Postdoctoral Fellows
Hye Joon Lee
Joon was born in Korea and later moved to China. After participating in a high school exchange program in Idaho, she decided to study Chemistry at Idaho State University where she found her interest in total synthesis. While earning her BA, Joon was performing research in Prof. Karl De Jesus’ lab.
To pursue her interest, she joined Prof. Armen Zakarian’s group at the University of California Santa Barbara, where she worked on δ-chirality transfer in Ireland-Claisen rearrangements and on the total synthesis of portimine A. In her free time, she enjoys dancing, cooking, wandering in nature, and building tiny houses.
Graduate Students
Julius Semenya
Julius Semenya was born in Ghana. He earned his BS in Chemistry from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology–Ghana, KNUST, in 2015. At KNUST, Julius investigated antimicrobial activities of Ghanaian clays and plants in Prof. Lawrence Borquaye's lab . He later earned his MS in Chemistry from Central Michigan University working on the synthesis of antioxidant dendrimers in Prof. Choon Lee's lab . In his free time, Julius enjoys cooking and playing volleyball.
Cesar Reyes
Cesar was born and raised in Texas. After serving as an active-duty member in the Marine Corps, he earned his BS in Biochemistry and MS in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Dallas (2021). At UT Dallas, Cesar investigated the use of MOFs and biomaterials for drug delivery in Prof. Jeremiah Gassensmith’s lab . In his free time, Cesar enjoys going to the beach and hiking.
Yuanjie Yang
Yuanjie Yang was born in China. In 2021, he completed the B.A/M.A program in Chemistry at Brandeis University. While at Brandeis, Yuanjie investigated iron-catalyzed C-C bond formation reactions in Prof. Hao Xu’s lab . In his free time, Yuanjie enjoys reading novels and cooking.
Chloe Ramsperger
Chloe was born and raised in Redlands, California. She earned her BS in Chemistry from Oregon State University in 2021. At Oregon State, Chloe developed hydrogen peroxide sensors in Prof. Dipankar Koley’s lab , and investigated MOFs as heterogeneous catalysts in Prof. Kyriakos Stylianou’s lab . After graduating from Oregon State, she worked as a synthetic chemist at Inpria where she focused on upscaling chemistry and developing new organotin compounds. In her free time, Chloe enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and listening to music.
Khan A. Talim
Talim was born and raised in India. He completed his BS at the University of Mumbai. In 2022 he completed his MS in chemistry at IIT Varanasi where he worked on copper-catalyzed cross coupling reactions in Prof. Jeyakumar Kandasamy’s lab . After his MS he joined Aragen Lifesciences India where he investigated novel chemical entities pertaining to drug discovery. He is interested in catalysis, new synthetic methodologies and natural product synthesis. In his free time Talim loves to hike, cook and is a photography enthusiast.
Alex Karr
Alex was born and raised in Southern California. He graduated from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2021 with a B.S. in Chemistry. After graduation he went on to work as a quality control analyst at Curia for two years. Curia is a global contract research, development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), offering products and services across the drug development spectrum. In his spare time Alex likes to play pickleball, go to sporting events, and hike.