Project scientist

Maggie “the Queen”

Very Important Canine

Dr. Minwook park

Minwook grew up in Jeaonju, South Korea. He was a curious guy about everything in the world. During Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) college, he got interested in material science and realized that he didn’t know much by the time he graduated. In order to satisfy intellectual curiosity, Minwook started a long journey in organic functional material and finally earned PhD degree at 2019 under supervision of Prof. Kwang-Un Jeong in JBNU. Now, he hope a new life as postdoc researcher with Prof. Javier in sunny Santa Barbara will be written as a wonderful voyage.

Dr. Julie peterson

Julie grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, where her family had a deep passion for racing. From a young age, Julie studied to be a NASCAR speed racer but drove her first (pink) NASCAR car out of state to escape the need for speed. Her true passion was to compete in track and field. Determined to pursue her dreams, she decided Germany was her gateway to the Olympics due to the low qualifying times needed there. However after her first run, she developed runner's knee, forcing her to reimagine herself. Julie started taking harp lessons to become a modern day cupid and to participate in the German band Fritz and the Schnitzels. While touring in Russia, she fell in love with the Slavic language and decided to return to Kansas City to pursue her B.A. in Slavic Language and Literature and a minor in music at KU. Realizing she wouldn’t find a well-paying job as cupid, she decided to add on another B.A. in Chemistry. Through this she found her love of colors (especially the color pink). While doing her PhD in the group of Arthur Winter at Iowa State University, she tried to make photo cages pink to honor her previous career aspirations. After managing to do just that, she realized that there are other molecules needing her attention. She decided to do a postdoc in the group of Javier Read de Alaniz to work on (pink) DASA molecules. She can be easily identified in the lab by either the massive harp or the DASA-colored fume hood.

Dr. WONJIN YOON

Won-Jin was born in 1989 and grew up in Jeonju, the most famous city about foods and professional soccer team in South Korea. He received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. degree at the Department of Polymer-Nano Science and Technology from Jeonbuk National University under supervision of Prof. Kwang-Un Jeong. During this time, he researched about liquid crystal and photo-response materials for development of optical device because since he was young, he has been interested in light and colored materials. 

He wants to challenge in a new place and system to further develop himself. Now, he started working as a Postdoctoral Scholar with Prof. Javier in UC Santa Barbara. 

Dr. Hao Wang

Hao was born and raised in a small village in Anhui Province, China. Since childhood, he always dreamed of going out to explore the world. He pursued his B.S. in Macromolecular Materials and Engineering at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology. Then he went to Kent State University in Ohio for his Ph.D. He enjoyed the process of developing new chiral photoswitches and discovering unexpected properties. He also enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Ohio and felt too comfortable to leave despite the extremely cold winters. However, later he decided to step out of his comfort zone and explore a new lifestyle and research framework. He drove across the country to the warm west coast to join Professor Javier’s group at UCSB. Now he focuses on photochromic molecules for general and biological applications. Outside of the lab, Hao can be found walking along the beach, playing tennis, exploring national parks, or sniffing cats.  

Dr. Munshi Sahid Hossain

Sahid grew up in a small town ‘Basirhat’ which is not far from “the City of Joy” Kolkata (especially known for its famous sweet “Rosogolla”) with a profound passion for cricket, the most popular outdoor game in India. Since his childhood, he wanted to pursue a career as a professional cricketer with an ambition to play for his country. However, over time his parents made him understand the uncertainty about the future in that profession and motivated him to stay focused on his study. During his middle school days, he got intrigued by knowing how the simple organic molecule acetaminophen (also widely known as Paracetamol) can be useful for the world as a common antipyretic and anti-inflammatory. Right from that time, his curiosity in chemistry, more specifically in organic chemistry started to burgeon, and then eventually completed his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree from the West Bengal State University, India taking chemistry as a major. Subsequently, in order to gain more knowledge and advance practical skills in organic chemistry, he joined the department of chemical sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, India. In 2016, during his MS, he worked on the design and development of light-driven molecular switches under the guidance of Prof. Subhajit Bandyopadhyay. During these days, he was truly fascinated by the molecular motions that are triggered by the light of different colors. Besides, Nobel Prize in chemistry was also awarded to the emerging research field of “Molecular machine” in the same year which further boosted his interest in continuing his Ph.D. research at the same lab. In 2022, he completed his Ph.D. which mainly focused on the broad area of organic chemistry and supramolecular chemistry, including the design and synthesis of light-responsive materials and p-conjugated functional building blocks.

