacuate the nitrogen manifold in a controlled manner. If you or a friend knows where we can find 10 kg of mercury for bubblers... let us know. In the meantime though, we have oil bubblers with anti-siphons to prevent backflow.

The beautiful SPS that we share with the Borovik group. We are also picking up a second three-place SPS for toluene, benzene, and 1,2-difluorobenzene.