Hi, my name is Jordie Compton. I am a rising third year Organic student in the Molander lab. I am originally from Homewood IL, just outside of Chicago, and attended Grinnell College, a tiny liberal arts school in rural Iowa, for undergrad where I did research focused on the development of a mixed metal oxide semiconductor material for the formation of a storable chemical fuel from sunlight. Between my junior and senior years I participated in a REU at the University of Kansas working on Pd-catalyzed decarboxylative cross coupling reactions and absolutely loved it – Rock Chalk!-. At Penn my research focuses on using photocatalyzed radical-polar crossover transformations to access challenging motifs.
At Penn I am on the Board of Directors for ACES (Activities for Community Education in Science), am a member of WIC-PAC (Women in Chemistry Professional Advancement Committee), and have volunteered for Penn Nano-Bio Interface Center event for high school students. One of my favorite volunteer activities through Penn has been participating in the annual Philly Science Festival at Penn’s landing and teaching kids how cool chemistry can be!
I live in West Philly with my cat Rory (Gilmore Girls inspired) and my awesome roommate Shirley. I have a passion for the arts and I spend most of my free time drawing or painting; I’ve found some great places in Philly for artistic inspiration and have even attended some local figure drawing sessions. I even like incorporating chemistry into my art! (art website: jordiecompton.weebly.com) Beyond that, I’m a major foodie and love to try new restaurants and cook at home as well.