In the quest of exploring other research fields of chemistry, he flew thousands of miles to vivid California to join Read de Alaniz’s lab and Bates group at UC Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral scholar. Currently, his research interest lies in the design and development of biodegradable polymers and polymer adhesives. Apart from research, he is enjoying the vibrant atmosphere and exquisite natural beauty of California.

Dr. Livius Muff

Livius Muff received his B.S. and M.S. degree in Materials Science at the ETH Zurich in 2018. He then joined the Polymer Chemistry & Materials group of Prof. Christoph Weder as a PhD student. During his doctoral research, he designed and synthesized high-thermal-expansion polyurethanes for photo- and electrothermal controllable soft actuators that were used in complex soft robotic systems. Livius joined the Hawker and Read de Alaniz groups as a postdoctoral researcher in February 2023.

Saejin Oh

The nomadic lifestyle has been calling to Saejin for her entire lifetime. Born in the capital city of South Korea, Seoul, she spent the first third of her life there. When she was 10 years old, she moved to Qingdao, China, known for high-quality beer and a beautiful view of the ocean.  She was too young to enjoy the Qingdao beer, so she decided to learn Chinese language and culture in local schools instead.  Living 7 years in Qingdao as a teenager taught her both a new language and how to adapt to living in a foreign country. Saejin then moved again, this time to Hong Kong, where she finished high school and learned to communicate via body language when she was at a loss for learning the native Cantonese dialect. After the 9th year of leave from her home country of South Korea, she then ventured back to complete her collegiate studies.  She did her undergraduate degree and Masters in Ewha Womans University, where 99.8% of the population on campus was female (as one would expect from a womans’ university).  This special/male-free/distraction-free environment allowed Saejin to focus on her research under Professor So-Jung Park. In the Park lab, she studied the self-assembly of conjugated block copolymers at the air-liquid interface.  When research became a bit too much to handle, she went out for Korean BBQ and Soju with her lab mates to help her relax and regain strength.  The power of Korean BBQ gave her the courage to leave her home country in pursuit of a PhD 5,875 miles away in sunny Santa Barbara, CA. At UCSB, Saejin works on the synthesis of functional polymeric ionic liquids and measurement of their electrical and mechanical properties under the joint direction of Professor Michael Chabinyc and Professor Javier Read de Alaniz.  Korean BBQ and Soju still cheer her up when research gets tough, but she’s learning to stay more physically and mentally healthy by practicing yoga, playing golf, traveling, and hiking as part of her assimilation into Californian culture.

Luana Llanes

Thi Tran

Born in Pleiku city (pronounced Play-Koo) – famous for coffee but not many Vietnamese know of it, Thi grew up observing a complete process of transforming coffee fruit to roasted bean and the beauty of coffee flower (FYI, flawless white color). Nature deeply enthralled her, which led her way to science. At the age of 15, Thi unwillingly (or “not quite” eagerly) left her hometown to explore big-city life and wider scientific opportunities by studying at the High School for the Gifted (yes, you did not read it wrong, it’s the name of the school) in Ho Chi Minh city (the economic center of Vietnam). Here, besides mingling with the most amiable classmates, plus laid-back teachers, and randomly being asked if she was an athlete (due to the name of her school), she was thrilled to learn that a full scholarship at Temple University could bring her closer to experimental science. Traveling abroad for the first time, she finally got a chance to develop her interest by doing a dual major in Chemistry and Biology as well as gaining hands-on experience in natural product semi-synthesis utilizing yeast oxidation technique with Prof. Rodrigo Andrade. For her Ph.D. in Chemistry, Thi *willingly* decided to go back from big-city to small-city life by joining the Read de Alaniz group at UC Santa Barbara. Coincidently, the weather in Santa Barbara is very similar to that in her hometown. When not in lab, she has enjoyed biking, jogging, and walking around campus and the beach for beautiful sunshine and cool breeze.

