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The Swager Group

@swagergroup.bsky.social

It's swahhh-ger. Organic materials, polymer synthesis, chemical sensing & dynamic colloids @mitchemistry.bsky.social & @isn.mit.edu. Our web is https://swagergroup-archive.mit.edu. Earlier posts can be viewed via our X account at https://x.com/SwagerGroup.

46 Followers  |  43 Following  |  38 Posts  |  Joined: 07.03.2025  |  1.8771

Latest posts by swagergroup.bsky.social on Bluesky

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πŸ–οΈπŸ“·: With the fall commencing soon, we gathered earlier today for a farewell and welcome party! Our tradition of giving farewell speeches continues with the superstar visiting undergrads while we welcome Nathan and our visiting grad students into the lab. Tech Square is amazing as always!

08.08.2025 18:06 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Our postdoc Maryam Alsufyani also got highlighted a few days ago as a recipient of the prestigious MIT IBK Research Award for her proposal "Detection of Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Water using Turn-ON Fluorescent Dyes." We are so proud of her! ibk.mit.edu/news/dr-mary...

08.08.2025 15:55 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Next, we welcome our new visiting graduate student, Andrea Minaya, from @ethz.ch! She earned her undergrad degree in MechE, developing NO2 sensors based on carbon nanotubes. Prior to joining our lab, she spent an exchange year @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social and interned at Porsche & 8inks. Welcome!

08.08.2025 15:53 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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It's August 8, a palindrome day (8/8 = 100%!!!), a great time to welcome some new lab members! First, we welcome back our postdoc Nathan after a six-month tenure working with our former alumni, Prof. Grace Han. Nathan will conduct some great work in a cool project - stay tuned!

08.08.2025 15:52 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

... graduate students Rina and Jennifer, and our logistics master Brian! We look forward to seeing Charles's journey after his tenure in the lab and wish him all the best in his future career!

07.08.2025 19:58 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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β˜€οΈ: Summer is almost over, but the great memories remain! Our MSRP intern Charles presented his poster reflecting his work in the lab earlier today at the MSRP Poster Session. Featured in the pics are Tim (!), Charles's hoodmate KiΓͺn, his mentor Georgios, our visiting undergrad Mayar & the 3rd years!

07.08.2025 19:55 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ‘‘: In this month's @mitchemistry.bsky.social Graduate Student Spotlight, Jennifer talks about the most amazing sunset she's ever seen, the activities she'd take on if she didn't have to sleep, the image that makes her laugh no matter how often she sees it, and more: chemistry.mit.edu/chemistry-ne...

24.07.2025 18:29 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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With the vision of Rising Together: Amplifying our Ecosystem of STEM Excellence, the Department of Chemistry and
@northeasternu.bsky.social were pleased to welcome over 80 participants from over 20 colleges to the 2025 NOBCChE Collaborative last month.

chemistry.mit.edu/chemistry-ne...

22.07.2025 18:15 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ…: In the meantime, our now great alumni @michaelocheje.bsky.social also served as a judge for the poster competition and a speaker at the career panel for the event. What a wonderful chance to contribute to advancing science to everyone πŸ§ͺπŸ€

21.07.2025 19:19 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ“’πŸ…: Our superstar graduate student Collette recently won the first prize poster award in the 2025 NOBCChE Collaborative! Tim also serves as a faculty liaison for @mitchemistry.bsky.social and supported with co-hosting the event at MIT and @northeasternu.bsky.social. Bravo! (1/2)

21.07.2025 19:18 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Reunion with our former lab member Paulina in @mitchemistry.bsky.social Organic Retreat and the week after at ISN! It was great to hear about what you accomplished following your journey in the group with our current members, including the current graduate students and postdocs!

02.07.2025 20:30 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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We gathered earlier today for a farewell party for @michaelocheje.bsky.social and Alik! Listening to their words was quite an emotional moment for everyone. We hope that you two will succeed in your career following your tenure in the group, and hopefully the nice gifts remind you all of us! πŸ€πŸ€πŸ€

01.07.2025 00:33 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Second (and the last!) poster today from the group in 2025 @mitchemistry.bsky.social Organic Retreat comes from our synthetic expert Ashton! This will not last for long, so come talk to him before the windy day wraps up (have you seen this poster before though...?)!

20.06.2025 19:51 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Our postdoc Chi-Hsien with her distinguished poster as the next presenter for our group in 2025 @mitchemistry.bsky.social Organic Retreat! We still have more science to share with you all throughout the day!

20.06.2025 14:58 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Right now at 2025 @mitchemistry.bsky.social Organic Retreat: Collette is kicking off for our lab for the series of presentations today! We look forward to hearing more about PFAS and her research very much πŸ€πŸ€πŸ€

20.06.2025 14:30 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Organic Retreat 2025 – MIT Chemistry Organic Retreat

Guess who forgot to post... Finally, the annual Organic Retreat is held this Friday! Collette will give a podium presentation while Ashton and our postdoc Chi-Hsien will present their posters there. More information is available at organicretreat.mit.edu/2025-event/. Many thanks to the organizers!

