Graduate Student Spotlight: Hanna Moon

Originally from Masan, South Korea, Hanna Moon is currently in her third year with Professor Alex Radosevich‘s group. Her research is aimed at developing alcohol deoxygenation catalyzed by structurally distorted tricoordinate phosphorus compounds. She has focused on studying P–H thermochemistry of O–H oxidative addition products with current systems in the group. Hanna is also working on advancing these into tbp geometry enforcer, and designing new type of nontrigonal tricoordinate phosphorus compounds suitable for the desired transformations. Her goal is that her work will ultimately provide strategies to design main group catalysis. As the subject of November 2018’s Graduate Student Spotlight, Hanna reveals the uncommon food combination she enjoys, the movie she can watch on a loop, her favorite city in the world, and more!

1. How did you decide to do the work you are doing now?
   I have been always interested in structure and bonding, and found that Alex’s lab would be a great place to examine structure and bonding of main group compounds. I expected learning creative approaches manipulating frontier molecular oribitals of p-block elements, and I am learning a lot, but appreciating the beauty of d orbitals at the same time.
2. If you had a personal flag, what would be on it?
   An eagle and a lion
3. What weird food combinations do you really enjoy?
   Fish jerky + mayonnaise.
4. What movie can you watch over and over without ever getting sick of it?
   About Time.
5. In ancient Egypt, people were buried with the items they would need in the afterlife – what would you want buried with you so you could use it in the afterlife?
   My iPhone with all photos, video, and diary.
6. What is the most unsettling movie or TV show you’ve ever seen?
   Get Out.
7. What is special about the place you grew up?
   All kinds of seafood are very cheap, particularly Korean style sashimi. I miss it so much.
8. What brand are you most loyal to?
   Jo Malone.
9. Would you rather have a flying carpet or a car that can drive underwater?
   Flying carpet.
10. If you received a salary to follow whatever passion you wanted to, what would you do?
    Travel journalist+photographer using pseudonym.
11. What toy played the biggest part in your childhood, and why?
    Dough and sand, making anything and a mess, and I keep doing this with a variety of chemicals.
12. What TV show or movie do you refuse to watch?
    Horror movies, particularly exorcism things.
13. What is your favorite book of all time?
    Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber.
14. Which is your favorite city in the world?
    Barcelona!
15. Who are three of your favorite fictional characters?
    Sherlock Holmes, Carrie Bradshaw, Olaf.
16. What food is delicious, but a pain to eat?
    Spicy chicken noodle (Korean food). It is literally painful but certain a stress reliever.
17. If magic was real, what spell would you try to learn first?
    Teleport. No more 16+hour flights to Korea.
18. What movie, picture, or video always makes you laugh no matter how often you watch it?
    Legendary Collections of Cultwo Show (Korean radio program).
19. What outdoor activity haven’t you tried, but would like to?
    Rock climbing.
20. What movie universe would be the worst to live out your life in?
    A Quiet Place. I would be killed instantly….

Many thanks to Hanna for these thoughtful answers! Stay tuned for more Graduate Student Spotlights in the months to come.