Julia Oktawiec, PhD
Julia Oktawiec joined the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University in March 2020 as a postdoc in the group of Prof. Nathan Gianneschi, at the Evanston campus. Her research is focused on designing structural mimics of proteins using polymers for applications as therapeutics, and her work was supported by an NIH NRSA F32 postdoctoral fellowship from 2022 to 2024. She grew up in New York City, getting her bachelor’s degree at Columbia College of Columbia University in 2013, before pursuing her PhD in Chemistry in the lab of Prof. Jeffrey R. Long at the University of California Berkeley. Her graduate work involved developing metal–organic frameworks for air separations, understanding and manipulating allostery in framework materials, and structurally characterizing materials using powder X-ray diffraction.
Since fall of 2023 she has been involved with NUPA, serving on the Professional Development Sub-Committee, and since fall of 2024 has been the Internal Communications Coordinator.