18.06.2025 04:58 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Secondly, we continue our streak of having a new paper and a lab member! Charles Jackson, an undergraduate from
@tamu.bsky.social, recently joined our lab as an MSRP intern and will work with Georgios for the summer. He will bring his knowledge about biosensing with small molecules. A warm welcome!

17.06.2025 18:06 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Good Tuesday starts with a paper! First, our postdoc Georgios introduces wavelength-orthogonally reversible photochemistry to interfacial photopolymerizations, demonstrating that the dynamic interplay of two wavelengths enables photoinduced error correction. Congrats! pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

17.06.2025 18:01 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

🏐🚨: 5 minutes to the first match of the season for the 🦞's! The match will be held in just a few minutes on the lawn near the MIT Media Lab building E14. Good luck to the team!!!

13.06.2025 16:55 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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New paper comes with a new lab member! We welcome Hayeon Kim, an exchange Ph.D. student from Dr. Heetae Jung in the CBE Department at KAIST. Her research focuses on the metal oxide nanopatterning for gas sensor applications, and we are thrilled to see great science during her time here. Big welcome!

09.06.2025 20:10 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
PolyPal: A Python Package for Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Amorphous Polymers Easily tunable and processable, porous organic polymers (POPs) have found increasing utility in various applications. Molecular modeling and simulations are invaluable tools in polymer science but remain under-reported in the POP literature. Accurate modeling and simulation of these materials could boost the discovery of high-performance POPs and allow for a more thorough contribution to big data. These polymers contain free volume-promoting structural units, such as iptycenes, and exhibit high glass-transition temperatures, excellent thermal stability, and tunable functionality. However, popular transferable force fields utilized in all-atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are not fully parametrized for intrinsically porous thermoplastic materials. We present a streamlined workflow for all-atomistic MD simulations of nonporous and porous amorphous polymer materials. In conjunction with the programs ORCA, Q-Force, Assemble!, and GROMACS, a highly accessible methodology is established for force field (FF) parametrization, creation of initial configurations, and simulation of various nonporous and porous polymers. This protocol can reproduce experimental bulk densities and fractional free volume values for amorphous polymeric materials with excellent accuracy and has been made available as a Python package, called PolyPal. As an example, we present our results using PolyPal on a series of nonporous and porous polymers that were previously synthesized and experimentally characterized. FF accuracy was also validated through solid-state NMR studies. These simulations will not only open new avenues for the rational design of high-performance POPs through the contribution of improved insight but also provide a streamlined pathway for simulating previously unexplored porous polymeric materials.

🦞🀲: Happy Friday! Our 5th year rising star Molly recently introduced a new programming platform, PolyPal, where POPs can be simulated more accurately while being user-friendly. You can access the program via her GitHub here github.com/warndorf/pol... and read more at pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...!

06.06.2025 18:37 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Challenge for you all: Spot our graduates in this picture πŸ‘€

06.06.2025 18:35 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ§‘β€πŸŽ“: While we have two Ph.D. graduates recently, another two undergraduates come to our lab! Mayar is an undergraduate student at USC and a member of the KAUST Gifted Student Program, while KiΓͺn is a rising senior double majoring in 6-7 and 8 at MIT. Welcome all to the group!

30.05.2025 17:11 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸŽ“β€ΌοΈ Two newly minted Ph.D.'s for a memorable day in our lab! Many congratulations to Dr. Feng and Dr. Yuan for their hard work and dedication in the past years, and we are so excited for their graduation and future ahead! πŸ“Έ: Another in-house Dr., @lennonluo.bsky.social!

29.05.2025 02:51 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ’£: Our brand new group photo in front of the Killian Court is here! We had an amazing gathering preceding and following the πŸ“Έ time. The weather last week was beautiful too, not to mention the amazing group members πŸ₯° Many thanks to Francesca & @lehoangminh.bsky.social for editing this! Happy summer!

20.05.2025 14:49 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Are you excited for the new group photo? We are! However, let us introduce the newest group member first, Dr. Ming Hu! He comes from Hubei, China and earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in 2017 and 2022, respectively. You can read more about him on our website. Welcome to the lab, Dr. Hu!

19.05.2025 15:20 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Group dinner yesterday in the historic Moore room with Collette as the main director of the organizing committee with the other superb third-year students, Ashton, Thomas, and Zhewen! New group photo coming to you soon ;) Stay tuned!

15.05.2025 18:59 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Barn Babies afternoon organized by @mitchemistry.bsky.social! Here is some of their energy to help brighten your day!

08.05.2025 19:52 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Come see our superb chemists presenting in MIT Polymer Day now! Session A is currently running with postdoc Maryam’s poster #2 and graduate student Ashton’s poster #16! Session B will be happening in an hour with postdoc Alik’s poster #28. More polymers, more fun for the day!!!

07.05.2025 14:31 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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πŸ—žοΈMIT Polymer Day is tomorrow! Our lab has the honor to present great posters in both sessions: session A from 10:15-11:15 with our postdoc Maryam and Ph.D. candidate Ashton and session B from 11:30-12:30 with our postdoc Alik. Come for the fun (and resources) and stay for the science! See you there!

06.05.2025 23:31 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

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