Group Alumni
Postdoctoral Scholars
Giuseppe Di Palma
Giuseppe received his BA in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Salerno, Italy. In 2015 he received a master's degree in nanoscience and nanotechnology at the University of Barcelona where for the thesis he joined the group of Dr. Arantzazu González-Campo and Dr. Núria Aliaga-Alcalde at the Institute of Science Materials of Barcelona (ICMAB) working in the field of supramolecular chemistry. His roles were the surface functionalization for enantiomeric separation of racemic solutions and metalorganic synthesis of new porphyrins for optimization of their electric conductivity. In 2020 he received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham, UK working in Prof. Paula Mendes’ group and with a thesis in supramolecular surfaces for protein immobilization. In 2021 he joined the Patterson group to work in the field of Protein Metal-Organic-Framework (p-MOF), understanding their formation mechanism and improving their design, manufacturing, and characterization for future biodelivery applications.
Alana Ogata
Alana worked as a postdoc in the group in 2019 before taking a postdoc position at Harvard University working with Professor David Walt. As of Fall 2021, she has accepted an Assistant Professor position at the University of Toronto where her group focuses on “innovating single-molecule bioanalytical sensors for multi-component protein analysis with direct applications in disease diagnostics and pathology.”
Alex rakowski
Alex worked as a postdoc in the group in 2019-2021. He has subsequently gone on to another postdoc position at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, under Colin Ophus's supervision.
Graduate Students
Dr. Brooke Carpenter
Email: paynebe@uci.edu
Brooke received her B.S. in Polymer Science with a minor in Chemistry from the University of Southern Mississippi. While at USM, she worked under the advisement of Dr. Sarah Morgan where her research focused on radical synthesis of low molecular weight polymers. In the Patterson group, Brooke worked on understanding the growth mechanism of protein-metal-organic-frameworks to better design future MOF system. She is now working as a science writer at Ergon and leading a research program at the St. Andrews Episcopal High School. Brooke’s hobbies include traveling, going to coffee shops, and spending time at the beach with her husband and dog.
Dr. Aoon Rizvi
Email: aoonr@uci.edu
Aoon received his BS in Chemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. There, he worked with Steve Zimmerman developing trigger released micro capsules and single chain organic nano particles for catalysis. Interested in the fields of organic and materials chemistry, Aoon joined the Patterson lab to explore new areas in soft materials. During his time as a PhD. student in the group, Aoon worked on understanding the LLPS and self-assembly of block copolymers. He is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Sanulli lab, at Stanford Genetics, School of medicine. Aside from chemistry, he loves to cook and explore the world! ⌬
Dr. Paul Hurst
Email: phurst@uci.edu
Paul is from Laie, Hawaii. He received his BS chemistry from Brigham Young University. While there, he performed research on total synthesis in the Merritt Andrus lab. Wanting to explore more exciting fields of chemistry he came to UC Irvine and ended up joining the Patterson lab where he will likely be doing anything but total synthesis. As a PhD. student in the group, Paul worked on understanding the process of reaction-driven non-equilibrium molecular self-assembly. Paul developed a one pot synthetic approach for polyester-based block copolymer nanostructure coined as ROPI-CDSA. He is now a postdoctoral scholar in Robert Waymouth’s lab at Stanford University. In his free time, Paul likes to play piano, cook Peruvian and Norwegian food, and explore the area with his wife.
Kyle Gassaway, (MS)
Email: kgassawa@uci.edu
Kyle received his B.S. in chemistry from Brigham Young University. While there, he worked under Dr. David Michaelis and studied both transition metal and non-transition metal organometallic catalysts. Interested in polymers and material synthesis, Kyle joined the Patterson lab to study polymer self-assembly and the effects of different monomers on assembly architecture. Kyle enjoys hiking, science & history-themed videos, 3D printing, and other maker-related activities.
Dr. Paula Vena
Paula received her PhD in February 2021 from Eindhoven University of Technology, and went on to a postdoc position at University Medical Center Utrecht.
Dr. Hanglong Wu
Hanglong received his PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology in September 2020, and has gone on to work as a postdoc at TU Eindhoven for Jan van Hest.
Undergraduate Students
Mohammed Faris Abouchaleh
Email: aboucham@uci.edu
Faris is a Syrian American who spent a significant part of his childhood in the Middle East prior to returning to the US to complete his education in Biological Sciences at UC Irvine. During his studies, he developed an interest in organic chemistry, leading him to join the Patterson lab to work on polymer synthesis. He particularly enjoys the drug PISA project due to his interest in carbonyl chemistry, studying self assembly reactions, and developing the next generation of drug delivery nanoparticles. Outside the lab, he enjoys exploring scenic trails, petting his cats, trying new foods, and go karting.
