Current Group Members
Suman Chakrabarty
(Graduate Student)
Education:
M.Sc., Christ University, Bangalore, India
B.Sc., St. Joseph’s College (Autonomous), Bangalore, India
Email: suman.chakrabarty@huskers.unl.edu
ORCID: 0000-0002-6611-3839. LinkedIn: (link)
Suman originally hails from the small town of Chakradharpur, in the eastern part of India, where he was born and raised and attended high school. Subsequently he moved to Bangalore, a metropolis in the southern part of India, where he attended institutions for his bacherlor’s and master’s degrees. Suman joined the Takacs group in July 2013, shortly after graduating from Christ University. He is presently working in the phosphonate-directed catalytic asymmetric hydroboration in a two-point binding framework.
Suman’s passions are many and varied. He likes cooking, playing chess and travelling.
Andrew J. Bochat
(Graduate Student)
Education:
B.S. University of Minnesota, Twin Cities - Minneapolis, MN
Contact: andrew.bochat@huskers.unl.edu
LinkedIn: (link)
Andrew is from the township of Hales Corners, Wisconsin - a small suburb of Milwaukee. After receiving his degree 2010, he spent the next several years working for 3M and Pace Analytical. He jointed the Takacs group in 2014. In the Takacs group, Andrew's project involves asymmetric synthesis and catalysis. His favorite pastimes include reading books (he highly recommends George R. R. Martin, author of Game of Thrones), martial arts (jujitsu is his favorite), and camping.
Rukshani Wickrama-Arachchi
Graduate Student
Education:
B.S. University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
M.S. Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL
Contact: rukshani@huskers.unl.edu
Rukshani is from Kegalle (Sri Lanka) and did her bachelor's degree from University of Kelaniya with a major in Chemistry and minors in Botany and Microbiology. She moved to USA in 2015 to pursue her M.S from Eastern Illinois University in the research laboratory of Dr. Hongshan she where she worked on developing BODIPY-based lanthanide complexes for biosensing applications. After completing her M.S., she joined Dr. Takacs' lab in August 2017 and is presently working on directed-catalytic asymmetric hydroboration reactions.
When she is not in the lab, Rukshani enjoys travelling, reading, photography and cooking.