Curriculum Vitae

Education and Research Experience

Research Associate
Stupp Group at Northwestern University
Center for regenerative Nanomedicine		Chicago/Evanston, IL
April 2024-May 2025
Postdoctoral Fellow
Stupp Group at Northwestern University
Area: Supramolecular Chemistry and BioNanotechnology
Simpson Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology
Prof. Samuel I. Stupp, Advisor		Chicago/Evanston, IL
July 2022-April 2024
Ph.D. in Chemistry, The Ohio State University
Chemistry Graduate Program
Prof. Jovica D. Badjić, Advisor		 Columbus, OH
April 2022
BS, University of Belgrade – Faculty of Chemistry
Chemistry, Reasearch and Development
Prof. Dragana R. Milić, Thesis Advisor
Belgrade, Serbia
Oct. 2013- July 2017

Teaching experience

Northwestern University
Invited guest lecturer of Prof. Samuel I. Stupp
1. Supramolecular Design of Materials and Nanostructures
Material Science and Engineering 395/495
Chemistry 307/407 (graduate-level course for chemists and material scientists)

2. Synthetic Design of New Materials
Material Science and Engineering 336
(undergraduate-level course for chemists and material scientists)		Evanston, IL
Fall Quarter 2023



Spring Quarter 2023
Northwestern University (NU)
Trained undergraduate students in independent research through the Stupp Lab as part of a research study course at Northwestern University. Students developed grant proposals for summer and academic-year research, secured travel funding for conferences, and contributed to Stupp Lab quarterly reports. Additionally, I assisted Stupp lab graduate students with selecting NMR approaches to probe the hypotheses related to their material’s structuring and dynamicity and how it might be connected to functional performance. 		Evanston/Chicago, IL
2022-present
The Ohio State University
NMR Graduate Teaching Assistant,
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Dr. Tanya L. Whitmer, Advisor		2018 – 2020
4 semesters
The Ohio State University
Prof. Christopher Callam
CHEM 2540 – Organic Chemistry Laboratory I		2017-2018
2 semesters
The Ohio State University (OSU)
Mentored Xiuze Wang over 3.5 years. He has multiple published works with me from the Badjic group, including one leading author paper. He is now in a PhD program in chemistry at John Hopkins University.		Columbus, OH
2017-2022
Faculty of Chemistry – University of Belgrade (FCUB)
As a senior undergraduate researcher in Prof. Dragana Milic’s lab, I assisted in training two junior undergraduate research fellows. Helped establish a collaboration with scientist from the Ohio State University, which resulted in a publication in J. Org. Chem. 		Belgrade, Serbia
2013-2017
Petnica Science Center
Student Associate, Department of Chemistry
As an undergraduate student associate, I taught lectures, guided theoretical problem-solving, and trained high school students in laboratory techniques. These seminars aimed to develop their independence and research-oriented thinking, enabling them to conduct their projects.		Valjevo, Serbia
2013-2016

Awards and honors

  • Presidential Fellowship, The Ohio State University, 2021
  • Excellence in Chemistry, The Ohio State University, 2017
  • Undergraduate Student Fellowship, Ministry of Education, Republic of Serbia, 2013-2017
  • Young Talents Award, Donation of the Czech Republic, 2011-2012
  • Gifted High School Students Fellowship, Ministry of Education, Republic of Serbia, 2009-2013

