People
Gomez Group, March 2023
Left to right from back: Masoud Ghasemi, Ivy Asuo, Juchen Zhang, Po-Yu Chen, Joshua Del Mundo, Stephen Wong, Enrique Gomez, Haley Young, Po-Hao Lai, Andre van der Vlies, Michael Geitner, Sara Daryoush, Kaitlyn Brickey, Mohammed Aldahdooh, Louis Kirkley, Noura Rayes, Puja Agarwala, Ashley Masucci, Agatha O'Connell, Sarah Sheffield, Yi-Chen Lan, Christine LaPorte Mahajan, James Sutjianto
Principal Investigator
Assistant Research Professor
Ivy M. Asuo
Ph.D. in Energy and Materials Science, INRS-EMT, QC, Canada
MSc. in Functionalized Advanced Materials Engineering, Erasmus Mundus Master Program, France & Germany
MSc. in Materials Science and Engineering, AUST, Nigeria
BSc. in Physics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Halide perovskites for photovoltaic and optoelectronic devices
Post-Docs
Masoud Ghasemi
Ph.D. Physics, North Carolina State University (NCSU)
Structural and Chemical Characterization of Functional Materials using Transmission Electron Microscopy and Mass Spectrometry
CV (pdf)
Graduate Students
Mohammed Aldahdooh
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemistry
M.S. Chemistry, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia
B.S. Chemistry, Al-Azhar University
Molecular design of donor-acceptor for organic optoelectronics
Kaitlyn Brickey (co-advised by Andrew Zydney)
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical Engineering
B.S. Biomedical Engineering, University of Arkansas
Electron tomography of virus filtration and protein ultrafiltration membranes
Sara Daryoush (co-advised by Ralph Colby)
Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering
M.S. Material Science and Engineering, University of Tehran
B.S Material Science and Engineering, University of Tehran
Flow-induced instabilities in aromatic-based polymers
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical Engineering
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Penn State
Morphological characterization of reverse osmosis and nanofiltration membranes
CV (pdf)
Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering
B.S. Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
B.A. Plan II, The University of Texas at Austin
Sustainability of organic electronic devices
CV (pdf)
Shelby Hall (co-advised by Esther Gomez)
Ph.D. Student in Chemical Engineering
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Penn State University
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical Engineering
M.S. Chemical Engineering, National Tsing Hua University
B.S. Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, National Tsing Hua University
Upcycling Plastic Waste into Polymer/Ceramic Composites via Cold-Sintering and Exploring the Mechanical-Morphological Nexus with Machine Learning
CV (pdf)
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical Engineering
M.S. Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University
B.S. Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University
Promoting sustainability through control of polymer architecture
CV (pdf)
Christine L. Mahajan (co-advised by Scott Milner)
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical Engineering
M.S. Chemical Engineering, University at Buffalo
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University at Buffalo
B.S. Chemistry, SUNY Fredonia
The nature of bulk heterojunction interfaces in organic photovoltaics
Agatha O'Connell
Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering
B.S. Materials Science and Engineering, Alfred University
Transmission electron microscopy of reverse osmosis water filtration membranes and conjugated polymer morphologies
Noura Rayes
Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Rhode Island
Improving the Efficiency and Sustainability of Organic Solar Cell Devices
K M Nazmus Sakib (co-advised by Esther Gomez)
Ph.D. Student in Chemical Engineering
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Structural Characterization of Plant Cell Wall by X-Ray Scattering Techniques for Biomaterials and Energy Applications
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemical Engineering
B.S.E. Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University (Certificate in Sustainable Energy)
Synthesis of novel molecules and polymers for organic solar cells
Haley Young
Ph.D. Candidate in Chemistry
B.S. Chemistry, Elizabethtown College
Surface initiation of conductive polymers from inorganic hybrid nanoparticles
Juchen Zhang (co-advised by Dr. Hongtao Sun)
Ph.D. Candidate in Industrial Engineering
M.S. Material Science and Engineering, Cornell University
B.S. Material Science and Engineering, Peking University
Cold sintering of electrodes in lithium-ion batteries
Lab Alumni
Burcu Dursun (post doc) - Design of experiments to optimize organic photovoltaic performance
Guoyan Zhang (post doc) - New functional polymer and organic materials/composites for organic electronics and solid electrolytes
Oskar Siemianowski (post doc)- Bridging the Gap: Combining Genetic Perturbation, Advanced Microscopy, and Scattering to Uncover the Relationships Between Cellulose Synthesis, Cellulose Structure, and Wall Organization, now at the University of Warsaw
Ge Qu (post doc)- Advanced characterization of liquid crystalline conjugated polymers, now at Applied Materials
Wonho Lee (post doc) - Ceramic-polymer composites for lithium solid ion conductors, now at Kumoh National Institute of Technology
Youngmin Lee (post doc ) - High Performance Organic Photovoltaics from Fully Conjugated Block Copolymers, now at New Mexico Tech
Christopher Lyon (post doc) - Ceramic-polymer composites for lithium solid ion conductors, now at Vantage
Sean Nuñez (post doc) - New synthetic designs for organic polymers with applications in thin-film transistors, now at Sartomer
Yuexiao Shen (post doc) - Bio-inspired membranes for energy-efficient desalination, now at Texas Tech
Gopal Mor (post doc) - Contact doping for organic photovoltaics, now at First Solar
