Lubna Amer

Lubna is a first-year Ph.D. student in the department of Materials Science and Engineering at UC San Diego where she is simultaneously earning an M.S. degree. Advised by Professor Jesse Jokerst, she is currently working on the development of photoacoustic-fluorescent imaging probes for medical applications. Lubna is also investigating alternative uses, recyclability, and colorimetric-based detection methods of fungi microorganisms. Prior to beginning her graduate program, she earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Krista Balto

Krista is second-year graduate student in the department of Chemistry at UC San Diego. She works with Professor Joshua Figueroa on the synthesis of low valent m-terphenyl isocyanide coordination networks. Her specific project 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.

Amanda Chen

Amanda is a Ph.D. student of Chemical Engineering program at the department of NanoEngineering at UC San Diego. Her research is centering on analyzing the molecular properties and thermodynamic properties via both quantum calculations and molecular dynamic simulations. Current works include analyzing the forcefield parameters of various molecules, the adsorption capacities of small molecules in metal-organic frameworks, and the thermodynamic properties of adsorbates/adsorbents. With the understanding of the practical inter- and intramolecular forces of a system, the research team is able to design an efficiently experimental procedure in the real world.

Alexandria Do (IRG1 Trainee Leadership Council Representative)

Dong Le 

Dong is a first-year Ph.D. student in Professor Alex Fraño’s XLab in the Department of Physics at UC San Diego. She received her B.S. in NanoEngineering with a minor in Physics from UC San Diego in 2020. Dong is studying nonequilibrium dynamics in classical systems, such as assembly dynamics of solid-state nanocrystals and of genetically modified proteins in polymer networks. As a part of the Fraño group, she learns about different X-ray characterization techniques including scattering (both elastic and inelastic) and correlation to study dynamics of various material systems at the nano- to mesoscale.

Kangkai Liang

Kangkai is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Materials Science and Engineering program track at UC San Diego. He received his B.S in Physics at Sichuan University in 2020. He joined Prof. Shaowei Li's lab to develop scanning tunneling microscopy with the femtosecond laser. Kangkai's current research focuses on two-dimensional materials and molecular chirality.

Po-An Lin

Po-An Lin is a first-year Ph.D. student in Professor Gaurav Arya’s lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University. Po-An received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. His current research focus on applying machine learning on molecular simulation to predict the assembly behavior of polymeric nanoparticles.

Anthony U. Mu

Anthony is a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Zheng Chen's group in the Department of NanoEngineering at UC San Diego. His current research focuses on the development of metal-organic framework-based ionic conductors for batteries. He received his B.S. in Chemistry from Texas A&M University, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry under the tutelage of Professor Lei Fang. His dissertation work focused on controlling the conformation of π-conjugated organic molecules using hydrogen-bond interactions. He enjoys spending time with family, traveling, hiking, and gymnastics in his free time.

Yui Na

Yui is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Chemical Biology program track at UC San Diego. Yui received her B.S in Pharmacological Chemistry at UC San Diego in 2019. She joined Professor Akif Tezcan’s lab to learn about protein self-assembly and to develop protein-based functional materials. Her current research focuses on polymer infused protein crystals.

Baharak Sayahpour

Baharak is a Ph.D. student in Materials Science and Engineering department at UC San Diego. She received her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from University of Tehran and her M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) with a research background in 2D materials synthesis and characterization. She is currently working on controlled-synthesis and advanced characterizations of energy storage materials for high energy density battery materials.

Gabriella Stark

Gabriella started as an M.S. Student in the UC San Diego Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, with a concentration in inorganic chemistry in 2021, and she transitioned to the PhD program in Summer, 2022. She received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where her undergraduate research focused on folding-based DNA biosensors. Prior to joining UC San Diego, Gabriella worked in the Drug Delivery Division at 3M. She was a participant in the 2021 Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology (SSSiN), one of the UC San Diego MRSEC RIMSE research immersion programs, and then acted as a Senior Mentor in the 2022 SSSiN. Her thesis interests focus on loading and delivery of nucleic acid-based therapeutics using porous silicon nanoparticles.

