Olvera de la Cruz Group

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Former Graduate Students

• Prof. A. M. Mayes, PhD February 1991, "A Study of Transition to Periodic Structures in Block Copolymer Melts", (Deceased. "She was the first woman tenured and promoted to full professor in Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and, in recognition of her excellence in teaching, she was named a MacVicar Fellow in 2001. She supervised sixteen Ph.D. candidates, seven M.S. degrees, and a host of UROPs") Obituary
• Prof. D. Gersappe, PhD April 1992, "Statistics and Dynamics of Polymers in Topologically Restricted Environments", (Now, Associate Professor, Dept. Materials Science, SUNY at Stony Brook, NY.)
• Dr. E. O. Shaffer, MS June 1988, "The Dynamics of Gel Electrophoresis" (Now, Dow Chemical, Midland MI)
• Prof. Cheng-heng Kao, MS June 1990, "Micelle Formation in Copolymer-Homopolymer Blends" (Now, Professor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, National Central Taiwan University)
• Dr. A. S. Mendelsohn, PhD, July 1994, "Investigation of Correlations in Polymer Melts, Blends, and Semi-dilute Solutions by Fluorescence Nonradiative Energy Transfer Techniques" (co-advised with Prof. J. M. Torkelson)
• Dr. A. Nesarikar, PhD (Chemical Eng.) September 1994, "Thermodynamics and Kinetics of Liquid-liquid Phase Separation in Random Copolymers" (co-advised with Prof. B. Crist) (Now, at Mobil E&P Technical Center, Dallas TX.)
• Dr. B. W. Swift, PhD December 1995, "Statistics and Dynamics of Random Copolymers in Solutions by Monte Carlo Simulation" (Now, Developer, Swiss Bank, Chicago IL)
• Prof. C. I. Huang, PhD June 1996, "Studies of Phase Separation Dynamics and Interfaces in Ternary Systems" (Now, Associate Professor, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan)
• Prof. K. Mahdi, PhD December 2000, "Phase Diagrams of Polyelectrolyte Solutions" (Now, an Assistant Professor, Kuwait University)
• Dr. K. Smith, PhD February 2003, "Dynamics of Drops and Fluid Interfaces-A Level set Study" (Now, Senior Programmer, Doordash Engineering)
• Prof. H. Cheng, PhD December 2005, "Polyelectrolyte Adsorption and Self-Assembly on Charged Surfaces" (Now, Associate Professor, Drexel University)
• Dr. M. Lefebvre, PhD June 2006, "Effects of Sequence Distribution and Specific Interactions on the Ordering and Interfacial Behavior of Copolymers"
• Prof. S. Loverde, PhD June 2007, "Theory and Simulation of Polymer and Polyelectrolyte Self-Assembly" (Now, Associate Professor, City College New York)
• Dr. K. Kohlstedt, PhD June 2009, "The Formation of Chiral Nanopatterns on Low-Dimensional Ionic Assemblies Via Electrostatic Interactions" (co-advised with Prof. George Schatz) (Now, Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern University)
• Dr. M. Greenfield, PhD June 2009, "Modulating the forces between self-assembling molecules to control the shape of vesicles and the mechanics and alignment of nanofiber networks" (January 2010, McKinsey Consulting Partner)
• Mr. M. Anderson, MA June 2010, "Gel formation in charged telechelics in poor solvent studied by replica exchange Monte Carlo simulations" (co-advised with Prof. M. Ratner and Prof. I. Szleifer)
• Prof. P. Guo, MS April 2011, "Self-Assembly of pH responsive nano-particles" (Now, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University)
• Prof. Prateek Kumar Jha, PhD May 2012, "Mesoscopic simulations of gels, nanogels, and nanoparticle Assemblies: Competing interactions and dynamics" (Associate Professor, IIT Roorkee, India).
• Dr. Matthew Demers, PhD August 2012, "Curvature-driven Pattern Formation in Multicomponent Membranes" (Now, Lecturer, Harvard University).
• Dr. Doris M. Grillo, PhD 2013, Protein Adsorption Studies (co-advised, Igal Szleifer) (Now, Analytical Consultant, JPMorgan Chase)
• Dr. Ting Li, PhD 2014, Simulations of polyvalent nucleic acid-functionalized nanoparticles (Now, Data Scientist, Jump Trading LLC)
• Dr. Joshua Dempster, PhD 2016, Self Replication (Now, Data Scientist, Broad Institute, Boston)
• Dr. Yufei Jing, PhD 2016, Dynamics of Charged Nanoparticles at Interfaces (Now, Wells Fargo, New York)
• Dr. Shuangping Liu, PhD 2017, Elasticity of Heterogeneous Nanogels (Now, Software Engineer, Google)
• Mr. Dongxu Huang, MS 2018, Supercapacitors (co-advised with Prof. Samuel Stupp), (Now, Software Engineer, Devo, Boston)
• Dr. Saijie Pan, PhD 2018, Charged Membranes and Electrostatics (Now, Teacher, Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School)
• Dr. Ha-Kyung Kwon, PhD May 2018, Charged-Neutral Copolymer Organization (Now, Materials Scientist, Toyota Research Institute)
• Dr. Martin Girard, PhD July 2019, DNA-Functionalized Nanoparticles (Now, Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, in Mainz, Germany) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Honghao Li, PhD Aug 2018, Ion Transfer in Heterogeneous Media (Now, Software Engineer, Google)
• Dr. Boran Ma, PhD 2019, Polymer Blends (Now, Assistant Professor, University of Southern Mississippi)
• Dr. Yaohua Li, PhD 2021, Ion-Mediated Nanoparticle Assembly (Now, Research engineer specializing in Alkali-metal batteries, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China) [PhD Thesis]
• Brian Damerau, MA.
