May 20, 2024
Undergraduate student Albert Wang will be joining us from Vanderbilt University as part of the NSF REU program. Albert will be working with us in collaboration with Dr. Mihai Vaida’s lab to develop a jet-stirred reactor setup for catalytic combustion studies. Welcome Albert!
April 15, 2024
Alec passes his candidacy examination and becomes a PhD candidate. Congratulations Alec!
April 8, 2024
Arden successfully defended her Honors Undergraduate Thesis. Congratulations Arden!
March 28, 2024
Dr. Popolan-Vaida has been honored as this year’s Undergraduate Mentor of the Year! We are so grateful to Dr. Popolan-Vaida for her unwavering support and enthusiasm for scientific inquiry.
March 26-27, 2024
Alec, Emily, and Arden presented their poster’s at UCF’s Student Scholar Symposium event, which is a part of UCF’s annual Research Week which celebrates exciting research being carried out at the university across all disciplines.
March 18, 2024
Alec and Arden traveled to New Orleans for this year’s Spring Meeting of the American Chemical Society. They had the chance to share the group’s research with a wide audience and learned about the newest discoveries across numerous fields of chemistry.
March 12, 2024
Dr. Popolan-Vaida’s students Alec, Arden, Emily, and Yitong presented their research on aerosol and fuel oxidation at this year’s Florida meeting of the American Vacuum Society. They were excited to learn about the newest developments in vacuum science happening right here in Florida, and Arden took home the first place prize for the Renewable Energy poster competition!
February 29, 2024
Welcome new PhD students Minh Tran and Bui Khe to the Popolan-Vaida lab! They will be working to uncover the fate of atmospheric aerosols released by natural and anthropogenic activity.
January, 2024
Dr. Popolan-Vaida has been awarded the 2024 Outreach Volunteer of the Year Award for the ACS Orlando Section. Dr. Popolan-Vaida is being celebrated for her service to the community in arranging engaging outreach events such as the Chemistry Week events at the Orlando Science Center. Congratulations!
January 8, 2024
Emily Nortmann has been awarded an Undergraduate Research Grant for the Spring 2024 semester from the Office of Undergraduate Research.
December 15, 2023
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and Dr. Vaida’s labs celebrated another successful year at their annual holiday party. We are looking forward to what 2024 will bring!
December 2, 2023
Arden was honored to receive recognition from the Orlando Section of the American Chemical Society as the Outstanding Student at a Research Institution for 2023. Arden is being recognized for her academic excellence in chemistry, dedication to research, and contributions to the community through scientific outreach. Congratulations!
October 21, 2023
Guests from across the Orlando area came to the Orlando Science Center to celebrate National Chemistry Week and learn about the role chemistry plays in keeping us all healthy through fun demonstrations and activities.
October 20, 2023
The members of the Popolan-Vaida lab were delighted to introduce elementary and middle school students to the principles of rocket propulsion at the Fall 2023 UCF STEM Day!
September 6, 2023
Dr. Popolan-Vaida presents our research at the ISSPIC conference in Berlin, Germany.
August 21st, 2023
Congratulations to Emily for being selected to receive the Undergraduate Student Research Grant from the UCF Office of Undergraduate Research!
August 21st, 2023
Welcome Ph.D. student Clarissandra and undergraduates Jonah and Zachary to the Popolan-Vaida research group! We are so excited to work with these brilliant young minds.
July 21st, 2023
Arden presents her research on Criegee intermediate pathways at the UCF Summer Research Showcase as the culmination of her participation in the UCF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
July 21st, 2023
Arden has been chosen by the UCF Office of Undergraduate Research as the Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher for the month of July. Congratulations, Arden!
June 26th, 2023
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her students, Alec and Arden, complete a successful beamtime at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, California.
June 1st-3rd, 2023
Alec and Arden were proud to represent the Popolan-Vaida group at the 2023 ACS Florida Annual Meeting and Exposition (FAME), where they shared their research on the ozone-assisted oxidation of crotonaldehyde and cloud condensation nuclei activity of maleic acid particles.
May 5th, 2023
Congratulations to Chloe and Elaina on the graduation from UCF! We wish them all the best with their future endeavors!
April 20th, 2023
Dr. Popolan-Vaida’s students share their research with aspiring undergraduate researchers for the UCF Intro to Research Event.
