Summer 2024 Series: #AnnotatedChemistry One

The vocabulary of chemistry can be formidable, like speaking another language in a barely-known dialect in a little-traveled region of a distant country.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the titles of chemistry papers published in leading journals: Exciton polaron formation and hot-carrier relaxation in rigid Dion-Jacobson-type two-dimensional perovskites, and also Diamond surface functionalization via visible light-driven C-H activation for nanoscale quantum sensing are two that spring to mind. We thought a graphic treatment might demystify some of what we do here at Frick Laboratory.

Today, we introduce a summer series called #AnnotatedChemistry highlighting recent papers out of Princeton Chemistry as illustrated by the exuberant pen of Clotilde Tagnon, a third-year graduate student in the Stache Lab.

The series will feature several annotations, starting with Nature Chemistry research published in May by the Michael Hecht Lab: “Selection of a promiscuous minimalist cAMP phosphodiesterase from a library of de novo designed proteins.” Enjoy.

Tagnon earned their B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. They have several years of fine arts training and are a self-taught digital artist, proficient across a range of illustration and 3-D modeling software. Tagnon hopes to continue combining their scientific understanding and artistic ability to increase science awareness and engagement.

To download a high-resolution version of this illustration, click here.

For the full Hecht Lab journal paper, click here.