Graduate Students

Jessica Yu
Jessica grew up in San Diego, California and moved to the Bay Area where she received her B.S. in Chemistry at UC Berkeley. As an undergraduate, she conducted research with Professor Paul Alivisatos investigating the etching trajectories of gold nanorods. Jessica left California for New York, joining the Roy group in the fall of 2020, though she is still convinced that the West coast is the better coast. In her free time she enjoys rock climbing, animal documentaries and trying new Chobani flavors.
Email: jy3103@columbia.edu

Ilana Stone
A lifelong New Yorker, Ilana studied philosophy at Columbia University. After graduating, she fell asleep and had a crazy dream that she was a Wall Street trader, a poker player and a yoga teacher. When she finally woke up, she realized she was still a student at Columbia, only now she was pursuing a PhD in chemistry. If you see her, please poke her to be sure she isn't still dreaming, and then give her a donut. 
Email: ibs2101@columbia.edu

Jennifer Han
Jen is a joint student between the Roy and Nuckolls group and joined in the fall of 2019. While at Georgetown University, she received her B.S. in Chemistry and conducted research with Prof. Karah Knope investigating tetravalent actinide-halide complexes isolated from acidic aqueous solution under conditions relevant to nuclear waste management, separations, and discerning covalency of the 5f-block. 
Email: sjh2199@columbia.edu

Christie Koay
Christie grew up in Dublin, California and stuck around in the Bay Area for her undergraduate studies. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley, where she did research on peptidomimetic materials known as peptoids under the guidance of Prof. Matthew Francis. Looking to explore the more colorful world of inorganic chemistry, Christie moved to New York City and joined the Roy group in the fall of 2019. Her current work focuses on the synthesis of novel cluster-based materials. Outside of the lab, Christie enjoys rock climbing, watching basketball, and plant parenting.
Email: csk2172@columbia.edu

Wendy (Shoushou) He
Wendy received her B.S. in chemistry at the University of Toronto, where she conducted research with Prof. Geoffrey Ozin on gas-phase CO 2 hydrogenation using mixed metal oxides-based  catalysts. As a joint student between Prof. Xavier Roy and Prof. Colin Nuckolls at Columbia University, Wendy is now engaged in research involving superatomic materials.
Email: sh3942@columbia.edu

Victoria Posey
Victoria grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and decided to stay in the sunshine state where she received her B.S. in Chemistry from Florida State University in 2018. As an undergrad, Victoria researched excited state proton transfer and dye-sensitized solar cells under the guidance of Prof. Kenneth Hanson. Looking to live in a bigger city, Victoria moved to New York to join the chemistry department at Columbia. She started in the summer of 2019 in the Roy group studying the different properties of cluster-based compounds in devices, such as batteries and capacitors. Victoria is also the recipient of the 2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. In her free time, she enjoys going to the gym and exploring the city.
Email: vp2424@columbia.edu

Emma York
Emma was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California before moving to Maine to complete her B.S. in chemistry at Bates College. While at Bates, Emma studied inorganic pigments and the origins of color in transition metal complexes with Professor Geneva Laurita. Wanting to continue exploring inorganic materials at the graduate level, she came to Columbia and began working with the Roy group in the summer of 2021. Outside of school, Emma enjoys rowing, backpacking, music, art, and coffee. 
Email: ey2314@columbia.edu

Jordan Cox
Jordan grew up in Saint Petersburg, Florida before moving to Pennsylvania for her undergraduate studies. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Dickinson College where she conducted research with Professor Sarah St. Angelo on silver-zinc oxide heteronanomaterials for dye photocatalysis. In the summer of 2021, Jordan moved to New York to join the chemistry department at Columbia working with cluster-based materials in the Roy group. Outside of lab, Jordan enjoys cooking, reading, and spending time with her kittens.
Email: jc5639@columbia.edu

Alexander Aydt
Alex was born and raised in Southern Illinois. Seeking to flee from winter, he did his undergraduate degree at the University of Arizona majoring in both Biochemistry and Molcular and Cellular Biology. Realizing his distaste for proteins and cells, he chose to pursue a degree in Chemistry at Columbia University. He now works in the Roy Lab focusing on using inorganic clusters as building blocks for new materials. Outside of lab, he enjoys running, playing tennis, and watching baseball.
Email: apa2122@columbia.edu

