Krista Balto

Krista is fourth year PhD student in the department of Chemistry at UC San Diego. She primarily works with Professor Joshua Figueroa on the synthesis of low valent m-terphenyl isocyanide coordination networks. She also works with the department of nanoengineering through the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, where she focuses on the synthesis of capping reagents (designer ligands) for the mesoscale assembly of inorganic nanocrystals. As an undergraduate, she worked on the synthesis of porous molecular cages under the guidance of Dr. Eric Bloch at the University of Delaware and graduated with honors B.S. in Chemistry in 2019. Krista is honored to be the recipient of the ARCS fellowship, as she has been able to meet many amazing scholars from other areas of the sciences.