• Dr. Hang Yuan, PhD 2022, Magnetoelastic Membranes (Now, Staff Scientist, Huawei Technologies, Shenzen, China) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Aaveg Aggarwal, PhD 2022, Control of Soft Active Materials [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Debadutta Prusty, PhD 2022, Non-van der Waals interactions in soft matter thermodynamics: From bulk phase behavior to absorption in polymer brushes (Now, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California Riverside) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Chase Austyn Brisbois, PhD 2022, Phases and Actuation of Superparamagnetic Soft Matter (Now, Senior Staff Modeling and Simulation Scientist, SciTec Inc) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Jeremy Wang, PhD 2023, Charged Polymers and Membranes (Now, NRC Research Associateship Program) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Curt Waltmann, PhD 2023, Protein Assembly (Now, CCTCh Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, UChicago) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Joseph McCourt, PhD 2023, Amphiphiles (co-advised with Prof. Michael Bedzyk) (Now, Postdoctoral Fellow, Argonne National Laboratory) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Yange Lin, PhD 2023, Protein self-assembly (Now, Research Engineer, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, China) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Ali Ehlen, PhD 2024, Charged proteins and assembly (Now, Energy Markets Modeler, Pattern Energy) [PhD Thesis]
• Dr. Dingwen Qian, PhD 2024, Dynamics in dielectric confinement (Now, Postdoctoral Researcher, UT Austin) [PhD Thesis]

Former Postdocs, Research Associates, and Visitors

• Dr. Janette Jones, Nov 1990-Dec 1991, Weak Crystallization (Now, Manager, Unilever, UK)
• Prof. Kevin Bassler, Dec 1990-Aug 1992, Copolymers (Now, Professor, Physics Department, University of Houston)
• Prof. Pedro Gonzalez-Mozuelos, Sep 1992-Nov 1994, Polyelectrolytes (Now, Professor, Physics Department, CINVESTAV, Mexico)
• Prof. Francisco Solis, Oct 1996-Aug 2000, Colloids and Polymer Mixtures (Now, Associate Professor, State University of Arizona West)
• Prof. Katsuyo Thorton, Dec 1997-Mar 1998, Phase Separation in Multicomponent Fluids (Now, Associate Professor, Materials Science Department, University of Michigan)
• Dr. Alexander Ermoshkin, Nov 2001-Dec 2003, Charged Gels (Now, CTO and co-founder of Carbon)
• Dr. Min Sum Yeom, Aug 2001-Jul 2003, Simulations of Complex Macromolecules (Now, National Center for Supercomputers, Korea)
• Dr. Alexander Kudlay, Oct 2002-Apr 2005, Gelation of Charged Systems, (Now, Research Associate, Chemistry Department, Maryland University)
• Dr. Yuri Velichko, Oct 2003-Jul 2007, Peptide Amphiphiles, (Now, Senior Research Associate, Chemistry Department, Northwestern University)
• Prof. Hongxia Guo, Mar 2004-Dec 2005, Block Copolymer Instabilities (Now, Professor, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China)
• Prof. Graziano Vernizzi, Sep 2005-Aug 2010, Cationic-Anionic Vesicles and RNA Folding (Now, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics &Astronomy, SIENA College)
• Dr. William Kung, Sep 2006-Nov 2010, Ionic Liquid Interfaces (Now, Director of Operations, Materials Research Center, Northwestern University)
• Dr. Dongsheng Zhang, Feb 2007-May 2010, Properties of Metal and Alloys using Embedded Atom Method Potentials (Now, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Dallas, Texas)
• Prof. Kuo-An Wu, Mar 2010-Dec 2010, Functional Materials (Now, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan)
• Dr. Konstantine Popov, Dec 2009-Nov 2010, Non-Equilibrium Self-Assembly (Now, Research Associate Professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, and Director of Computational Biophysics, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill)
• Dr. Sumanth Swaminathan, Dec 2009-Feb 2012 Non-Equilibrium Self-Assembly (Now, Technology Consultant, WL Gore & Associates)
• Dr. Azita Parsaeian, 2010-Aug 2012, Bacterial Chromosomes,
• Prof. Rastko Sknepnek, 2009-Aug 2012, Functionalized Nanoparticles and Membranes (Now, Assistant Professor, University of Dundee, Scotland)
• Dr. Chloe Funkhouser, Lamin Meshworks (Now, Principal Engineer, Baxter, Round Lake IL)
• Dr. Subas Dhakal, Liquid Crystalline Shells (Now, Postdoctoral Fellow, Syracuse University)
• Prof. Srikanth Patala, Jul 2011-Aug 2013, Metallic nanoparticles (Now, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University)
• Dr. Gabriel Longo, Self-regulated ionic gels (co-advised with Prof. Igal Szleifer) (Now, Researcher, Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physical Chemistry Research, La Plata, Argentina)
• Dr. Creighton Thomas, Oct 2011-Aug 2013, Ionic Membranes (Now, Software Engineer, Google, New York)
• Prof. Rui Zhang, Sept 2011-Sept 2013, Dynamics of Charged Colloids (Now, Assistant Professor, South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology (AISMST); South China University of Technology (SCUT), China)
• Dr. Arjan Quist, Sept 2011-Oct 2013, Research Coordinator (Now, Invention Associate, Innovation and New Ventures Northwestern University)
• Prof. Charles Sing, 2012-2014, Charged Polymer Systems (International Institute for Nanotechnology Fellowship) (Now, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
• Prof. Vikram Jadho, Assistant Professor in the Department of Intelligent Systems and Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington.
