The Team
I am currently looking for motivated scientists who are interested in performing research at the interface between chemistry, materials science and electron microscopy. During my career I have been fortunate to work in three different countries and experience diverse academic research environments. As a PI I want to bring all these experiences to my laboratory and create an environment that will stimulate my team to reach their maximum potential.
PI
professor joe patterson
Joe was born in Nottingham, England. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of York, UK, and conducted his masters research project with Cytec Engineered Materials at the Wilton Centre. He completed his PhD in radical polymer chemistry and self-assembly at the University of Warwick, UK, in 2013, working under the supervision of Professor Rachel O’Reilly. He went on to work for Professor Nathan C. Gianneschi and Professor Kimberly Prather at the University of California San Diego, USA, and the Centre for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and Environment (CAICE) as a postdoctoral scholar. In 2016 he joined the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, working in the Laboratory of Materials and Interface Chemistry led by Professor Nico Sommerdijk.
In July 2018, Joe joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Irvine. His interests involve the development of new materials through a deep understanding of their structure and dynamics. For his work in this area he has been awarded several prizes including the Domino/MacroGroupUK Young Polymer Scientist of the Year in 2011, the 2013 Jon Weaver PhD prize and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual fellowship in 2017. In 2020, Joe received the UCI Beall Innovator Award and the American Chemical Society PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award. Recently, Joe has been selected as the recipient of the UCI 2022 Department of Chemistry Excellence in Mentorship Award. In November 2022, Joe received the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Active Award on abstract titled: Ring-Opening Polymerization-Induced Crystallization-Driven Self-Assembly. In December 14th, 2022, Joe was recognized as one of the 2022 Rising Stars in Polymers by ACS Polymers Au. Recently (as of March 17th, 2023), Joe received the Burton Medal From the Microscopy Society of America in recognition of his work to advance microscopic techniques in research.
Email: patters3.at.uci.edu
Current Graduate Students
Wyeth Gibson
Email: gibsonw@uci.edu
Wyeth received his B.S. in chemistry from UC Irvine (class of 2018). As an undergraduate, he did research under Professor Jenny Yang on mechanochemical reactions, electrostatic effects on transition metals and synthetic efforts towards biotinylated clusters. In the Patterson lab, he enjoys studying the fundamental chemistry of polymer self-assemblies. Outside of lab he loves spending time with his wife, Jessica, and Neptune the pug.
RAIN tAlosig
Email: atalosig@uci.edu
Rain received her B.S. in chemistry from Ithaca College. While there, she worked with Dr. Anna Larsen on synthesis and characterization of rhodium pincer ligands. Interested in learning more about materials science she joined the Patterson Lab and will be working on identifying crystallization pathways for MOF systems. In her free time Rain enjoys cooking, taking care of her collection of house plants, and finding a good trail to hike.
Rakia Dhaoui
Email: rdhaoui@uci.edu
Rakia was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2019, earning a B.S. in chemistry and working on a joint project in the labs of Professors Dean Toste and Kenneth Raymond studying supramolecular coordination chemistry. Interested in the fields of inorganic and materials chemistry, Rakia joined the Patterson lab to explore encapsulating proteins within metal-organic frameworks. Outside of lab, she enjoys listening to audiobooks, baking, and snuggling with her kitten Abu.
justin mulvey
Email: mulveyj@uci.edu
Justin received his B.S. in materials science and engineering from UC Davis in 2019. As an undergraduate he performed research on thin-film organic semiconductors under Dr. Adam Moule, developing optical-based patterning techniques for organic photovoltaic applications. Fascinated by polymer-solvent interactions, Justin joined the Patterson lab to quantify and compare self-assembly mechanisms across a variety of systems. Outside of research he enjoys rock climbing, slacklining, backpacking, and biking.