Puja Agarwala (PhD)- Atomistic and coarse-grained simulations of semiconducting polymer interfaces, now at Dow
Joshua Del Mundo (PhD)- Advanced X-ray scattering of plant cell walls, now at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Sarah Sheffield (PhD)- Characterization of Organic Semiconductors and Polymer Dielectrics in Organic Transistors for Applications in Bioelectronics, now at Northrop Grumman
Ashley Masucci (PhD)- Bottlebrush conjugated polymers for bioelectronics, now at ExxonMobil
James Sutjianto (PhD)- Development of Multifunctional and Recyclable Organic Thin-Film Transistors for Wearable and Sustainable Organic Electronics, now at DuPont
Zixuan Guo (PhD)- Epitaxial growth of organic single-crystalline heterojunctions on graphene, now at Lam Research
Ryan Fair (PhD)- Correlating the relationships between nanoscale polymer properties and macroscopic behavior, now at Axalta
Abigail Fenton (PhD)- Studying molecular structure and mechanical property relationships of conjugated polymers, now at 3M
Shreya Shetty (PhD)- Predicting chain conformations, entanglements, and liquid crystalline phases of conjugated polymers, now at Zenfold Sustainable Technologies
Alperen Ayhan (PhD)- High-performance multi-component organic solar cells, now at Saras Micro Devices
Sang Yoo (PhD)- Structure-property relationships in flexible electronic devices based on conducting polymers and metal oxides, now at Intel
Sintu Rongpipi (PhD)- Resonant soft X-ray scattering on biological systems, now at Lam Research
Brooke Kuei (PhD) - Pushing the resolution limits for imaging conjugated polymers in the transmission electron microscope, now at PPG
Tyler Culp (PhD) - Advanced characterization of polyamide thin-films for reverse osmosis membranes, now at Dow
Joshua Litofsky (PhD) - Reading between the lamellae: Elucidating block copolymer morphology using polarized resonant soft X-ray scattering, now at Olympus
Renxuan Xie (PhD) - Connecting fundamental properties of conjugated polymers to mechanical performance in stretchable electronics, now at Arizona State University
Dan Ye (PhD) - Structural characterization of biological assemblies using advanced X-ray scattering techniques, now at Dow
Melissa Aplan (PhD) - Conjugated block copolymers as model systems to examine mechanisms of charge and energy transfer in organic materials, now at Dow
Wenlin Zhang (PhD) - Predicting molecular properties and phase behaviors for conjugated polymers, now at Dartmouth
Brandon Smith (PhD) - Enhanced charge transport in polymer thin-film transistors through structural and morphological optimization, now at Micron Technologies
Thinh Le (PhD) - Pathway towards high performance organic photovoltaics: contact doping and morphology control, now at Intel
Jwala Adhikari (PhD) - Role of interfacial, static and dynamic disorder on high performance organic field-effect transistors, now at Intel
Changhe Guo (PhD) - Conjugated block copolymers: A building block for high-performance organic photovoltaics, now at Lam Research
Sameer Vajjala Kesava (PhD) - Examining and controlling the morphology in the active layer of organic photovoltaic devices
Kiarash Vakhshouri (PhD) - Charge transport through inhomogeneous polymeric materials, now at Apple
Dustin Veazey (MS) - Carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites for high temperature, high performance applications
Wei-ting Ma (MS) - Organic molecules for printable electronics, now at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
Derek Kozub (MS) - Structural characterization and control of the active layer in organic solar cells, now at Saint-Gobain
Hao Kuang (MS) - Computationally-guided design of block copolymers for solar cells
Benjamin Ferko (BS)
Hunter Miller (BS)
Aaron Thomas (BS)
Adebola Adepoju (BS) - The effects of PCBM, ICBA, and annealing on the performance of P3HT deposited on organic solar cells
Emily Buckingham (BS) - Synthesis of Bottlebrush Polymers with Conjugated Backbones and Nonconjugated Sidechains for Improved Solubility
Nicholas Caggiano (BS) - Effect of Molecular Weight on the Glass Transition Temperature of Conjugated Polymers
Nabeel Dahod (BS) - Molecular Simulation of Perylene Diimide Crystal Structural for Morphology Characterization in Organic Photovoltaics
James Farbo (BS) - Performance optimization of inverted organic photovoltaic cells
Bryce Edmondson (BS) - Device performance of poly(3-hexylthiophene)/fullerene solar cells is limited by electron transport
Grant Elledge (BS) - Quantum characterization of polymers of interest for applications as organic photovoltaics
Michael Gill (BS) - Synthesis of Conjugated Polymers via Random Copolymerization to Investigate Thermal Properties
Taesup Lee (BS) - Multicomponent organic thin film transistors
Hunter Miller (BS) - Implementing Strategies to Optimize C8-BTBT Thin-Film Transistor Performance
Mario Palarino (BS) - Comparing the device performance of solar cells based on polymers mixed with fullerene, polymer blends, and block copolymers
Anthony Romero (BS) - The Recyclability of Lithium Lanthanum Zirconium Oxide Solid-State Composite Electrolyte via Cold Sintering
Curtis Silveria (BS) - Optical Properties of Conjugated Polymers in Solution
Bryan Smith (BS) - Characterization of Chain Alignment at Buried Interfaces using Variable-Angle Spectroscopic Mueller Matrix Ellipsometry
Seth Thomas (BS) - A Study of Charge Mobilities in Annealed Poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) Thin Film Transistors and Optimization of Zone Annealing
Sarah Tohran (BS) - Indene-fullerene bisadduct in organic photovoltaics
John Veiszlemlein (BS) - Block copolymer substrate for controlling cellular fate and function in mammalian tissue cultures
Bryan Williams (BS) - Lithium salt doping organic photovoltaics
Matt Witman (BS) - Conjugated block copolymers in organic photovoltaics
Megumi Woltermann (BS) - Contact doping for organic photovoltaics
Shijia Zhou (BS) - Bilayer solar cells as model devices to examine photovoltaic capacity of organic semiconductors