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Susan Citrak
Assistant Professor of Chemistry/Student Research Coordinator
Office
Jewett Science Center 222
Phone
605-626-2419

Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz

B.Sc.  Mills College

 

Dr. Susan Citrak joined the faculty at Northern in 2020. She grew up in the northern California Bay area and spent 26 years in San Francisco before moving to Aberdeen. She earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Mills College in Oakland, Calif., and then went on to the University of California, Santa Cruz, for doctoral work. At Mills College, she conducted undergraduate research in physical organic chemistry studying unimolecular solvolysis reactions involving carbocationic intermediates in ionic liquid solvent systems. During her tenure at UCSC, she moved into inorganic materials chemistry and studied the exchange capabilities, structure, stability and anion properties of metal-organic coordination polymers, as well as ionothermal synthesis of metal-substituted aluminophosphate molecular sieves for potential use in catalysis.

 

Dr. Citrak has particular interest in and passion for environmental remediation, and believes inorganic materials can play a key role in this endeavor. Outside of the lab and the classroom, Dr. Citrak is a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a novice but excited gardener, fisherwoman, and video game enthusiast. She moved to Aberdeen with her wonderfully supportive husband, Joshua, and two energetic boys, Francis and Dashiell.

 

Courses Taught
CHEM 112/114  General chemistry
CHEM 452  Inorganic chemistry
CHEM 434  Instrumental chemistry

 

Selected Publications and Presentations

  1. Susan C. Citrak, Beatriz Ehlke, Stacey I. Zones, Dan Xie, Son-Jong Hwang, and Scott R. J. Oliver“MAPO-5 Molecular Sieves from Alkylimidazolium Bromide Ionic Liquids” Publication pending
  2. Susan C. Citrak, Kareem Bdeir, Kevin Delgado-Cunningham, Derek Popple, and Scott R. J. Oliver. “On the exchange capability of cationic silver 4,4’-bipyridine materials for potential water remediation: structure, stability and anion exchange properties” Inorganic Chemistry, 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.9b00115
  3. Susan C. Citrak, Derek Popple, Kevin Delgado-Cunningham, Katharine Tabler, Kareem Bdeir, Allen G. Oliver, Peter B. Kvam, and Scott R. J. Oliver. “Extremely Rapid Uptake of Perchlorate with Release of an Environmentally Benign Anion: Silver Bipyridine Acetate” Crystal Growth & Design, 2018, 18 (3), pp 1891-1895
  4. Susan C. Citrak, Beatriz Ehlke, Andrew Ichimura, Stacey I. Zones, and Scott R. J. Oliver. Ionic liquids for the synthesis of metal aluminophosphate-based catalysts. Oral presentation at the American Chemical Society National Meeting (April 2017)
  5. Kevin M. Sergo, Cari S. Han, Marc R. Bresler, Susan C. Citrak, Yashar Abdollahian, Honghan Fei, and Scott R. J. Oliver. “Erbium Hydroxide Ethanedisulfonate: A Cationic Layered Material with Organic Anion Exchange Capability.” Inorganic Chemistry, 2015, 54 (8), pp 3883–3888
  6. Elizabeth D. Kochly, Susan Citrak, Nelius Gathondu, and Gabriella Amberchan “Effect of ionic liquids in unimolecular solvolysis reactions involving carbocationic intermediates.” Tetrahedron Letters, 2014, 55 (52), pp 7181-7185
  7. Susan Citrak, Elizabeth D. Kochly, Nelius Gathondu. Effect of ionic liquids in unimolecular solvolysis reactions involving carbocationic intermediates. Oral presentation at the American Chemical Society Northern California Undergraduate research symposium (2013)