• Prof. Guillermo Ivan Guerrero, 2009-2015, Molecular Electrolytes (Now, CONACYT Researcher, University of San Luis Potosí, México)
• Prof. Kevin Kohlstedt, 2011-2015, Properties of Polyvalent Nucleic Acid Nanostructures (co-advised with Prof. George Schatz) (Now, Research Professor in Chemistry, Northwestern University)
• Dr. Niels Boon, 2013-2015 (Now, Postdoctoral Researcher, Lund University, Sweden)
• Prof. Jiaye Su, 2014-2015 (Now, Professor, Department of Applied Physics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China)
• Prof. Jos Zwanikken, 2009-2015 (Now, Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Lowell)
• Prof. Zhenwei Yao, 2012-2015 (Now, Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute of Natural Sciences and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)
• Prof. Pablo Vazquez Montejo, 2016-2017 (Now, Research Associate, Faculty of Mathematics at the Autonomous University of Yucatan, Mexico)
• Prof. Mykola Tasinkevych, 2016-2017 (Now, Assistant Professor, Center for Theoretical and Computational Physics at the University of Lisbon, Portugal)
• Dr. Kyle Hoffmann, 2015-2017 (Now, Dupont Pioneer)
• Dr. Meng Shen, 2015-2018 (Now, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, California State University, Fullerton)
• Prof. Aykut Erbas, 2014-2018 (Now, Assistant Professor, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey)
• Dr. Victor Pryamitsyn, 2015-2018 (Now, Scientist, Global Science & Technology, Inc. and Contractor, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
• Dr. Jaime Andres Millan, 2014-2018 (Now, Data Scientist, Thrive Market)
• Dr. Anisha Shakya (Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow), 2018-2019, Protein and Nucleic Acid Assembly
• Dr. Wei Li, 2018-2019, Polyelectrolytes (Now, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Tennessee)
• Dr. Yuba Dahal, 2017-2019 (Now, Joint Postdoctoral Researcher, NIST and the University of Chicago)
• Dr. Annalisa Cardellini (Visting Postdoctoral Fellow), 2019-2020 (Now, Postdoctoral Researcher, Politecnico di Torino)
• Dr. Debarshee Bagchi, 2018-2020 (Now, Postdoctoral fellow, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, (ICTS-TIFR), Bangalore, India)
• Prof. Daniel Matoz-Fernandez, 2019-2021 (Now, Assistant Professor, Institute of Theoretical Physics at Warsaw University, Poland)
• Dr. Yihao Liang, 2018-2021 (Now, Research Engineer specializing in Alkali-metal batteries, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China)
• Dr. Siyu Li, Protein Membranes, 2019-2021 (Now, Assistant Professor, Cal Poly Pomona)
• Dr. Dulce Maria Valencia, 2018-2021, Lipid Membranes
• Dr. Trung Nguyen, 2016-2018 Research Associate and 2018-2021 Research Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Computational Soft-Matter Physics (As of 2022, Computational Scientist- Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago)
• Daniel Alejandro Olaya-Muñoz, Continuum Electrostatics 2022 (Now, Assistant Professor, Universidad EIA, Medellin, Colombia)
• Dr. Abhiram Reddy, 2021-2022 (Now, Software Research Scientist, Intel Corporation)
• Prof. Baofu Qiao, Sept. 2011-2014 & Dec 2017-August 2022 (Now, Assistant Professor, Baruch College, CUNY)
• Dr. Eleftherios Kirkinis, Oct 2021-Oct 2023, Soft Matter Physics and Fluid Dynamics
• Dr. Turash Haque Pial, Aug 2022-Feb 2024, Polyelectrolytes Assembly and Ionics (Now, Postdoctoral scholar, Johns Hopkins University)
• Dr. Jianshe Xia, Dec 2021-Apr 2024, Polymer Coarse-Grained Models (Now, Postdoctoral scholar, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
• Dr. Aaveg Aggarwal, Sep 2022-May 2024, Active Matter