Lindsay Robinson

Lindsay, the iron gold (for her love of (heavy) metal), is always accompanied by her hard-charging outdoor dog Benny. This unmistakable team can be found facing any challenge the great outdoors has to offer. She charged ahead (always with a blueberry muffin to fuel herself) from the rainy mud of Buffalo, New York where she grew up to the plains of Wooster, Ohio where she got her BA in chemistry due to her long-standing interest in metal(s). After conquering the states of New York and Ohio, she attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in the lab of Thomas Hoye. Since Minnesota was too flat and boring, she decided to find a new place to face her fears with Benny after earning her MS in 2019. She decided to take Benny to conquer the mountains and the ocean at University of Santa Barbara where she is currently pursuing her PhD in materials chemistry, jointly advised by Javier Read de Alaniz and Craig Hawker. Her lab mates are always aware of where she is through echolocation due to the ghetto blaster on Benny’s back blaring her favorite metal band, Fritz and the Schnitzels..

Ronnie garcia

Ronnie was born and raised in Los Angeles in an area called the San Gabriel Valley (not “the valley”). Now, this is a story all about how his life got flipped-turned upside down and he would like to take a minute just sit right there he will tell you how he became the prince of a university called UCLA (next to Bel-Air). Working in the solid-state organic chemistry lab of Miguel Garcia-Garibay, Ronnie synthesized molecular machines to make them spin in crystals. Tired of hanging out with famous celebrities in Westwood, he subconsciously heard an Australian voice, who turned out to be Craig’s voice, calling him to do a summer internship at UCSB. As a UC LEADs scholar (reference: Angelique’s bio), Ronnie worked in the Craig Hawker lab learning about multi-material 3D printing and photo polymerizations. Ronnie did a second internship abroad in the Bert Meijer group in the Netherlands. There he studied stroopwafels and liquid crystal actuators for sensor applications. Realizing that he wants to be able to go to the beach without sitting in traffic for hours, he decided to return to Santa Barbara for graduate school. Ronnie made the long journey from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara (he got stuck in traffic) to start graduate school as an NSF graduate fellow in the Read de Alaniz and Hawker group. Ronnie swears that his hobbies are hanging out with friends, reading, and traveling, but he spends all his free time on his phone like a typical Angeleno.

Michael czuczola

Born of Polish descent and raised in the Canadian wilderness, Michael spent his youthful years in the alleged birthplace of Hawaiian pizza - Chatham, Canada. This rural Canadian lifestyle can be summed up by watching Letterkenny. Inspired by the magic of chemistry he chased his dreams by obtaining a B.Sc. Honors Specialization in Chemistry at Western University. During which he gained insights into the butyl rubber industry as a research scientist at ARLANXEO. Seeing the versatility of polymers, he completed an honors thesis project under Prof. Elizabeth Gillies working with self-immolative polymers – a class of degradable polymers. Continuing the passion for polymers (and escaping the cold), Michael is pursuing Ph.D. studies in polymer chemistry under the supervision of both Prof. Javier Read de Alaniz and Prof. Craig Hawker. To unwind in the Santa Barbara area, Michael enjoys hiking, biking, rock climbing, and camping.