NehaL Idris
Email: nsidris@uci.edu
Nehal received her B.S. with an honor in chemistry from the University of California-Irvine in 2019. While there, she worked with Dr. Jenny Yang on the synthesis and characterization of rhenium and manganese crown containing complexes and investigating their lewis-acid assisted electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide. In 2018, she received the UCI MDP fellowship and worked with Dr. Eric Potma on a collaborative project with Dr. Henry Heisenberg where she probed the fluorescence emission and absorption properties of two anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs: Doxorubicin and Bleomycin. She then moved to the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and worked with Dr. Stephen Maldonado on the development of advanced photoelectrode design for the conversion of sunlight to electricity in regenerative photoelectrochemical cell. Nehal joined the Patterson lab to explore the phenomena of coacervates: polymeric materials made of block copolymers and undergo LLPS to form liquid droplets. She aims to use this idea to develop the first liquid state system to encapsulate oil spills from the ocean. In her free time, she enjoys cuddling with her cat, cooking and chatting with her nieces and nephew, mentoring, and doing volunteer activities.
Elisa Olivas
Email: emolivas@uci.edu
Elisa was born and raised in Southern California and received her B.S in chemistry from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. While at Cal Poly Pomona, she worked on single crystal X-ray diffraction of various bis-imidazolium salts with Professor Chantal Stieber. Interested in crystallization
of inorganic materials, she joined the Patterson lab to understand how encapsulated enzymes influence the nucleation and growth mechanisms of metal-organic-frameworks. Outside of the lab, Elisa enjoys running with her dog Yochi, dancing, and getting some sun at the beach with her boyfriend.
Zhaoxu Li
Email: zhaoxul3@uci.edu
Zhaoxu received his MB (Bachelor of Medicine) from Chongqing Medical University, China. During his undergrad and after graduation, he worked on self-assembling peptides and catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction as a research assistant. He joined UCI as a PhD student in 2021 and started working with Professor Kumar Wickramasinghe and Professor Maxim Shcherbakov on liquid-phase photo-induced force microscopy and 2D material light-matter interactions. Zhaoxu joined the Patterson lab to explore the self-assembly phenomenon in solution using liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy. Outside of his research, he enjoys biking, hiking, cooking, and gardening.
Lilian Zeinalvand
Email: lzeinalv@uci.edu
Lily Received her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic University. While at AUT, she worked on the synthesis and characterization of gelatin functionalized silver nanostructures and investigating their optical properties. She also completed an internship in organic chemistry laboratory at Ecole Polytechnique de Palaiseau in France under supervison of Prof. Gregory Nocton, conducting research on synthesis of novel photocatalysts for hydrogen production. Interested in the field of materials chemistry, she joined the Patterson group to explore and quantitatively analyze nanoscale dynamic processes using electron microscopy. In her free time, she enjoys playing piano, adventurous traveling, road tripping with friends and reading books.
Pushp Raj Prasad
Email: prprasad@uci.edu
Pushp Raj was born in India and completed his schooling from Qatar. He then moved back to India again where he received his Integrated M.Sc. (BS + MS) in Chemistry from the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) Bhubaneswar, India. For his master’s thesis at NISER, he worked with Dr. Sudip Barman on two-dimensional materials for supercapacitor applications. Following masters, he did a short project on transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers with Dr. Akshay Singh in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, India. Pushp Raj joined the Patterson group to work at the interface of TEM, electrochemistry, and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Raj loves to chill with his friends, explore SoCal, listen to music, and enjoys roaming around aimlessly on his e-scooter.
Elmira Baghdadi
Email: ebaghdad@uci.edu
Elmira received her B.S. in Chemistry with an emphasis on Materials Science from the California State University of Long Beach in 2022. While at CSULB, she worked under the guidance of Dr. Shahab Derakhshan on the synthesis and analysis of the electronic and magnetic properties of transition-metal oxides (TMOs). Interested in the field of materials chemistry, she joined the Patterson lab to explore new areas in soft materials and to further understand the relationship between molecular self-assembly and its effects on the material’s physical properties. Outside of lab, Elmira enjoys reading classical novels, critiquing movies and shows, and spending time with her family.
Riya Singh
Email: singhr7@uci.edu
Riya received her joint B.S. and M.S. in chemistry from the National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar, India in 2022. While there, she worked on the synthesis and characterization of indazole-fused tetra-coordinated boron based polymers and thioketone based Zn(II) and Ni(II) complexes. Interested in polymers and materials chemistry, Riya joined the Patterson lab to synthesize polymers and study its self-assembly. Outside of the lab, Riya enjoys watching sunsets at the beach, dancing and spending time with her family.
