Michael Spicuzza

B.S. in Chemistry: Edinboro University 2016

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Mike grew up in the greater Pittsburgh area and pursued his undergraduate degree in chemistry at Edinboro University. During his B.S. work, Mike worked with Dr. Qun Gu conducting research on inner filter effects in fluorescence measurements. Upon graduating, Mike pursued a position at PPG, where he worked on coatings and polymer chemistry, and ultimately perfected aspects of both small molecule and polymer synthesis. After moving up the ranks at PPG, Mike decided to return to school and enrolled in the Ph.D. program at PSU in the fall of 2020. In spring of 2021, Mike joined the Elacqua group where he could merge interests in polymer and organic synthesis within the photoredox catalysis subgroup. Outside of the lab, Mike enjoys cooking, fishing, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. We are certain Mike will cook up some great reactions, and force some compounds into submission mode!

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Honors

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• Penn State Chemistry, Continuing Teaching Award (2021-2022)

• Penn State Chemistry, Continuing Teaching Award (2022-2023)

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Publications

 

M. Spicuzza, S. P. Gaikwad, S. Huss, A. A. Lee, C. V. Craescu, A. Griggs, J. Joseph, M. Puthenpurayil, W. Lin, C. Matarazzo, S. Baldwin, V. Perez, D. A. Rodriguez-Acevedo, J. R. Swierk, and E. Elacqua. Visible-Light-Mediated Diels-Alder Reactions Under Single-Chain Polymer Confinement: Investigating the Role of the Crosslinking Moiety on Catalyst Activity, Polym. Chem., 2024, 15, 1833-1838.

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