March 27-28th, 2023
Arden, Chloe, and Elaina present their research at the 2023 UCF Student Scholar Symposium. Special congratulations to Elaina for receiving the Judge’s Choice Award for Poster Session 2!
May 5th, 2023
Arden gives her first poster presentation at the 2023 NanoFlorida conference and receives the honorable mention for the undergraduate research competition.
December 9th, 2022
Congratulations to Arden for being selected to receive the UCF Office of Undergraduate Research Student Research Grant.
October 22nd, 2022
Dr. Popolan-Vaida’s group organizes demonstrations and hands-on experiments for ACS National Chemistry Week at the Orlando Science Center
October 21st, 2022
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her students give a presentation and hold a hands on demonstration on the topic of combustion and rocket propulsion at UCF’s Fall 2022 STEM Day.
October 18th, 2022
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her students give a lab tour and talk about their research with UCF undergraduate students for the UCF Intro to Research event.
October 10th, 2022
August 29th, 2022
Dr. Popolan-Vaida’s students give a lab tour and presentation on cloud formation for students from the New Image Youth Center in Parramore, Orlando.
August 24th, 2022
Congratulations to Chloe and Elaina for being selected to receive the UCF Office of Undergraduate Research Student Research Grant.
June 13th, 2022
Dr. Popolan-Vaida receives an Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy.
May 7th, 2022
Congratulations to Alec and Giovanni on graduating from UCF!
May 5th, 2022
Congratulations to Alec and Nath who presented their first posters at the American Vacuum Society Conference, Florida Chapter.
April 1st, 2022
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her students give a minilecture on the topic of rocket propulsion and hold demonstrations for guests at the Spring 2022 UCF STEM Day.
February 7th, 2022
Dr. Popolan-Vaida gives an invited talk for the chemistry department of the University of Iowa.
January 28th, 2022
Arden joins Popolan-Vaida’s research group. Welcome, Arden!
November 3rd, 2021
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her group’s recent publication in the Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics journal has been selected as a 2021 HOT Article. The article describes the reaction network of acetaldehyde oxide Criegee intermediate and has as a first author a former UCF Chemistry undergraduate student, Alan Conrad.
October 23rd, 2021
Dr. Popolan-Vaida’s group organizes demonstrations and hands-on experiments for ACS National Chemistry Week at the Orlando Science Center
October 11th, 2021
Chloe joins Popolan-Vaida’s research group. Welcome, Chloe!
September 23rd, 2021
Alec joins Popolan-Vaida’s research group. Welcome, Alec!
August 27th, 2021
Elaina and Giovani join Popolan-Vaida’s research group. Welcome, Elaina and Giovani!
October 25th, 2020
Dr. Popolan-Vaida’s group demonstrates experiments which address the question “Exothermic or endothermic reaction?” at the Fall 2020 UCF STEM Day.
October 25th, 2019
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her group group gives a lecture on the question “How are clouds formed?” and invite visitors to tour the laboratory at the Fall 2019 UCF STEM Day.
October 26th, 2018
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her group group gives a lecture on the question “Atmospheric aerosols: What are they and why are they so important?” and invite visitors to tour the laboratory at the Fall 2018 UCF STEM Day.
August 2nd, 2018
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her group give a laboratory tour at the Industrial Application of Nanotechnology Summer Workshop.
July 24th, 2018
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her group give a minilecture on the topic “Mechanisms of Cloud Formation” followed by hands on activities.
May 14th, 2018
Lindsey and Alan joins Popolan-Vaida’s research group. Welcome, Lindsey and Alan!
May 7th, 2018
Congratulations to Brett who presented his first poster at the American Vacuum Society Conference, Florida Chapter.
April 21st, 2018
Dr. Popolan-Vaida and her group give a lecture on the topic “Mysteries of Cloud Formation” followed by demo experiments at the Knight for a Day UCF Open House
April 10th, 2018
Natasha joins Popolan-Vaida’s research group. Welcome, Natasha!
March 2nd, 2018
Popolan-Vaida’s research group moves into a new building. Our laboratory is located into the newly constructed Research 1 Bldg., Room 264. 
January 9th, 2018
Laura, Jaclyn, and Brett join Popolan-Vaida’s research group. Welcome, Laura, Jaclyn, and Brett!
August 8th, 2017
Denisia joins Chemistry Department at UCF
New Faculty 2017 – College of Sciences
The College of Sciences is excited to introduce 20 new faculty members into nine departments in 2017.