Jesus Guillen Campos

Jesus (or “Hey-zus” as pronounced in America) Guillen, grew up in the always warm Mexico City. His obsession for chemistry was developed in high school, where he failed “Intro to Chem” and as with any other relationship, decided to fall in love with something that rejected him at first. In true Breaking Bad style, he befriended kindhearted drug lords who supported his pursuit of a chemistry career and shared their wisdom for success. After listening to their smart words, Jesus decided to start his undergrad at UNAM in the not so far 2014. He came to Santa Barbara in 2018, where there was even more sun and mountains than in Mexico City and worked for Javier and former student Manny Zayas on endless titrations. Unsure of how much more sun he could take, Jesus studied at University of Toronto in Canada where he first saw snow at the young age of 23. Terrified of returning to winter weather for his Ph.D., he completed his B.S. in chemistry at UNAM and ran back into Javier’s open arms at UCSB, where he has been happily synthesizing azobenzene photoswitches and working with smelly chemicals ever since. When he’s not working in the lab, Jesus enjoys hanging out in Isla Vista, trying new places to eat, and convincing people that a winter coat is necessary in Santa Barbara.

Ksenia Karnaukh

Ksenia [ksʲenʲɪə] Karnaukh, meaning “foreigner” or “hospitable” in Greek, grew up in Stavropol city; the southern and warmest part of Russia located in the North Caucasus region. Ksenia happily spent the first 16 years of her life surrounded by mountains, as well as the Caspian and Black Sea. Wishing to fully experience the snow, bears and borsch, she moved to the capital of Russia, Moscow city.

In 2014, Ksenia started her chemistry path at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree, she was acquiring fundamental knowledge in polymer materials, especially in siloxane chemistry. During summer “breaks”, she was working in test laboratories to get familiar with rheological properties of McDonald’s plastic cups and body bags. Driven to get a more positive experience and achieve a deeper understanding of chemistry in 2018, Ksenia started her master’s degree in chemical physics at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) or the Russian version of MIT. While trying to study quantum chemistry and pass exams, Ksenia was synthesizing transition metal complexes with imidazole-based ligands in Nesmeyanov institute of Organoelement Compounds with Prof. Alexander V. Polezhaev, to further analyze them with Prof. Yulia V. Nelyubina using X-Ray crystallography.

Growing tired of the cold weather, in 2020 Ksenia started her PhD career at UCSB, where she found a perfect match with her diverse expertise in Javier de Alaniz lab. Now, Ksenia is exploring all possible coupling reactions to synthesize efficient photoswitches for Polymeric Ionic Liquids (PILs). When she has to leave the laboratory , Ksenia can often be found playing tennis and billiards, trying to get used to Mexican food and exploring the California coast on her bike.

Cassidy Tobin

Cassidy grew up in the okayest state of Connecticut where she learned to call shopping carts “carriages” and tirelessly argue that New Haven pizza is the best pizza nationwide. Like everyone else that enjoyed chemistry and calculus in high school, Cassidy obtained her Bachelors of Science in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech, where she spent countless internships drowning in tons of PVC pellets at plastic manufacturing plants. During her years of suffering amongst engineers (or making engineers amongst her suffer), she was comforted by the wholesome work of small molecule synthesis and yearned for the day that she might break free of her plastic shackles. Upon graduation, Cassidy was rescued by the great Javier G. Read de Alaniz, who helped her aboard the life raft of applied organic chemistry and offered her the opportunity to design color changing biomaterials. Now, with an improved quality of life, Cassidy takes long walks on the beach every afternoon, eats concerning amounts of Chick-fil-A nuggets, loves to be included on Arbor coffee runs, and tries to see everything through rose-colored (safety) glasses.

