Graduate Students

Students working on EPSCoR grant:

Bichler photoKarin Bichler

Student of Gerald Schneider

Karin joined the PhD program in Physics at Louisiana State University in spring 2017 and studies the structure of polymers in solution. Ms. Bichler has conducted small angle neutron scattering experiments at NIST (Gaithersburg, MD) and ANSTO (Sydney, Australia) as well as NMR measurements in Darmstadt (Germany).

 


Chapai photoRamakanta Chapai

Student of Rongying Jin

Rama is a PhD student in Physics at Louisiana State University. He is assisting Dr. Jin with hard matter experiments and has conducted experiments at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, FL.

 

photo of Natalia da Silva MouraNatalia da Silva Moura

Student of James Dorman

Natalia is a PhD student in Chemical Engineering at Louisiana State University. Her research involves synthesizing and functionalizing iron oxide nanoparticles in spherical, cubic, and hexagonal shape. She has analyzed catalytic properties under induction heating over different time frames, ranging from 5 to 50 minutes, as well as catalytic properties under conventional thermal heating. Natalia visited ORNL for neutron scattering measurements and presented and received a research award at the American Chemical Society Spring 2018 meeting.

 

MelJudith De Mel

Student of Gerald Schneider

Judith is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Louisiana State University under the guidance of Dr. Gerald Schneider. Her research interests are materials and macromolecular chemistry.

 

 

photo: du

Pu Du

Student of Revati Kumar

Pu Du is a chemistry PhD student at Louisiana State University. His research focus is the computational study of novel polymer systems, specifically polypeptoids. Charged polypeptoids are synthetic pseudopeptides, similar to polypeptides, but lacking sterogenic centers. They show great potential in biomedical applications such as drug delivery. Pu uses computational tools to investigate the effect of charge-charge interactions on the structure and dynamics of polyelectrolytes. This involves both atomistic and coarse-grained simulations to study the polymer chain, micelle formation as well as aggregation in aqueous solutions. 

 

huberStefan Huber

Student of Gerald Schneider

Stefan is a PhD candidate in Physics at Louisiana State University. He is assisting Dr. Schneider with setting up the soft matter experiment laboratory and conducting neutron spin echo experiments. 

 

                                         In Chul Hwang

                                         Student of Steve Rick

                                         In Chul is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at the University of New Orleans. His research involves carrying out simulations of a
                                         variety of peptoids and   analyzing the results to determine which factors promote aggregation versus solubility.
 

                                         Naeyma Islam

                                        Student of Steve Rick

                                        Naeyma is a graduate student in Chemistry at the University of New Orleans. She is involved in the simulation of poly-acetic acid polymers and the development
                                        of constant-pH methods. Ms. Islam has done thorough testing of the coarse-grained models to validate them as well as testing of constant-pH algorithms
                                        developed in the lab, which allows for rapid sampling of protonation states.
 

Jakobl.jpgBruno Jakobi

Student of Gerald Schneider

Bruno is a PhD candidate in Chemistry at Louisiana State University. He is assisting Dr. Schneider with the soft matter experiment laboratory and conducts small angle neutron scattering experiments at NIST (Gaithersburg, MD) and ANSTO (Sydney, Australia).

 

  

peterPeter Kei

Student of Evgueni Nesterov

B.S. Chemistry, Bridgewater State University
Peter develops new synthetic approaches for the preparation of fluorescent organic core-shell nanoparticles and works to expand our understanding of energy transfer in these types of systems. These polymer dots contain a central fluorescent near-infrared core covalently bound to a conjugated polymer shell and show strong intra-particle excitation energy transfer. Characterization of these hierarchically built systems by means of neutron scattering will afford information about how structural organization is affected by the preparation conditions and its influence on the photophysical properties of these particles, while providing valuable information about energy transfer that can help develop better functioning optoelectronic materials.

 

photo of Yingzhen MaYingzhen Ma

Student of Bhuvnesh Bharti

Yingzhen is a PhD student in Chemical Engineering at Louisiana State University. He is currently working with Dr. Bharti on soft matter self-assembly in hard matter confinement.

 

 

 

photo of Madalynn MarshallMadalynn Marshall

Student of Weiwei Xie

Madalynn is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Louisiana State University. She works with Professor Xie on tuning chemical pressure to synthesize new phases.