Scholarly meetings and presentation

  • Pavlovic, R.Z.; Syrgiannis, Z.; Hansen, A. L.; Conroy, D.; Wang, S.; Waudby, C. A.; Synatschke, C.; Graf, R.; Stupp, S. I. NMR Structural Dynamics of Bioactive Supramolecular Assemblies based on Peptide Amphiphiles. Poster presentation at “Peptide Materials” Gordon Research Conference, January 2023, Galveston, Texas USA.
  • Pavlovic, R.Z.; Wang, X.; Finnegan,T. J., Moore,C. E., Badjić, J. D. Chiral Molecular Tripods: Enantioselective Synthesis of a New Class of Functional Hosts from β-Pinene. Poster at the 32nd International Symposium on Chirality, July 2022, Chicago, Illinois USA. Best poster award.
  • Pavlovic, R.Z. Conformational Selection and Induced Fit in Abiotic Systems. Oral presentation at American Chemical Society Spring Meeting: “Bonding through Chemistry”, March 2022, San Diego, California USA.
  • Pavlović, R.Z. Understanding the Action of Abiotic Hosts through NMR Analysis of Supramolecular Interactions, Oral presentation at Chemistry Divisional Seminars, December 2021, Columbus, Ohio USA.
  • Pavlović, R.Z. Syntheses of Molecular Baskets. Oral presentation at the David J. Hart Symposium, Columbus, Ohio USA, October 2021.
  • Pavlović, R.Z. From Selection to Instruction Mechanisms during Molecular Recognition via Fluxional Abiotic Hosts.Oral presentation at Chemical Systems Meeting, NanoGe, March 22-23, 2021. Virtual Online Conference. 
  • Pavlović, R.Z. Water soluble molecular baskets for on-demand delivery and/or removal of organic molecules using light.Oral presentation at Just Another (Chemistry) Webinar Series (JAWSChem), March 9, 2021.
  • Pavlović, R.Z.; Hansen, A.L.; Lalisse, R.F.; Güney, M.; Lei, ZQ.; Hadad, C.M.; Badjić, J.D. Guest-Responsive Binding of Twisted Capsule and Role of C—H···Cl/Br—C Forces. Poster presentation at the 15th International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry, Sydney, Australia, August 2020. Virtual Online Conference. 
  • Pavlović, R.Z. Constricting the Conformational Landscape of Flexible Molecules. Oral presentation at the David J. Hart Symposium, Columbus, OH, October 2019.
  • Pavlović, R.Z. Light Responsive Molecular Baskets. Oral presentation at the David J. Hart Symposium, Columbus, OH, October 2018.
  • Pavlović, R.Z.; Bjelaković, M.S.; Milić, D.R. Hydrogen bond-assembled fullerosteroidal and disteroidal [2]roataxanes: Solvent-induced shuttling and/or dissociation. Poster presentation at the Third Conference of Young Chemists of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia, October 2015.
  • Pavlović, R.Z.; Rodić, M; Šmit, B. Synthesis of angularly fused (homo)triquinane type hydantoins as precursors of bicyclic α-prolines. Poster presentation at the Third Conference of Young Chemists of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia, October 2015.

Languages

  • English (Fluent)
  • Serbian (Native Language); Bosnian, Croatian.                                      

References

  • Jovica D. Badjić, Ph.D. Full Professor, OSU (614) 247-8342 [email protected] (PhD adviser)
  • Christopher M. Hadad, Ph.D. Full Professor, OSU (614) 688-3141 [email protected]
  • T. V. RajanBabu, Ph.D. Arts and Science Distinguished Professor, OSU (614) 688-3543 [email protected]
  • Samuel I. Stupp, Ph.D., Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, Medicine, and Biomedical Engineering, and Director of Center for Regenerative Nanomedicine at Northwestern Universit: [email protected] (PostDoc adviser).

Skills

Academic Expertise

  • Project leadership and management
  • Establishing and managing collaborations (intra- and interinstitutional, national, and international)
  • Preparing and delivering lectures and scientific presentations
  • Scientific and grant writing (manuscripts, proposals, recommendation letters)

Technical Skills

Synthetic Chemistry

  • Reaction development and multistep synthesis (nanogram to hundred-gram scale)
  • Handling deuterium-labeled substrates for stereochemistry and mechanistic studies
  • Expertise in moisture- and oxygen-sensitive reactions (Glove Box, Schlenk line)
  • Experience with gas substrates (H₂, O₂, CH₄) and hazardous compounds
  • Peptide synthesis (solid-phase, manual, and automated)

Purification & Characterization

  • Techniques: TLC, flash and dry-flash chromatography, GC, GC-MS, HPLC, SEC, lyophilization, extraction, filtration, sublimation, recrystallization, and distillation
  • Analytical methods: HRMS, IR, UV-Vis, ITC, fluorescence, DLS, TEM

NMR Spectroscopy

  • Solution NMR: Multinuclear (¹H, ²H, ¹¹B, ¹³C, ¹⁵N, ¹⁹F, ³¹P, 23Na, 39K, ⁷⁷Se, ¹¹⁹Sn), variable temperature (-96 to 100 °C), pseudo-2D (CEST, DOSY, T1, T2), 2D & 3D experiments (COSY, TOCSY, NOESY, ROESY, HSQC, HMBC, 3D NOESYHSQC), water suppression, H/D exchange, and real-time kinetics monitoring.
  • Semi-Solid & Solid-State NMR: HRMAS and CPMAS, pulse sequence optimization, structural and dynamic analysis at atomic, molecular, and supramolecular resolution.

Additional Contributions

  • Instrument maintenance and training (NMR, IR, ITC, fluorimeter, glove box)
  • Scientific communication: manuscript preparation, grant writing, and mentoring
  • Social media and outreach: managed Badjić Lab website and Twitter

Software

  • Microsoft Office
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • ChemDraw Professional
  • Topspin
  • Dynamic Center
  • MestreNova
  • Mendeley
  • SciFinder
  • NanoAnalyze
  • AFFINImeter
  • Origin
  • ReactLab Equilibria
  • Mercury
  • Olex
  • Chimera
  • MS DataAnalysis