Celebrating the Asian communities at the Faculty of Science

May 24, 2024 —

The Asian communities at the Faculty of Science include brilliant people from students in labs to instructors passionately teaching in classes, professors conducting ground-breaking research, and support staff who make our departments and the Faculty an extraordinary environment. With May being the Asian Heritage Month, we decided to shine the light on the contributions of the Asian communities at the Faculty and celebrate their presence.

“If you just look a bit further, think a bit further, there is interesting stuff beneath the surface,” says Xinli Wang (Chinese Singaporean), an instructor at the department of mathematics, while she enthusiastically tells us how her curiosity got her interested in science. Join us, watch the interview and be inspired as we talk with Wang and other members of our community, celebrating the Asian Heritage Month.

Kimia Shadkami

asian heritage month, Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Faculty of Science community and partners, Faculty of Science research, Faculty of Science students, Mathematics, Microbiology, Physics and Astronomy

From a fundamental discovery in a chemistry lab to a novel product for the market

It all started when John Sorensen, a chemistry professor, and his research team discovered an enzyme with an interesting reaction, a difficult step in the organic synthesis laboratory. The reaction normally requires multiple steps and many reagents without the same yields. But with the enzyme, it could be done in a single step in great condition. The discovery then sparked conversations about commercialization among the research team and how it could be put somewhere on a store shelf.