Charlene Gopatta
B.Sc., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023
Charlene was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. At the age of 18, she moved to the US and attended her senior year of high school at the Emma Willard School, an all-girls boarding school in Troy, NY.
Charlene received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry Cum Laude and with Highest Distinction in Curriculum honors from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. During this time, she studied a chiral twist-bend nematic phase of an achiral conjugated polymer as part of Professor Ying Diao’s chemical engineering research group. Discovering her interest in the field of organic chemistry and drug discovery and development, she joined Professor Martin D. Burke’s group to explore the area of methodology development to optimize palladium-catalyzed C(sp3)-C(sp2) Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. Outside of the lab, Charlene enjoys cafe-hopping, taking photos, playing video games, and badminton.
Fun Facts
- Charlene intensely tears up when yawning – to the degree that people would think she is crying. If you spot her with tears streaming down her face and a red nose in the morning and think she's struggling - she is! Struggling to stay awake that is.
- Charlene absolutely adores spicy food. Mere mortals may find her dishes "too spicy for human consumption".
- Charlene is terrified of reptiles, especially snakes. She is known to launch her phone into orbit whenever a snake photo unexpectedly slithers onto her screen. (Please do not attach photos of snakes in emails addressed to her).