Jessica Lopez Lara

Jessica (or Bunny as she likes to be addressed due to her love for the great classical spanish musician Bad Bunny) grew up in the outskirts of Sacramento, Mexico (or California, unclear at the time of writing). Bunny spent her time in Elk Grove digging deep into her passion of snowball making, practicing with dirt. It turns out her passion (and dedication in the dirt) was enough to land her a place on the Californian snowball team which surprisingly has the longest losing streak in competitive snowball making history. Intent on actually winning something, she turned her time to underwater boxing with perfect practice conditions on Pirates Island in the Elk Grove Park Pond. Her parents didn't approve of her extracurricular activities and forced her to major in chemistry at landlocked UC Merced, preventing her from following her aqueous dreams. She became a UC LEADS scholar, where she did her first research internship at Merced in Ben Stoke’s lab. While at Merced, she developed a love for eating nopales (cacti), which is the only good place to find water in the central valley. When going to her second internship, Bunny decided to spite her parents and move closer to the water, which is how she ended up doing her second internship in the group of Javier Read de Alaniz at UCSB. Her parents struck back and arranged another internship at Sandia National Labs before she freed herself to return to the coast to officially rejoin the Read de Alaniz group with a 2020 Regents in Chemistry Fellowship. Here, she keeps all her coworkers busy making sure she doesn’t go into the ocean unsupervised since bunnies can’t actually swim.

Betty Chen

Betty was born and raised in Anshan (in Liaoning, China), a city famous for its jade and steel industry. She has been curious about nature since childhood and won an “Animal Award” in high school for always being distracted by small animals while running cross-country. She almost chose entomology as her major while studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), but she was also fascinated by the power of chemistry, so she ended up getting a B.S. in Chemistry with Highest Distinction in 2021. While at UIUC, she worked in Prof. Jeffrey S. Moore’s group as an undergraduate research assistant, studying kinetic self-assembly of molecular ladders. After graduation, she readily left the cold, harsh winter and cornfields in Illinois, and embraced the warmness, the ocean, and the mountain in University of California, Santa Barbara, where she will be jointly advised by Prof. Yang Yang and Prof. Javier Read de Alaniz to study biocatalysis and biomimetic catalysis. Here she will pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry and catch lizards happily ever after.

Takashi Kaneko

Takashi was born in Yokohama, a suburb of Tokyo metropolitan, and grew up on hundreds of bowls of ramen. In high school, he was not particularly good at science, but he found chemistry, especially organic chemistry, as fascinating as a satisfying puzzle. At Soka University, he worked under Professor Masato Ito to investigate novel azobenzene synthesis and its photophysical properties, earning a BSc in 2020. Tired of tedious organic synthesis, he decided to move on to the Jun Terao group at the University of Tokyo to explore organic materials. However, he started researching photoprocessable gels using platinum complexes with a supramolecular ligand of cyclodextrin and ended up spending a lot of time on synthesis to get an MSc in 2022. As he was thinking about his future career, he remembered one friend he had met while studying at the University of Delaware in 2018 who was aiming for a Ph.D. in chemistry as an international student. Inspired by the friend, Takashi bounced back to the U.S. and joined UCSB in the Fall of 2022. At UCSB, watched over by Professors Javier Read de Alaniz and Craig Hawker, Takashi pursues his Ph.D. in polymer materials as is again struggling with synthesis. Surrounded by the beautiful ocean and mountains of Santa Barbara, Takashi tries to enjoy hiking, cooking, and hopping local breweries/wineries while starving for authentic Ramen.

Marvin Santiago

Marvin (he/him/his) is from the sunny and beautiful Philippine archipelago. He’s been a traveler all his life. He was born in Davao City in the south of the country, then moved north to Manila for his undergraduate degree, then moved to Austin to be with family, and finally to sunny and beautiful Santa Barbara. He fell in love with organic chemistry and polymer science during his undergraduate years at the Ateneo de Manila University, and decided to pursue work in those fields. He worked with Dr. Fabian Dayrit on natural products for his BS in Chemistry degree, and with Dr. Soma Chakraborty on chitosan-based polymers for his BS in Materials Science and Engineering degree. For his MS in Chemistry, he worked on the design of electroactive polymer-based devices in the lab of Dr. Jennifer Irvin at Texas State University. He then realized that he wanted the full experience of academia (a PhD), and decided that the best place to do it was in a place that not only had the best of both organic and polymer worlds, but also reminded him of the natural beauty of his own home. In his free time, Marvin is an amateur cinephile and likes to explore the mountains and beaches of Southern California on foot, but he’s working on biking and swimming for an eventual mara/triathlon.

