Directory

Thuc-Quyen Nguyen

CPOS Director
Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry

3122 Chem
Organic semiconducting materials for molecular electronics and optoelectronic devices.

Zhiyu Bo

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Yang
2022-present

 

Arunavo Chakraborty

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Menard; Co-Advisor: Sepunaru
2019-present

Hongda Chen

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
August 2025 - present

De novo protein design and metalloenzyme engineering.

Christy Du

Undergraduate Student
Nguyen Group
March 2024 - present

Shivshankar Mane

Postdoctoral Researcher
Carlini Group
2023-present

Favorite Molecule: Norborene

Zhongze Qu

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Nguyen
2022-present

Brian Roehrich

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Sepunaru
2019-present

Thanh Vuong

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor:Sepunaru
2022-present

Organic Semiconductors for Bioelectronic Devices and Photodetectors

Chen Ziyi

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
June 2026 - present

Enzyme development for organic synthesis

Mohamed Abdelsalam

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Grace Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

Elif Sila Akbulut

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Carlini Group
2023-present

Omar Alkhairi

Undergraduate Student
Sepunaru Group
2023 - present

Ben Baker

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Grace Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

Guillermo Bazan

Professor Emeritus, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Polymer design, synthesis and processing.

Kyle Brown

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Carlini Group
2023-present

Andrea Carlini

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

The Carlini Group synthesizes structurally dynamic biomaterials, which are integrated into wearable/implantable devices for closed-loop medical surveillance and therapeutic drug delivery.

Alyssa Carlson

Undergraduate Student
Sepunaru Group

Michael Chabinyc

Professor, Materials Department, UCSB

3219 Elings Hall
Organic and inorganic materials for electronic and photonic applications

Subhayan Chakraborty

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

Betty Chen

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Yang
2021-present

Fang Chen

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
October 2025 - present

Conducting protein design, and developing new/non-native reaction in enzyme.

Jeff Chen

Undergraduate Student - UC Irvine
Nguyen Group
June 2026 - present

Xiaowang Chen

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Lab
2024-present

Research focused on catalytic asymmetric synthesis with CO2.

Lida Cheng

Undergraduate Student
Yang Group

Michael Chin

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Yang
2020-present

Phatsathorn Chonlateeroj

Visiting Graduate Student Researcher
Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC), Thailand
Nguyen Group

PSBN 2520C
Development of organic materials for electronic applications, including luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs), OLEDs, and OPVs.

Vincent Conrad

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Grace Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

Connor Davis

Graduate Student, Biomolecular Science and Engineering
Advisor: Sepunaru
2019-present

Haowen Deng

Undergraduate Student
Yang Group

Long Dinh

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
October 2025 - present

Sang Do

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Nguyen
2025- present

Organic Semiconductors, Organic Photodetectors, Shortwave Infrared Photodetectors, Dark Current, Device Physics, and Trap States.

Bethany Emmersen

Undergraduate Student - California State University,
Nguyen Group
May 2026 - present

Xagros Faraji

Undergraduate Student
Sepunaru Group
From: 2023

Ben Fishler

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Carlini Group
2023-present

Charles Giller

Undergraduate Student
Nguyen Group
May 2026- present

Joseph Gott

Undergraduate Student
Sepunaru Group
From: 2023

Maddox Hammaecher

Undergraduate Student
Nguyen Group
April 2025-present

Grace Han

Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry

PSBN 2512A
Light-responsive organic molecules and materials for solar energy storage, recycling valuable chemicals, and sustainable polymer usage.

Alan Heeger

Professor Emeritus

4415 Broida
Semiconducting and metallic polymers with focus on high mobility field effect transistors and low cost “plastic” solar cells.

Qingdong Hu

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
August 2024 - present

Research focused on the development of asymmetric diversity transformations of propargylic alcohol derivatives, facilitating the construction of various chiral compounds and the efficient synthesis of a range of chiral bioactive molecules. 

Wei Huang

Postdoctoral Researcher, Center for Polymers and Organic Solids
Yang Group
2023-present

Research focused on the development of cobalt-catalyzed stereoselective C-C bond forming reactions with unsaturated hydrocarbons.

Rintaro Kaguchi

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
June 2026 - present

Directed evolution of enzymes to discover new-to-nature reactions

Yan-Ting Ke

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
February 2025 - present

Research focused on heterocyclic ncAA synthesis and de novo protein design.

Benjamin Krohn-Hansen Krohn-Hansen

Undergraduate Student
Yang Group
2021 - present

Emmanuel Lanuza

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Nguyen
2021-present

Synthesis of Organic Semiconductors and Conjugated Polyelectrolytes. Molecular Structure relationship to Organic semiconductor devices.

Estelle Lebegue

Visiting Associate Professor Researcher
CEISAM, NANTES UNIVERSITE, FRANCE
Sepunaru Group

Zhiyang Li

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
November 2025 - present

Ken Lin

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Yang
2024-present

Yin-Chen Lin

Graduate Student, Chemical Engineering
Advisor: Sepunaru, Gordon, Morse
2022-present

Sophie Lipkin

Undergraduate Student
Sepunaru Group

An Liu

Postdoctoral Associate
Yang Group
2024-present

Research focused on fluorocarbon chain elongation.

