Inorganic Chemistry and Spectroscopy

2023 Research group picture

We are a teaching-focused group at Cal Poly Pomona with the aim for undergraduate and masters students to contribute to peer-reviewed research and small molecule activation while learning a variety of inorganic chemistry techniques including air-free synthesis, spectroscopy, crystallography, and computations. All are welcome here, regardless of race, disability, gender, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation. Our research laboratory has options for both in-person and remote research, and group meetings are either hybrid or over Zoom. Contact us if you're interested in doing research.



Group News


Aug. 2024 - Congrats to Dr. Marr on being awarded the ACS Postdoc Leadership in Mentoring Award!

Aug. 2024 - Congrats to Ethan Chavarin on being awarded an ACS Travel Grant!

Aug. 2024 - Congrats to Dr. Stieber on becoming a Full Professor!

Aug. 2024 - Welcome to a new postdoc, Dr. Eric Lopes!

Aug. 2024 - Congrats to Dr. Marr and Dr. Stieber for being awarded a $150,000 CSU ARI grant!

Jul. 2024 - Congrats to Master's student Aaron Gaynes for being awarded the ARI-NEXT gen fellowship!

Jun. 2024 - Welcome to a new postdoc, Dr. Moisés Bravo!

Jun. 2024 - Welcome to a new postdoc, Dr. Ana Garcia Alvarez!

Apr. 2024 - Congrats to Dr. Marr for being awarded a $10,000 RSCA grant!

Apr. 2024 - Congrats to Dr. Stieber for being awarded a $297,885 NSF RUI grant!

Mar. 2024 - Welcome to a new postdoc, Dr. Benjamin Goka!

Feb. 2024 - Congrats to Frances Paredes for being awarded a STEM-NET Fellowship!

Aug. 2023 - Welcome to a new postdoc, Dr. Zoe Marr!

Aug. 2023 - Congrats to Romualda Aquino for receiving a $10,000 CSUPERB grant!

Aug. 2023 - Congrats to Ethan Chavarin, Zachary Carrillo, and Soroush Azizi for receiving LSAMP or SPIRES fellowships!

Jun. 2023 - Congrats to Dr. Andressa Antonini Bertolazzo on her new job as a tenure track faculty at Weber State University!

Jun. 2023 -Congrats to Demi Ayala on passing her Master's defense!

Jun. 2023 - Congrats to Nidia Ibarra and Alyssa Tran for receiving LSAMP Fellowships!

May 2023 - Congrats to the 7 graduates from our group! BS degrees for Caitlyn, Mei, Sage, and Neil! MS degrees for Christian, Carlos, and Zachary!

Apr. 2023 - Congrats to Ethan, Gaby, and Nidia for being awarded REU summer fellowships!

Feb. 2023 - Ethan Chavarin was featured on "My favorite queer chemist" podcast! https://open.spotify.com/show/3Y6kehdyYgyhKz0RYuyPUh

Dec. 2022 - Congrats to Briana for graduating with a BS!

Sept. 2022 - Dr. Andressa Antonini Bertolazzo joins the group as a PLUTO/STARS postdoctoral fellow, and STARS students Alyssa Tran and Nidia Ibarra join the group. Welcome!

Sept. 2022 - Congrats to Sage for being awarded Research Distinction!

Aug. 2022 - Dr. Stieber is part of team that was awarded a Dept. of Energy (DoE) grant to create the "Center for Closing the Carbon Cycle (C4)"

Aug. 2022 - Congrats to Mei for winning the Poster Award at the SoCal Undergraduate Research Symposium (UC Irvine)!

Jul. 2022 - Congrats to Justin for securing a job as a High School Chemistry teacher at Ruben S Ayala High School in Chino Hills!

Mar. 2022 - Nicole Avila presents her work at the ACS Conference in San Diego!

Jan. 2022 - STARS students Hellen Marin and Dinh Ho, and Master's student Christian LeRue join the group. Welcome!

