Julia Danischewski, according to advisor, Jake Shelley, is a “really exceptional graduate student in all aspects: academics, research, teaching, outreach, and service.” A deep dive into her accomplishments confirms this in each area.
Julia’s lab is focused on the development of novel technology for chemical analysis. They explore ways to interact with different chemical species in order to provide useful information to scientists and nonscientists. She uses sound waves to move ions. Although this may seem like something more useful in the lab than everyday life, incorporating this research into new devices could help make for shorter lines at the airport, better food quality at grocery stores, or even quicker medical diagnostic tests. The most interesting part of this project is that even though you can't see ions or hear the frequency of sound that moves them, we're still able to observe this unique interaction using scientific instrumentation.
Julia’s academic journey began at the well-respected Skidmore college where she majored in Chemistry and German and minored in Physics. She jumped right into a lab and began synthesizing silver nanoparticles in her freshman year. She participated in several other projects and continued in the lab through graduation. Julia analyzed heritage art pieces at a local museum and earned a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship at the National Institute for Standards and Technology, where she learned new methods to synthesize charged polycarbonates and assessed their ability to bind to proteins, focusing on potential applications as hydrogels for drug delivery. Julia developed a love for working with instrumentation and understanding how scientific measurements are made. Based on her excellent academic record and research experiences, she was offered a Rensselaer Graduate Fellowship. She became the first of Dr. Shelley’s advisees to secure a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Beyond her work in using sound waves to move ions, Julia has delved into a number of other projects, including developing/testing surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates, and direct detection of fluorinated ski waxes. Each time she jumped into the literature, learned the relevant techniques, and quickly transitioned into laboratory work. Dr. Shelley says, “It usually takes years to develop that acumen for tackling new projects/problems.” Additionally, Julia excels at teaching these concepts to others and received the 2025 Dr. Johanna Maas Chemistry Teaching Assistant Award. Her ability to communicate goes well beyond the classroom and lab; she has 4 publications, two patent applications, and has given 23 conference presentations, 2 of which were invited. Her dedication to the profession is unsurpassed. She has been very active in growing and sustaining the New York Capital Region Student Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (NYCR SAS) co-managed by RPI and SUNY-Albany. As an Executive Committee member, she initiated a regional symposium that features 20+ student presenters each year. The group was recognized with the 2023 Poehlman Award for most outstanding SAS section, an award that almost never goes to a student section. This year she was selected to be the co- student representative for the SAS.
Recently Julia worked with team members Professor Shelley and Carlos Nogales-Herrera to earn a $20,000 Bala Prize for best business pitch at the RPI Incubator Showcase. She also earned the 2024 Slezak Memorial Fellowship and the 2024 American Society for Mass Spectrometry Graduate Student Award. She spent the summer of 2025 in Berlin, Germany on a DAAD Research Grant, working to expand the possibilities of sound waves for gas-phase synthetic chemistry. Julia earned the prestigious Agilent/ACS Analytical Graduate Fellowship to support her during the 2025-26 academic year. Post-graduation, she anticipates managing her own academic research laboratory.
During her free time, Julia loves baking for her lab mates, making lots of cakes and tarts to share in the office.
