NOBCChE, Solid State Chem, and Spiderman Shenanigans - a chat with Dr. Isaiah Speight

Dr. Isaiah Speight (he/him) is currently a NIGMS postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Irvine in the lab of Prof. Vy Dong. His postdoctoral work focuses on developing new technologies to enhance peptide synthesis. As a native of the Hampton-Roads area of Virginia, Isaiah earned his B.S. in chemistry in 2016 from Norfolk State University. During this time, he did research with Prof. Olufemi Oyesanya in the area of polymer synthesis, and with Prof. Steven Townsend in advanced carbohydrate synthesis. Isaiah then moved to Nashville, where he completed his Ph.D. in 2021 from Vanderbilt University with Prof. Timothy Hanusa. During his time as a Ph.D. student Isaiah developed new mechanochemical methods for making inorganic and organometallic reagents ranging from calcium complexes and mercury metal organic frameworks to Grignard reagents from fluorinated compounds. In addition to his bench work, Isaiah works very closely with the National Organization for Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers initially serving on the Executive Board as their National Student Representative and currently as their Western Regional Director. In these roles, Isaiah works to continue to create communities for black scientists to thrive in as well as build connections to create new opportunities for these students to be successful in. You can follow Dr. Speight on twitter @IR_SP8. 

Link to NOBCChE's website

Dr. Speight's Favorites 

1.) Favorite Comfort Food: A good burger 

2.) Song to get you hyped: "Super" by Cordae 

3.) What's on Dr. Speight’s watchlist? Restart the new season of Haikyuu, season 2 of Demon Slayer, Hawkeye as the episodes release. 

4.) Favorite Spiderman movie moment? Into the Spider-Verse when Miles finally grows into himself and “what’s up danger” starts playing! 

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Chemistea is a chemistry and science podcast founded by Lucy Yang (she/her), currently a fourth-year undergraduate at UC Irvine, studying chemistry and biological sciences. Some of the most famous scientific collaborations and discoveries were born from a conversation over tea, and on her podcast, Lucy aims to combine her love of talking with her love of sharing and hearing stories—stories about others' passion for science, their journeys, and any and all fun shenanigans in between. You can follow Lucy on twitter @isolucyine. She is also the founder of The Kawaii Chemist, a shop where you can find cute chemistry stickers and merch, where 100% of profit goes to charity. You can check out The Kawaii Chemist here, and you can donate to support Kawaii Chemist and the Chemistea podcast here. Thank you listening!