Postdoctoral Researchers

Amymarie Bartholomew
Amymarie received her B.S. in Chemistry from Yale University where she worked with Prof. Nilay Hazari. She then moved to Harvard University to conduct her graduate studies with Prof. Ted Betley. Her PhD research in the Betley Lab focused on the reactivity and electronic structure of first-row trinuclear transition metal clusters, including the assessment of local oxidation states using multiwavelength anomalous diffraction.
Email: akb2207@columbia.edu

Mike Ziebel
Mike grew up outside Philadelphia and completed his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University, where he researched organic photovoltaic materials with Prof. Sam Stupp. He then completed his Ph.D. work with Prof. Jeff Long at UC Berkeley, studying the electronic and magnetic properties of metal–organic frameworks. At Columbia, Mike is a joint post-doc in the Roy and Dean groups, working on developing new two-dimensional materials.
Email: mez2127@columbia.edu

Ren Wiscons
Ren grew up in San Diego before moving to Oberlin College, where she received her B.A. in Biochemistry. While at Oberlin, Ren was involved in metamorphic geochemistry research and the campus hydroponic wastewater treatment facility before completing her undergraduate thesis in solid-state chemistry under the direction of Prof. Jesse Rowsell. She then moved to Ann Arbor to conduct her graduate studies with Prof. Adam J. Matzger at the University of Michigan. Ren’s graduate studies focused on the design, synthesis, and self-assembly of organic species that undergo symmetry changes in the solid-state for applications in ferroelectric materials.
Email: raw2180@columbia.edu

Elena Meirzadeh
Elena was born in Iran and moved to Israel at age 12. She completed her BSc at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her MSc and PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science where she received the Dean's Prize and the Dimitris N. Chorafas Prize for outstanding students. During her PhD with Prof. Igor Lubomirsky and Prof. Meir Lahav, she developed an extremely sensitive technique for detecting deviations from symmetry in crystals in order to improve our fundamental understanding of crystal structure, function and different growth mechanisms. When not in the lab, she spends her time at the gym, salsa dancing, or hiking in some exotic country.
Email: em3428@columbia.edu

Evan Telford
Evan received his B.S. in Physics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked with Prof. Jie Shan and Prof. Jesse Berezovsky. He then moved to Columbia University to complete his graduate studies with Prof. Cory Dean in the Physics Department. His Ph.D. research focused on studying the magnetotransport properties of correlated electronic phases in heterostructures fabricated from exfoliatable two-dimensional materials.
Email: ejt2133@columbia.edu

Undergraduate Students

Hannah Christianson

Alumni

Ren Wiscons - Postdoc 2019-2021 - Now: Assistant Professor at Amherst College
Rachel Starr - PhD 2021 - Now: MRS/AAAS congressional science and engineering fellow
Avalon Dismukes - PhD 2021
Jake Russel - PhD 2021 - Now: ARPA-E Fellow at DOE
Douglas Reed - Postdoc 2018-2021 - Now: Research Scientist at UW - Seattle
Kihong Lee - PhD 2019 - Now: postdoc at Cornell
Evan Doud - PhD 2019 - Now: Postdoc at UCLA
Anastasia Voevodin - PhD 2019 - Now: ZS Associates
Bonnie Choi - PhD 2018 - Now: Goodwin Intellectual Property
Andrew Pinkard - PhD 2018 - Now: Wolf Greenfield Intellectual Property
Evan O'Brien - PhD 2018 - Now: Seer Biotechnology
Giselle Elbaz - PhD 2017 - Now: Intel Research Center
Wee-Liat Ong - Postdoc 2015-2017 - Now: Associate Professor ZJU-UIUC Institute
Alaina Hartnett - Undergraduate researcher - Barnard Chemistry - Now: PhD student Harvard
Secunda Kariuki - Undergraduate researcher - Columbia College
Ari Turkiewicz - Undergraduate researcher - Columbia APAM - Now: PhD student UC Berkeley
Jessica Karch - Undergraduate researcher - Columbia Chemistry - Now: PhD student at UMass Boston
Chiara Butler - Undergraduate researcher - Columbia Chemistry
Maria Paley - Undergraduate researcher - Barnard Chemistry - Now: PhD student UC Berkeley
Isabel Klein - Undergraduate researcher - Barnard Chemistry - Now: PhD student CalTech
Ivy Huan - Undergraduate researcher - Columbia Chem Eng - Now: PhD student Northwestern
Gloria Chyr - Undergraduate researcher - MIT Eng