Eric Liu

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Sepunaru
2021-present

Huichong Liu

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Yang
2023 - present

Xuejiao Lyu

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group

Research focused on the synthesis of chiral cyclic acetal and aminal scaffolds by asymmetric organocatalysis.

Alexander A. Mikhailovsky

Optical Characterization Lab Manager, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Chem 3312
Ultrafast optical spectroscopy, scanning probe microscopy, physics of nanostructures.

Emile Morin

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor Carlini
2022-present

Sam Mugiraneza

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Nguyen
2022-present

Nathan Nasseri

Undergraduate Student
Advisor: Carlini
2022-present

Favorite Molecule: beta-alanine

Ashley Nguyen

Undergraduate Student
Advisor: Grace Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

Truc Nguyen

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Nguyen
2025 - present

PSBN 2520C
Project: Polymer-Based MEMS Biosensors for Detection of Volatile Organic Breath Compounds

Elena Nicolae

Business Manager
Center for Polymers & Organic Solids

2520A PSB-North

Miguel Orozco

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Sepunaru
2022-present

Han P. Q. Nguyen

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Grace Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

An Pham

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Carlini Group
2023-present

Sofia Rivalta Popescu

Undergraduate Student
Sepunaru Group

Javier Read de Alaniz

Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Associate Director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)

The goal of our research is to develop robust and efficient synthetic approaches to functional materials, with a focus on the design and development of light-responsive materials and development of new methods to access well-defined polymers and biomaterials.

Silvia Rivera

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Yang Group
2024 - present

Gala Rodriguez

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor:Sepunaru
2023-present

Thomas Rohan

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Yang & Lipshutz
2023-present

Xianle Rong

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
March 2026 - present

Rodger Russell

Undergraduate Student - Jackson State University
Nguyen Group
May 2026 - present

Lior Sepunaru

Assistant Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Chem 1161
Bioelectronics at the nano scale, including the study of enzyme catalysis and development of new generation of biosensors.

Maddie Shehadey

Undergraduate Student
Advisor: Grace Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

Cheng Sheng

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
November 2024 - present

Exploring new-to-nature reactions of Enzymes

Yu Tian

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
November 2025 - present

Rushil Vasant

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Nguyen
2023-present

Yon Visell

Assistant Professor; Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Haptic engineering, robotics, and the mechanics and neuroscience of touch.

Vojtech Vlcek

Assistant Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Chem 4138A
Charge Transport and Charge Recombination; Interfaces in Organic Optoelectronics; Organic Semiconducting & Light Harvesting Materials

Huanan Wang

Postdoctoral Associate
Center for Polymers & Organic Solids
Yang Group
2022-present

Devoted to develop novel biocatalytic strategies to solve the challenging problems in synthetic organic chemistry.

Stephanie Wang

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Sepunaru
2019-present

Nick Watkins

Postdoctoral Researcher, Center for Polymers and Organic Solids
Sepunaru Group
2023-present

Daniel Way

Undergraduate Student
Advisor: Grace Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

Kaden Wheeler

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor:Sepunaru
2023-present

Fred Wudl

Professor Emeritus, Chemistry & Biochemistry

3213 Elings Hall
Organic & Bioorganic; Materials Chemistry; Molecular Design & Synthesis; Devices, Assembly & Nanochemistry

Anderson Emanuel Ximim Gavim

Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher
Sao Carlos Physics Institute, University of Sao Carlos, Brazil
Nguyen Group

Degradation mechanisms and environmental stability in non-fullerene organic solar cells 

Tao Yan

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Yang Group
2025- present

Damon Yang

Undergraduate Student
Nguyen Group
June 2026 - present

Langxuan Yang

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
April 2026 - present

Yang Yang

Assistent Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry

CHEM 1161D, PSBN 2608 (lab)
The Yang laboratory devises novel biocatalytic strategies to tackle challenging problems in synthetic organic chemistry.

Jae Young Kim

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Nguyen
2022-present

Siena Yuan

Undergraduate Student
Advisor: Grace Han
August 2025 - present

PSBN 2520C

Luyu (Nicole) Yue

Undergraduate Student
Nguyen Group
May 2025 - present

Qi Zhang

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
January 2025 - present

Qi's graduate research mainly focused on the development of Cu-catalyzed asymmetric allylation reactions.

Zheng Zhang

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Yang
2023-present

Liupeng Zhao

Postdoctoral Associate
Center for Polymers & Organic Solids
Yang Group
2022-present

Research focused on the development of [2+2+2] cascade cyclization reactions involving indole derivatives

Cangxin Zheng

Postdoctoral Researcher
Yang Group
July 2025 - present

Research focused on carbohydrate chemistry and the development of new methods for stereoselective glycosylation based on glycals.

Jun Zhou

Graduate Student, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Advisor: Yang
2023 - present