Bin Wang

Bin Wang received his PhD from UC Davis, where he worked with Prof Alexandra Navrotsky on the thermodynamics of halide perovskite systems. As a MRSEC postdoc fellow with Prof Andrea Tao, his current research focuses on designing/programming energy landscape for self-assembling shaped nanocrystals.

Yufei Wang

Yufei received her BS in Chemistry at Davidson College, North Carolina. Her research focuses on synthesis and self-assembly of inorganic nanocrystals.

Hang Yin

Hang is a Ph.D. student in Professor Alina Schimpf's lab at UC San Diego, where he works on incorporating ligands onto 2D tungsten dichalcogenide nanocrystal surfaces. Hang received his B.S. in Chemistry and in Physics from UCLA.

Pedram Abbasi

Pedram is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Nanoengineering at UC San Diego co-advised by Prof. Pascal and Prof. Fenning.  Prior to joining UC San Diego, he received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Illinois. His current research is focused on combining first principle modeling and experimental synthesis and characterization of ultra-thin perovskite films with application for catalysis and advanced electronics.

Rourav Basak

Rourav is a third-year Ph.D. student in Professor Alex Fraño’s XLab in the Department of Physics at UC San Diego. Rourav is interested in order, defects, and excitations in strongly interacting systems.  Before joining UC San Diego, he earned his M.S. in Applied Physics from New York University, where he pursued such interests in Prof. L. A. Wray’s lab. Presently he is studying strongly interacting quantum systems, such as nickelates and cuprates, and strongly interacting classical systems, such as self-assembled nanoparticles in polymers and macro-molecular crystals in polymer networks. As a member of Xlab, Rourav uses various x-ray spectroscopy, microscopy, scattering (both elastic and inelastic) and correlation techniques to probe nanoscale and mesoscale systems.

Liya Bi

Li-Ya is a Ph.D. student of the Materials Science and Engineering Program. He currently works with Professor Shaowei Li on the statics and dynamics of single molecules on the metal surface with the Laser-Coupled STM.

Safak Callioglu

Safak is a Ph.D. student in Prof. Gaurav Arya’s lab in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University. He received his B.S. degree in Physics and Electrical & Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University in Turkey. His current research focus on the use of computational approaches such as molecular dynamics simulations, machine learning to explore intriguing physics in the self-assembly of nanoparticles.

William Chan

William is an undergraduate student at UC San Diego (class of 2025), who began in the lab as a participant in the 2022 UCSD MRSEC RIMSE program, "Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology". He is currently pursuing a degree in Chemical Engineering with a specialization in material science and environmental engineering. Outside of the laboratory, he enjoys mountain biking, hiking, and surfing.

Han Chi

Han is an undergraduate Chemistry major at UC San Diego (class of 2024), who was introduced to the lab as a participant in the 2022 Spring Break RIMSE research introduction program, then continued as a participant in the 2022 UCSD MRSEC RIMSE program, "Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology". She is interested in exploring applications of photonic crystals and other optical nanostructures.

Victor Cortez

Victor is an undergraduate Chemical Engineering major at UC San Diego (class of 2023), who was introduced to the lab as a participant in the 2021 Spring Break RIMSE research introduction program, then continued as a participant in the 2021 and 2022 UCSD MRSEC RIMSE program, "Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology". He is exploring surface chemistry of porous photonic crystals and other optical nanostructures.

Ruhan Fan

Ruhan Fan is a PhD student in the UCSD Department of Nanoengineering (NENG) who joined the Sailor lab in March 2018. Prior to joining, she received a BS degree in Pharmacy from Zhengzhou University (ZZU), China, where she studied drug delivery systems. She has been a participant (2018) and a Senior Mentor in the Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology. Ruhan's project focus is on porous nanoparticle drug delivery systems for treatment of bacterial infections and cancer.

