Kenny Calderon-Godinez

Kenny is a rising 3rd year Ph.D student at the University of Pennsylvania who is focusing on the synthesis of photo-induced chemical tools to optically control biological receptors using light. With an emphasis in synthetic organic chemistry, photo-pharmacology, and chemical neuroscience, he aims to develop a wide expertise to better understand the bio-organic mechanisms of the brain and how they induce behavior. Kenny is a FGLI student who is the first in the family to achieve beyond a 2nd grade education. As a non-traditional student, he is driven to transform the frontiers of academia by recruiting, retaining, and mentoring underrepresented students to become strong candidates for graduate school and expert researchers in their respective fields, as shown by his work as president of ADSE@Penn (Alliance for Diversity in Science and Engineering, UPenn’s chapter). He is excited to be working with Cientifico Latino to further support minoritized communities.