 

 

                                         Ly Ngo

                                        Student of Gerald Schneider

                                         Ly is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at Louisiana State University. Ly works with Professor Schneider on the synthesis of liposomes.
                                         


arzhana Omarova Student of Vijay John Marzhana is a student of Dr. Vijay John and is pursuing a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Tulane University. She is researching soft matter synthesis and neutron scattering.Marzhana Omarova

Student of Vijay John

Marzhana is a student of Dr. Vijay John and is pursuing a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Tulane University. She is researching soft matter synthesis and neutron scattering.

 

 

photo of Rasangi PereraRasangi Perera

Student of Gerald Schneider

Rasangi is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Louisiana State University. Ms. Perera researches the structure and dynamics of polymers in solution.

 

 


garrett.jpgGarrett Sternhagen

Student of Donghui Zhang

Garrett is a PhD student in Chemistry at Louisiana State University. He works on the investigation of the effect of charge-charge interaction in the micellar structure and dynamics using the sequence-defined peptoid amphiphile model (Direct 2). Garrett has been working on the synthesis of sequence-defined peptoid amphiphiles and their polymeric analogs and characterizing their solution morphologies by TEM and DLS. He will also travel to SNS to conduct neutron scattering experiments on these micelle solutions.

 
photo Kevin Igor TsengamKevin Igor Mkam Tsengam

Student of Vijay John

Kevin is a PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Tulane University. His areas of research are soft matter synthesis and          neutron scattering.
 
                                       


LeeuwenChristopher Van Leeuwen

Student of Gerald Schneider

Christopher is a PhD student in the Chemistry Department at Louisiana State University. He is assisting Dr. Schneider with the soft matter experiment laboratory.

 

 

                                       Chun-Han Wang

                                       Student of Evgueni Nesterov

                                       Chun-Han is a PhD student in the Chemistry Department at Louisiana State University. He has participated in photophysical experiments on chromophoric
                                       systems for energy transfer in micellar systems, as well as in hierarchically built conjugated polymer systems.
            

                                       Tianyi Yu

                                       Student of Donghui Zhang

                                       Tianyi is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Louisiana State University. Tianyi has synthesized and characterized the hydrophobically modified polypeptoids (HMPs)
                                       to be used in the SANS study of interactions and structural evolution of liposome with HMPs through a collaboration with Dr. Vijay John (Tulane).
 
    Former Graduate Students

 Undergraduate Students

 

                                       Claire Boudreaux

                                       Student of James Dorman

                                       Claire Boudreaux is pursuing a degree in chemical engineering at Louisiana State University.

 

                                       Joshua Kearney 

                                       Student of Steve Rick

                                       Joshua Kearney is pursuing a degree in chemistry at the University of New Orleans.

 


KoenigPaul Koenig

Student of Evgueni Nesterov

Paul Koenig is a 4th year undergraduate student, pursuing a degree in chemistry. Working with PhD candidate Carlos Chavez, Paul is responsible for the collection of solvatochromic and temperature-dependent spectroscopic data for a series of environmentally-responsive fluorescent semi-conducting polymers. Neutron scattering experiments were used to study the morphologies of these polymers in thin films.

 

                                       Joseph Mai

                                       Student of Evgueni Nesterov

                                       Joseph Mai is pursuing a degree in chemistry at Louisiana State University.

 

photo of YeRim NohYeRim Noh

Student of Gerald Schneider

YeRim is pursuing a degree in chemistry at Louisiana State University.

 

 

 

                                       Hunter Simonson 

                                       Student of James Dorman

                                       Hunter is pursuing a degree in chemical engineering  at Louisiana State University.

 

Former Undergraduate Students

adams

Samantha Adams

Student of Vijay John

Samantha received a Bachelor’s in chemical engineering from Tulane University in 2017. Her research focuses on preparation of magnetically functionalized liposomes.

 

 

BinnsMatthew Binns

Student of Gerald Schneider

Matthew is earning a bachelor of science in chemistry at Louisiana State University. He is assisting in setting up Dr. Schneider’s laboratory and researching experimental soft matter.
 
 
 

 JesscisJessica Hebert

Student of John DiTusa

Jessica received a bachelor of science in physics at Louisiana State University. Her research involves synthesis and characterization of ScFeGe, a non-centrosymmetric antiferromagnet, as well as neutron diffraction of polycrystalline samples.

 

  

TullyJoshua Tully

Student of Yuri Lvov

Joshua Tully studies bio and nano-technology under Yuri Lvov at Louisiana Tech. A native of Bossier City, Joshua has traveled the world with his military family and has lived in seven different states and in Germany. His hobby is computer programming. He will graduate in May 2016 and plans on finding a job that will let him pursue his Master’s degree.

 

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