People

Current Members:

Principal Investigator

• Jianjun Wei, Ph.D., Professor of Nanoscience, j_wei@uncg.edu

Postdoctoral Associate

• Panesun Tukur, PhD, pjtukur@uncg.edu

Current Graduate Students

• Bukola Adesanmi (fall 2021 -, co-advising with Dr. Sherine Obare), PhD student, boadesanmi@uncg.edu 

• Lane Webster (fall 2022 -), PhD student, tlwebster@uncg.edu

• Chenhao Tang (fall 2023 -), PhD student, c_tang4@uncg.edu

• Dan Yang (spring 2024 -), MS student, d_yang4@uncg.edu

• Sherif Bukari (fall 2024 -), PhD student, sdbukari@uncg.edu 

• Kavindu Kankanige (summer 2025 -), PhD student, KPRAJAPAKSH@uncg.edu

• Ravi Boddeti, (fall 2025 -), PhD student, RKBODDETI@uncg.edu 

• Luqman Ibrahim, (fall 2025 -), PhD student, L_IBRAHIM@uncg.edu

• Laxmi Odari, (fall 2025 -), PhD student, LPODARI@uncg.edu

September 2021

Back: Alireza Rahimi,  Jacob Coscarelly, Frank Tukur

Middle: Raphael Ayivi, Panesun Tukur, Mengxin Liu, Bukola Adesanmi

Front: Jianjun Wei, Naghmeh Aboualigaledari, Mahsa Azami, Anitha Jayapalan, (Anu Anele, not in)

August 2019

Back: Zuowei Ji, Bhawna Bagra, Durga Arvapalli, Anitha Jayapalan, Ziyu Yin, Mahsa Azami, Xinping Zeng 

Front: Kokougan Allado, Mengxin Liu, Jianjun Wei, Alex Sheardy, Frank Tukur

August 2018

Back: Anitha Jayapalan, Harish Chevva, Zuowe Ji, Mengxin Liu, Xinping Zeng, Jianjun Wei, Durga Arvapalli, Ziyu Yin, Bhawna Bagra 

Front: Kokougan Allado, Alex Sheardy, Taylor Mabe, (Wendi Zhang, not shown) 

August 2017

Back: Zheng Zeng, Yiyang Liu, Kokougan Allado Yawovi, Alex Sheardy, (Taylor Mabe not shown)

Front: Jianjun Wei, Harish Chevva, Ziyu Yin, Wendy Zhang, Durga M Arvapalli, Bhawna Bagra, Zuowei Ji

June 2016

Back: Taylor Mabe, Zheng Zeng, Yiyang Liu, Alex Sheardy,

Front: Durga M. Arvapalli, Wendy Zhang, Harish Chevva

September 2015

Back: Zheng Zeng, Wendy Zhang, Alex Sheardy, Ashutosh Shah, Harish Chevva

Front: Yiyang Liu, Jianjun Wei, Taylor Mabe

March 2014

Jianjun Wei, Niley Doshi, Yiyang Liu, Jay Wilhelmi

Alumni

Students

• Panesun Tukur, PhD in Nanoscience (May 2025), Postdoctoral Associate at UNCG

• Raphael Ayivi, PhD in Nanoscience (May 2025), Scientist, McCormick & Company

• Naghmeh Aboualigaledari, PhD in Nanoscience, (summer 2024) Application Scientist · NETZSCH Instruments North America L.L.C.

• Anu Anele PhD in Nanoscience (2024)

• Mahsa Azami PhD in Nanoscience (2023), a researcher at AbbVie. 

• Anitha Jayapalan PhD in Nanoscience (2023), a researcher at Lonza Biologics Inc.

• Mengxin Liu PhD in Nanoscience (2023), a postdoctoral associate at NC A& T University.

• Frank Tukur PhD in Nanoscience (2023), a postdoctoral associate at JSNN/UNC Greensboro

• Bhawna Bagra PhD in Nanoscience (2021) TD Litho Module and Integration Device Yield Engineer at Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR

• Ziyu Yin PhD in Nanoscience (2021), a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hawaii

• Kokougan Allado PhD in Nanoscience (2021), Chemistry Instructor at NC A&T

• Durga M. Arvapalli PhD in Nanoscience (2020), Scientist at Bioskryb, Inc (Durham, NC)

• Zuowei Ji, PhD in Nanoscience (2020), Lecturer at Hongkong Chinese University in Shenzhen, China

• Alex Sheardy, PhD in Nanoscience (2020), Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Notre Dame

• Wendi Zhang, PhD in Nanoscience (2019). Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Arizona, USA

• Harish Chevva, PhD in Nanoscience (2019). Materials Scientist at Juul Labs, Inc. 

• Taylor Mabe, PhD in Nanoscience (2018). Chemistry Lecturer/Instructor, UNC Greensboro

• Zheng Zeng, PhD in Nanoscience (2017). Professor at Central South University, Hunan, China.

• Yiyang Liu,   PhD in Nanoscience (2017). Assistant Professor at Zhengzhou University, Henan, China.

• Alex Aboagye, PhD in Nanoengineering, (2014, co-advised)

• Ashutosh Shah (2014-2016, MS in Nanoengineering, co-advised)

• Shuayl Alotaibi (spring 2016, MS in Nanoscience)

• Niley Doshi (spring 2015, MS in Nanoscience)

• Juan Peñaranda (spring 2016, undergraduate)

• Justin Campbell (spring 2015, undergraduate)

• Jay Wilhemi (spring 2014, undergraduate)

• Jake Smith (summer 2014, undergraduate)

Post-doctors

• Frank Tukur (2023-2024). Materials Scientist at Nulixir Inc. Austin, TX

• Dr. Zheng Zeng (2018). Professor at Central South University, Hunan, China

• Dr. Taylor Mabe (2018-2020), Lecturer in Chemistry, UNCG

Visiting Scholar

• Dr. Xinping Zeng, Associate Professor at Tongji University, Shanghai, China