Graduate Students

Graduate Researcher

Theodore Hueckel began independent research at Stony Brook University with Prof. Joe Lauher synthesizing novel diacetylene compounds, and went on to work with Prof. Mike White at Brookhaven National Labs utilizing x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to analyze the surface properties of lanthanides. He graduated from Stony Brook in May of 2013, and began working in the Sacanna group in September that same year. At NYU his research is centered around synthesizing tetrahedral shaped colloids.

Keywords: Colloidal Design, Tetrahedra, Patchy-Particles

th1304@nyu.edu

Graduate Researcher

Zhe Gong completed her B.Sc. degree in chemistry at Nankai University in China. During her undergraduate studies, she got trained in organic synthesis and was also involved in projects dealing with inorganic synthesis of nanomaterials and photocatalytic applications. Recently, she has been interested in colloidal chemistry, synthesizing different shapes and studying their assemblies.   

Keywords: Polyhedra, Colloidal Clusters, Patchy-Particles, Magnetic Colloids

zg478@nyu.edu

Graduate Researcher

Mena Youssef began independent research in Dr. Jianbo Lui’s lab at Queens College CUNY performing computational geometry optimization, energy minimization, and structure determination calculations on deprotonated methionine molecules, as well as study their non-covalent interactions with water molecules.  He graduated from Queens College CUNY in May 2014 and began working in the Sacanna group later that year.  He is currently investigating the directed assembly of colloids as well as engineering colloids with novel functions.

Keywords: Colloidal Self-Assembly, Active Colloids

my932@nyu.edu

Graduate Researcher

Zhe Xu obtained his bachelor degree from Nankai University in Tianjin, China. He started his journey in research with chitosan-based nanoparticles for drug delivery. Later on, he worked with Prof. Mark MacLachlan at UBC on cellulose nanocrystal templated chiral nematic membrane materials. He also studied inorganic nanoparticles for fuel cell applications for his final undergraduate year. Zhe joined the Sacanna group in 2016 with the goal of designing and synthesizing chiral colloidal systems.

Keywords: Chiral Colloids, Self-inflating Microcapsules

zx552@nyu.edu