Project scientist

Maggie “the Queen”

Very Important Canine

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.

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. - “Written by Cassidy Tobin”

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.

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”).

Komal

Komal grew up in the northern heartland of India, in the vibrant city of Karnal, just a stone's throw from New Delhi. She pursued her bachelor's at the University of Delhi before delving deeper into the realm of chemistry at NIT Nagpur for her master's degree. During her academic pursuit, Komal worked on the organic synthesis and explored the use of lipase to facilitate C-C bond formation. After graduation, Komal transitioned into the realm of education, teaching Physical Chemistry on various online platforms. In 2022, fueled by her thirst for knowledge, she embarked on a journey towards a PhD, finding her academic home under the mentorship of Javier.

Sophie Paul

Sophie is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the department of Mechanical Engineering. Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, she couldn't decide whether to study engineering or sculpture in college--so she did both. She completed her Undergraduate degree in 2022 from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S in Materials Science and Engineering and an additional major in art. Inspired by self-folding origami, she joined the Morphing Matter Lab under Prof. Lining Yao. There, she was captured by the world of soft robotics and hasn't stopped playing with responsive materials since. She started her PhD in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UCSB under Prof. Elliot Hawkes, but was longing to return to polymers and the wet lab. After learning about the photo-responsive materials being synthesized in the Read De Alaniz group, she decided to unite her loves of chemistry and robotics together by being co-advised by Javier Read De Alaniz and Elliot Hawkes. She enjoys continuing Jesus Guillen's stinky chemistry and making liquid crystal elastomers. Sophie enjoys consuming excess caffeine, making pottery, baking gluten free goodies, and hanging out with her cat.

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).

Anwesha Guha

Anwesha grew up in the industrial town Durgapur, India and spent most of time reading, dancing and talking to animals and plants. School was fine and she didn't care much about it until she realised she could go into labs and do fun things hands on. She got into the Indian Institute of Science for undergrad and was thrown into the world of research at the age of 17. Scared at first, she slowly started talking to academicians, especially chemists, and after months of being the lab dishwasher, she was allowed to do a column (and she have been in love ever since). She realized that she wanted to do organic synthesis all her life (definitely not because she is too dumb to do quantum mechanics). After getting her BS degree she moved to California, which was a little more than six months ago. It's a bit too sunny for her but working on DASAs has made her start appreciating light more.

KAJAL

Kajal earned her B.S. in Chemistry (Hons) from Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, Vadodara, India, in 2021. She proceeded to pursue her Master's degree at Pittsburg State University, focusing on investigating the stability of gold and copper nanoparticles, and synthesizing hyperbranched polymers for nanoparticle stabilization. Currently, Kajal is pursuing her Ph.D. in Chemistry under the supervision of Professors Christopher M. Bates and Javier Read de Alaniz.