Group Members

Graduate Students

Portrait of Sanjana Mutyapu

Sanjana Mutyapu

1st Year PhD Student

Start Date: August 21st, 2025
Main PhD Advisor: Dr. Nathalie Lavoine
Research Area: Investigate the effect of drying and mounted substrates on the self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals.
From: Karimnagar, India
Fun Fact: As a kid, I loved watching Food Factory; now I get to study the materials that make it all possible.

Photo of Fatima Ezzahra Allam

Fatima Ezzahra Allam

1st Year PhD Student

Start Date: January 20th, 2026
Main PhD Advisor: Dr. Nathalie Lavoine
Research Area: Investigate the effect of drying and mounted substrates on the self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals.
From: Casablanca, Morocco
Fun Fact: I look serious in the lab, but I’m actually the one who will start dancing if an experiment finally works.

Undergraduate Students

Logan Hickman

Freshman/Sophomore Undergraduate Student
Sustainable Materials and Technology

Start Date: Spring 2026
Research Area: Educational Sustainability Kit Development (sponsored by VentureWell)

Sarah P. Garcia

Undergraduate Student
Integrative Physiology and Neurobiology (Pre-med Track)

Start Date: Spring 2026
Research Area: Educational Sustainability Kit Development (sponsored by VentureWell)

Lily Dahlgren

Senior Undergraduate Student
Paper Science & Engineering / Chemical Engineering Dual degree

Start Date: Spring 2026
Research Area: Production of cellulose nanofibrils from post-consumer waste (FIBER-UP)
Collaboration with Prof. Aji Mathew, Stockholm University, Sweden

Kevin Garcia-Diaz

Sophomore Undergraduate Student
Paper Science & Engineering

Start Date: Spring 2026
Research Area: Shimmering colors from cellulose nanocrystals

Harold Figueroa Vazquez

Junior Undergraduate Student
Paper Science & Engineering

Start Date: Spring 2026
Research Area: Shimmering colors from cellulose nanocrystals

Alumni

Postdoctoral Researchers: Dr. Karthik Ananth Mani (2022-2023), Dr. Yuan Yue (2021-2022), Dr. Elmira Kalantari (Visiting Scholar, 2020-2021)

Graduated PhD Students: Dr. Shiyao Hong (Spring 2026), Dr. Mirela Artner (Summer 2024), Dr. Erfan Kimiaei (Visiting Scholar, Feb-Aug 2023), Dr. Nicolo Pajer (Visiting Scholar, 2022=2023), Dr. Lisandra Vanessa Chason (Winter 2022), Dr. Tao Zou (Visiting Scholar, Mar-Jun 2020), Dr. Selen Guner (Visiting Scholar), Dr. Ekrem Durmaz (Visiting Scholar, 2019-2020), Dr. Ramakrishna Trovagunta (Winter 2021).

Graduated Master Students: Emna Hedhili (Visiting Scholar, Summer 2025), Emily V. Piner (Spring 2022), Gregorio Simon Diaz Martinez (Visiting Scholar, 2021-2022).

Undergraduate Research Students: Kevin Garcia Diaz (Spring-Summer 2025), Dalinska Garcia (2024-2025), Linda Y. Posada-Argueta (Summer 2023), Yihang Qiu (Jan-Feb 2023), Zhengkai Chen (Jan-Feb 2023), Ashley Bean (2022-23), Ari Jindal (Feb-Nov 2023), Ashlrey R. Perez (Jan-Dec 2022), Siqin Sun (Summer 2022), Rishi Jain (Summer 2022), Saurav Jain (2019-2022), Daren Zhou (Summer 2021), Jeremy Kaelin (2021), Jingfu Zu (Summer 2021), Ryan Walters (Summer 2020), Annie Chen (Dec-May 2018, Summer 2019), Andrew Chu (Summer 2019), Jesse Price (Dec-May 2018), Austin Stallings (Fall 2019), Will Schriefer (Fall 2019), Spencer Payne (Summer 2018, Fall 2019), Jared Boyle (Summer 2018).