Adrienne Chang

"I decided to accept NYU Abu Dhabi over other schools because it offered me flexibility in my studies."

I changed my anticipated major twice before settling on chemistry, and I haven’t regretted it since.

I love chemistry because it strikes a balance between theory and reality.

My current work in computational chemistry is exciting because I can develop new methods and algorithms to study a wide range of biological problems at an atomic resolution. This has huge potential in the future to help with structure-based drug design efforts and can aid experimentalists in their research and analysis.

I am currently working on my Capstone thesis in which I’ve developed a suite of programs to study complex biological processes.

Understanding the structure and dynamics of biological systems at atomic resolution is important in drug development or material design, but this information is difficult to gather both experimentally and computationally. The program pieces together short trajectories to provide a rough representation of the process. We’ve shown that it can be used to study a rapid diffusive process and long timescale, activated conformational transitions.

This program is still being further developed, but our initial results show great promise in its wide applicability to other biological processes.

My favorite professor is Dr. Serdal Kirmizialtin because he has been so patient in teaching me about computational chemistry and always has his door open for any questions I might have.

I want to thank him for introducing me to this field of chemistry, which has opened a lot of opportunities for me post-graduation.

My favorite class was Jazz in New York City that I took during a J-Term with Dr. J Martin Daughtry.

He curated so many great playlists that we listened to around the city, and exposed us to the complex history of jazz. We visited some iconic places, like the Village Vanguard and one of the oldest Speakeasies around – Bill’s Place. His course helped me gain an appreciation for free jazz and the intricacies it involves.

A memorable internship I had at NYUAD was with the European Parliament.

I was under the mentorship of Dr. Cristian Silviu-Busoi who was a prominent member in the ENVI (Environment, Public Health and Food Safety) Committee. During this internship, I was exposed to the different sides of recent topics of contention in public health and environmental safety. This internship was particularly exciting because I was in the European Parliament during the Brexit vote and was sitting just down the hall from the office of Nigel Farage.

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