Parker Morris

Parker graduated from the Robert D. Clark honors college at the University of Oregon in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. During his time at UO he studied organometallic complexes, seeking to find a cheap alternative to platinum based hydrosilylation and isomerization catalysts under the guidance of Prof. Amanda Cook. He has since shifted his focus from small molecules to polymeric systems studying degradable materials under Prof. Chris Bates and Prof. Javier Read de Alaniz at UCSB.

Natalia Neris

Natalia grew up in LA near the now gentrified Echo Park. She spent her young years playing sports (too many to name). Her dad decided she needed to go to college and sent her to an all-girls private school right around the corner (Mount Saint Mary’s University). At first, she aspired to be an entomologist studying Drosophila melanogaster but soon realized she didn’t like that. Somehow, she ended up doing chemistry and went on to get her masters at CSULA in biochemistry. Now you can find her in the Read de Alaniz group where every day she plays out loud music from the great classical Spanish musician Bad Bunny (her favorite song is Tití me Preguntó) to keep her coworkers entertained (aka Jlo... aka “Bunny”).

Arnab Nandi

Arnab's nomadic childhood, courtesy of his dad's Indian Railways job, saw him bouncing between small towns and schools like a pinball wizard. Boarding school became his stomping ground, where he collected friends faster than Pokémon. Chemistry crashed into his life like a surprise party, introducing him to the "brown ring test of nitrate" and the colorful aftermath of sulfuric and nitric acid experiments on his hands. Determined to show those acids who's boss, Arnab breezed through his bachelors and masters at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata by 2022. After a stint playing with luminescent crystalline materials, he set his sights on a PhD in organic materials. Fast forward to today, and he's landed in Javier's crew at UCSB, diving into the world of liquid crystal elastomers. When he's not busy unraveling scientific mysteries, Arnab unwinds with anime marathons, TV series binges, daydreaming about trips that may or may not happen, and occasionally dabbling in cooking (if the motivation stars align).

Aurora de Tagyos

Aurora de Tagyos hails from sunny San Diego, California. She grew up near the ocean, but quickly decided that she preferred her water in the sky. Therefore, she chose to come to UC Santa Barbara where she enjoyed her favorite hobby of walking in the rain during the rare rainy days. To further pursue her love of rain she went to an internship at Themis Bioscience GmbH in Vienna over the summer of 2021. While she was there, she was introduced to the popular German band Fritz and the Schnitzels and discovered that the namesake of the band was, in fact, a member of the Read de Alaniz group. Upon returning to UCSB, she jumped at the opportunity to conduct research in the group on sunny days where she prefers to be inside. Over the summer of 2022, she participated in CISEI to do an internship at the Leibniz Institute for New Materials in Germany.

Madeleine Miyamoto

Raised in North County San Diego, Madeleine enjoyed caring for her house plants, crafting jewelry, and baking. Her move to Santa Barbara was driven by a desire to bask in the sunshine and pursue her love for surfing. While at UC Santa Barbara, she discovered her fascination at the intersection of materials and chemistry. Notably, she gained experience working on stimuli-responsive hydrogels under Prof. Angela Pitenis at the Materials Research Lab. Currently as a RISE intern, she is dedicated to polymer synthesis, specifically researching miscible polymers to address the issue of plastic waste in landfills. Madeleine aspires to build a career in research focused on product development

Ian Maskiewicz

Ian was born in Danbury Connecticut, but has spent most of his life in sunny Redlands, California. Both of his parents have PhD’s in chemistry, so the field was all around him growing up. In high school, his interest towards chemistry flourished. Knowing that his parents both worked in a lab, he ended up begging them to give him a few round-bottoms and a hot plate to mess around with hardware store chemicals. Ian came to UC Santa Barbara hoping to work in a proper laboratory instead of his garage. When he had Professor Read de Alaniz for a quarter of organic chemistry, he quickly became interested in the group’s research. Now, he finally gets to work with all the chemicals he desires with proper safety gear. In his free time, he likes to skateboard, play piano, and play poker.