Emily Wang
Email: wangey3@uci.edu
Emily is from Troy, Michigan and is a 4th year undergraduate student studying Chemistry with a minor in Management. She is pursuing a career in cosmetics through formulation and is also hoping to launch some entrepreneurial ventures. In the Patterson lab, she is working on the MOFs project studying how proteins are incorporated into metal-organic frameworks. Outside of lab, Emily enjoys spending time with friends, watching k-dramas and anime, trying new food and desserts, or gaming once in a while.
Jovany Merham
Email: jmerham@uci.edu
Jovany was born and raised in Egypt until the age of 14, when he moved to the US with his family for high school. He is pursuing an undergraduate degree in chemistry with a pure math minor. After high school he enrolled in Santa Monica College, where he worked on many projects mostly under the guidance of Professor Tram Dang, and Dr. Jamie Anderson. With interest in physical and material chemistry, he joined the Patterson Lab in August 2019. He mainly focuses on TEM image analysis, and applying machine learning to TEM imaging in general. In his free time, he enjoys Star Trek, number sequences and the OEIS, and a good cup of tea, earl grey, hot.
Annissa Graham
Email: grahamaa@uci.edu
Annissa was born in Japan and raised in San Diego County. She recently graduated with B.S. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UCI. She is now working at Roche and she is interested in going to graduate school to study Astrobiology and the origin of life. Annissa joined the Patterson lab because of her interest in polymer chemistry and wanted to learn techniques that can be applied in Astrobiology. In her free time, she likes to paint, play piano, and bake!
Charles Chen
Email: charles7@uci.edu
Charles was born and raised in California. He obtained his a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in History in Summer of 2022. He joined the Patterson Lab in September 2021 to work on the MOFs project. He is currently looking to pursue a job in industry. Whenever he can, he practices martial arts and writes stories.
Nicholas wang
Nicholas was born and raised in California and obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UC Irvine. He joined the Patterson Lab in the hope to grasp a better understanding and appreciation of the advancements that material formation can bring into everyday life. While In the Patterson ab, he was working on image analysis through the programming language MATLAB. Whenever he has free time, Nicholas enjoys photography, playing percussion, and watching movies.
Jamie Esquivel
Jamie was born in the Philippines and was raised in Los Angeles County, California. She joined the Patterson Lab in April 2019 and worked on the MOFs project. She obtained her B.S. in chemistry from UC Irvine in 2021 with specialization in medicinal chemistry. Jamie is currently working as a Cell Therapy Specialist at a Kite Pharma developing cancer immunotherapy products. In her downtime, she likes to try new recipes, go to the beach, and find inspiration for her bullet journal.
Urja Patel
Urja was born and raised in California and obtained her B.S. degree in biomedical engineering from UCI. She joined the Patterson Lab to work on Assemblies because of her interest in Organic Chemistry. Although being raised in the U.S., she is a desi girl at her core and enjoys rocking out to Bollywood music with her twin sister
Redford Fox Hudson
Email: rfhudson@uci.edu
Redford was born in San Diego, California. He is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in data science at UC Irvine. He would love to go to grad school to explore the overlap between data science and digital signal processing. Redford joined the Patterson lab to learn how data analysis techniques including the fourier transform are used in a research setting. He enjoys soundscapes, improv comedy and audio design.
Jonathan Lee
Email: jonatl39@uci.edu
Jonathan was born and raised in Mountain View, California. He is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and considering a double major in biology. He joined the Patterson lab to focus on MOFs and work on catalysis with metal azolate framework (MAF-7). In his free time, he enjoys listening to music, cooking, and exploring different music genres.
Tyler Corazao
Tyler was born and raised near Austin, Texas. He is currently pursuing his B.S. in materials science and engineering at Texas A&M University, with a minor in biomedical engineering. He is currently conducting undergraduate research in Dr. Taylor Ware laboratory at Texas A&M University. Through the 2021 summer REU hosted by CCAM, he joined the Patterson lab remotely to work on AFM and fluorescence microscopy image analysis. In his downtime, Tyler enjoys singing and spending time at the barn with his horse.
Dino-Mikael (Miko)
Dino-Mikael was born in Mandaluyong, PI, but has lived all around the US with his parents and younger brother. He’s lived in 4 different states and 12 different cities prior to coming to UC Irvine. In 2021, he obtained his B.S. in Chemistry, Synthetic Chemistry from UCI. Dino-Mikael hopes to work in R&D for Nike one day, developing new shoe foams to be used in basketball sneakers. He is now working at OmniPrint International as a junior chemist. In his free time, he likes to journal, play volleyball, and watch anime.
Intanon Lapkriengkri (PK)
PK completed an undergraduate thesis and graduated UCI in 2019, and is now a pursing a PhD at UC Santa Barbara.