Current Undergraduate Students
Email: rbrose@uci.edu
Ben was born and raised in San Francisco, California. He is currently pursuing two undergraduate degrees in chemistry and biological sciences. Ben joined the Patterson Lab in 2021 to focus on the MOFs project, specifically relating to urease. He chose the MOF project due to its potential applications in carbon capture, a field Ben is very passionate about. In his free time, he likes to write and record music, cook, and hike.
StevE HO
Email: sjho1@uci.edu
Steve was born and raised in California, currently pursuing his undergraduate degree in materials science. He joined the Patterson lab with specific interest in developing and testing different analysis methods as well as learning more about the assembly process of materials. Outside of the lab, you might catch him practicing with his lion dance team, or rushing to a foreign language class.
Katen Iyer
Email: kpjyer@uci.edu
Katen was born in San Jose, California. He is currently pursuing his B.S. in material science and engineering at UC Irvine. He joined the Patterson lab to develop structural dissimilarity index software for microscopy image analysis. He enjoys running, hiking and spending time with his Church.
Gabriel Reginato
Email: greginat@uci.edu
Gabriel is from San Jose, California. He is an upcoming fourth year undergraduate pursuing a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering with interests in dissipative self assembly and image processing. As part of the CCAM Materials REU, Gabriel joined the Patterson Lab to focus on analyzing liquid TEM data using Python. Outside of the lab, you are likely to see him at Church, cooking, or serving those around him
Saira Cazarez
Email: cazarezs@uci.edu
Saira was bon in Mexico and raised in Los Angeles. She is pursuing an undergraduate degree in biology and is interested in the intersection between chemistry and biology. Saira is a UC LEADS scholar and will be studying the influence of biomolecules on ZIF-67 metal-organic framework nucleation and growth. In her free time, Saira likes to knit, try new restaurants, and spend time with family.
Junsik Yoon
Email: junsiky1@uci.edu
Junsik was born in South Korea and was raised there until elementary school. He is currently pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry. In his free time, he likes to cook, listen to music or play instruments like a flute.
Fangni Wang(Nina)
Email: fangniw@uci.edu
Nina is from China. She is pursuing an undergraduate degree in Chemistry with an interest in MOFs. In Patterson lab,she is now working with Rain and the MOFs group to learn about doing research and the mechanism of ZIF-8’s formation. Rain and Nina are trying to figure out what happens in the amorphous phases of ZIF-8. In her free time, she likes to watch films and amine. Cooking and making dessert are also enjoyable for her.
Muna Nasser
Email: naseerm@uci.edu
Muna was born and raised in Garden Grove, California. She is currently pursuing an undergraduate BS in Biomedical Engineering: Pre-Medicine. She likes hiking, running, photography, and reading. She joined the Patterson group to work on the synthesis and characterization of block copolymer via RAFT and to explore the formation of liquid dense droplets(coacervates) and their application on encapsulating oil spills from the ocean.
Chi Zhang(AshlynN)
Email: chiz38@uci.edu
Ashlynn is from San Francisco and is a 2nd year undergraduate pursuing a Chemistry B.S. with minors in Biology and Management. She joined the Patterson lab to study how proteins change the crystallization pathways of metal-organic frameworks. She’s interested in applying this knowledge to control protein spatial localization for improved medicinal chemistry/drug delivery. Outside of the lab, you will always catch her listening to music. She also loves to travel and attend concerts.
KUNYu wANG
Email: kunyuw@uci.edu
Kunyu is from China. He is currently enrolled in an undergraduate Chemistry program, where his focus lies in the intriguing realm of MOFs (Metal-Organic Frameworks). Within the Patterson lab, Kunyu collaborates with Rakia and the MOFs group, delving into research that explores how proteins influence the crystallization pathways of these frameworks. Beyond his academic pursuits, Kunyu enjoys watching soccer competitions during his leisure time, with AC Milan holding a special place as his favorite team.