Group Members

Learn more about our group members below

Past alumni can be found here

Principal Investigator

Monica Olvera de la Cruz

Group Program Assistant

Tiffany Zhang

Research Associate Professor

Felipe Jimenez-Angeles
Polyelectrolyte interfaces

Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr. Jianshe Xia
Polymer coarse grained models

Dr. Leticia Lopez-Flores
Complex electrolytes

Dr. Ahis Shrestha
Continuum membrane models

Dr. Turash Haque Pial
Polyelectrolytes assembly and ionics

Dr. Yao Xiong
Covalent adaptable networks and elasticity

Dr. Aaveg Aggarwal
Active matter

Graduate Students

Ali Ehlen
PhD 2022, Charged proteins and assembly

Hector Manuel Lopez de la Cerda Rios
PhD 2023, Active matter

Dingwen Qian
PhD 2023, Dynamics in dielectric confinement

Han Umana Kossio
PhD 2024, Protein-like polymers for therapeutics
(Co-advised with Prof. Nathan Gianneschi)


Zehao Song
PhD 2025, Soft robotic materials

Nicholas Pogharian
PhD 2026, Electric fields in soft materials

Brandon Onusaitis
PhD 2027, Iontronics

Annie Gomez
PhD 2027, Bacterial microcompartments
(Co-advised with Prof Danielle Tullman-Ercek)


Matthew Farnese
PhD 2027, Active matter

Antara Sen
PhD 2027, Soft robotics

Sullivan Fitz


Isaac Smith


Undergraduate Intern

Tomomi Kawaguchi
Solvent extraction