Nov. 2021 - Dr. Stieber is one of 8 faculty selected for the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award! (link)

Oct. 2021 - Nicole Avila wins the inorganic chemistry award for her poster at the SACNAS conference! Great job Nicole! (link)

Oct. 2021 - Dr. Stieber is part of a team to receive a $5 million grant from the Department of Education for, "STARS (Student Success and Transfer Articulation through Research and Support Services – An HSI STEM Transformation Project)." See PolyCentric article highlighting this work! (link)

Oct. 2021 - We are now a platinum certified Bronco Green Lab! (link) See the PolyCentric article about us! (link)

Aug. 2021 - Congratulations to Kevin Liang for successfully defending his Master's thesis!

Jun. 2021 - Congratulations to Justin Cortez for winning 1st place in the California State University Student Research Competition!!

May. 2021 - Congratulations to Brenda Henriquez for successfully defending her Master's thesis!

May. 2021 - Congratulations to Alexis Hoxie, Elisa Olivas, Adrian Torres, and Zijie Zhang for graduating with a BS in Chemistry! Congratulations to Evan Bonnand for graduating with a BS in Biology!

Apr. 2021 - Congratulations to Dr. Stieber for being awarded the Provost's Award for Scholarly and Creative Activities!

Jan. 2021 - Our lab was awarded a grant from the CSU Agricultural Research Institute (ARI)!

Dec. 2020 - Congratulations to Emily Thompson and Carlos Gutierrez for graduating with a BS in Chemistry!

Jun. 2020 - Congratulations to Karen Juarez for graduating with a BS in Chemistry!

Apr. 2020 - Congratulations to Jacob Brannon for successfully defending his Master's thesis!

Apr. 2020 - Alumnus Justin Cortez was featured in the College of Science Magazine! (link)

Mar. 2020 - Congratulations to Brenda Henriquez for being selected for a DAAD research grant!

Nov. 2019 - We were featured in the College of Science newsletter. (link)

Aug. 2019 - Congratulations to Adrian Torres for being selected as an LSAMP Fellow!

Jun. 2019 - Congratulations to Zijie Zhang for being selected as an NSF SPIRES Fellow!

Jun. 2019 - Congratulations to Emily Thompson and Alexis Hoxie for being selected as LSAMP Fellows!

Apr. 2019 - Dr. Stieber receives NSF CAREER award! (Link) (Poly Post article) (Press Release) (News article) (College Newsletter)

Apr. 2019 - Check out the NSF XSEDE news highlight for Erica Hummel's paper! (Link)

Apr. 2019 - Congratulations to Briana Arreaga for being selected for the RISE program!

Apr. 2019 - Congratulations to Zijie Zhang for receiving the Valspar Award!

Apr. 2019 - Undergraduates Phan Phu, Beverly Stretch and Zijie Zhang receive research distinction awards!

Jan. 2019 - Congratulations to undergraduate Phan Phu on her JACS paper! (Link)

Jan. 2019 - Congratulations to Master's candidate Erica Hummel on her published paper! (Link)

Nov. 2018 - Congratulations to Zijie Zhang for being selected as a McNair Scholar!

Oct. 2018 - Congratulations to undergraduate Beverly Stretch on her first published structure and to Master's candidate Jacob Brannon for officially being a crystallographer! (Link)

Oct. 2018 - Congratulations to Jacob Brannon on receiving a MENTORES/PPOHA Grant!

Sept. 2018 - Congratulations to Briana Arreaga on an LSAMP Fellowship!

Sept. 2018 - Undergraduates Carlos and Zijie publish a paper! (Link)

Jun. 2018 - Jonathan Stoffel graduates with a BS in Chemistry and starts a Ph.D. at Notre Dame!

May 22, 2018 - Congratulations to Tiffany Lopez on successfully defending her Master's thesis!

Feb. 20, 2018 - Congratulations to Tiffany Lopez on receiving a MENTORES/PPOHA Grant!

Feb. 16, 2018 - Check out the local news story about our new single crystal X-ray diffractometer by InlandEmpire.US (Link)

Feb. 15, 2018 - A successful grand opening event for the Cal Poly Pomona Crystallography Co-op! Read the campus news story here (Link)

Jan. 2018 - Congrats to Hector Alarcon for landing a job at Ecolab!

Sept. 2017 - We were awarded a $599,077 grant for a single crystal X-ray diffractometer from the Department of Defense (DoD) Research and Education Program for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) Equipment/Instrumentation Grant under contract #W911NF-17-1-0537. Picture
Group Picture
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