James Derr is a Biochemistry graduate student at the University of California, Riverside in the group of Prof. V. Vullev. He grew up outside of Philadelphia and attended West Chester University for his BS degree, where as an undergraduate he triple-majored in Biochemistry, Chemistry, and Biology. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of bioinspired molecular electrets for emerging charge-transfer phenomena, important for energy science and engineering.
Dr. Katarzyna Rybicka-Jasińska was born in Konin, Poland. She joined the research group of Prof. D. Gryko in 2012. In 2014, she graduated from the Warsaw University with a Masters in Chemistry. She obtained a PhD from the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2018, under the supervision of Prof. D. Gryko. She joined the group of Prof. V. Vullev at the University of California, Riverside as a postdoctoral scholar, and has recently assumed a new position at her alma mater. Her research interests are in the areas of photoredox catalysis, organic synthesis, and photochemistry.
Dr. Eli Espinoza is a postdoctoral scholar in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, in the group of Prof. Niren Murthy, where his research focuses on enzyme-activated probes for point-of-care diagnostics. He received his Bachelor in Chemistry from Azusa Pacific University, and was awarded an NIH MORE grant from the California State University, Los Angeles, where he pursued master’s research in the group of Prof. Feimeng Zhou. For his doctoral work in Chemistry, he joined the group of Prof. Valentine Vullev at the University of California, Riverside, where his research was on electron-deficient photosensitizers and on dipole-modulated charge transfer.
Maryann Morales graduated with a BS in Chemistry from the University of California, Riverside. As a freshman, she joined the group of Prof. V. Vullev as a researcher to work on photoinduced charge transfer and biomedical photophysics. As an undergraduate at UCR, she was awarded a NIH-funded MARC U Star Fellowship for two consecutive years. In 2018, Ms Morales was awarded a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) Fellowship that allowed her to carry out medicinal chemistry research at the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf. In the autumn of 2020, she began her doctoral studies in Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology.
Mimi Billones is a Biology undergraduate student in the group of Prof. V. Vullev at the University of California, Riverside. Her research interests are in the area of organic synthesis and molecular biology.
John Clark is a Bioengineering graduate student at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in the group of Prof. V. Vullev. He also received his BS degree in Bioengineering from UCR, where as an undergraduate, he was awarded a NSF-funded MYBEST fellowship that supports year-round research. He joined the group of Prof. Vullev to carry out research in biophotonics and microbiology. Currently, as a graduate student, John is an AGEP Fellow, supported by NSF. His research interests include the design, synthesis, electrochemistry, and photophysics of chromophores for biological and charge-transfer systems.
Dr. Vullev is a professor at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). He grew up in Bulgaria and graduated from the National Gymnasium of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. He began his undergraduate studies at the University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski,” Bulgaria, and completed his higher education in the USA. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry from Boston University, completed postdoctoral work at Harvard University, and moved to UCR where he built a research program in charge transfer, molecular photonics, and biological inspiration. From 2018 to 2019, Prof. Vullev was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at the Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