Alex Fuqua

Alex Fuqua is an incoming PhD student at UC San Diego in the Nanoengineering department. He will be in Dr. Andrea Tao's group. He graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's Degree in Materials Engineering June 2021. He is interested in self assembly of inorganic nanocrystals.

Yubin Huang

Yubin is an MS student in the Materials Science and Engineering program at UC San Diego. He completed his undergraduate studies at UC Santa Barbara, where he studied porous silicon carbide materials for catalyst immobilization with Prof. Galen Stucky. Before he joined the Sailor Group in 2020, he worked for a local biosensor company to develop minimally invasive enzymatic continuous glucose monitoring sensors (CGMs) for diabetic patients. His research at the company included enzyme stabilization, polymer coating, and in-vitro data analysis. He became a member of the Sailor group in October 2020, at the same time he participated in the 2020 Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology (SSSiN). His thesis focuses on porous silicon nano materials for enzyme immobilization.

Dowon Kim

Dowon Kim is a combined MS/PhD graduate student at the UNIST School of Energy and Chemical Engineering in the Republic of Korea, under the direction of Prof. Jiseok Lee. He completed undergraduate studies in the same department. His MS/PhD project involves diacetylene-based colorimetric chemosensors and structurally colored organogels formed by dithering mask lithograpy. He is visiting our labs from July 2021 until July 2022.

Dong Ju Lee

Yi-Sheng Lu

Yi-Sheng "Eason" Lu is a PhD student in the Materials Science and Engineering program at UC San Diego. He earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, where his undergraduate thesis focused on magnetic-responsive iron oxide nano-spheres for deep tumor therapy. He was a participant in the 2018 Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology (SSSiN) and served as a Senior Mentor in the 2019 and 2021 SSSiN. His thesis interests focus on remote sensing and catalysis with porous silicon photonic crystals

Wade Shipley

Yu Xie

Yu received his B.S. from ShanghaiTech University. He joined Professor Andrea Tao's research group in the Fall of 2019 as a graduate student in Nanoengineering. With the interest in self-assembly, he now focuses on the interfacial self-assembly of inorganic nanoparticles. He works to design the surface chemistry of nanoparticles, which affects the interaction between nanoparticles and the surrounding environment, to modulate the self-assembly patterns or even to get new materials.

Qinglin Yang

Qinglin began her PhD studies in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at UCSD in Summer 2017. Her undergraduate research at UIUC with Professor John A. Rogers involved flexible and stretchable structures and electronic devices. She performed graduate research at Stanford with Professor Debbie G. Senesky focused on GaN-based devices that can operate in harsh environments before transferring to UC San Deigo. She began her work in the Sailor labs as a participant in the 2017 Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology (SSSiN) and she served as a Senior Mentor in the 2018 and 2019 SSSiN. Her thesis focuses on porous silicon nanoparticles for delivery of therapeutics for bacterial infections, opthalmic diseases, and cancer.

Zhiying (Iris) Zhang

Iris received her B.S. in Chemistry from Zhejiang University, China, in 2018. She is a third-year graduate student in Professor Akif Tezcan’s lab at UC San Diego, and her research is focusing on protein self-assembly at interfaces.

Arthur Ziming Zhou

Arthur is an undergraduate (class of 2023) Nanoengineering student at UC San Diego. He participated remotely in the 2021 Spring Break Undergraduate Research Experience (a "mini RIMSE" program of the UC San Diego MRSEC), and in the 2021 Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology (SSSiN), one of the UC San Diego MRSEC RIMSE research immersion programs. He is interested in exploring the uses of silicon nanoparticles as encapsulants for catalytic systems.

Qingyi Zhu

Qingyi is a first-year M.S student in Chemistry. She received her Chemistry B.S at UC San Diego. She joined Shaowei Li's group in Fall, 2021.