Team Members

Trinity Berube (Volunteer, Physics Student)

Trinity's major is in Physics, but she came to our lab to learn more about materials chemistry and optics of lanthanides. Currently, she studies the photoluminescence of Europium-doped oxides.

Email: tberu092@uottawa.ca

Connor Campbell Smith (Honour's Student)

Connor joined the group to learn how to synthesize lanthanide-doped nanoparticles. Since fall, he uses these for his Honour's project studying nano-bio-interactions in zebrafish (collaboration with the Mennigen-Lab).

Email: ccamp159(at)uottawa.ca

Gabrielle Chong Foo Yuen (Undergraduate Summer Volunteer)

Gabrielle is a second year chemistry student with specialization in materials who joined the team to learn more about lanthanide-based nanomaterials.

Email: gchon005(at)uottawa.ca

Chris Conrad (Graduate Student - Ph.D. Thesis at Tübingen University, Germany)

After having gained first experience in synthesis and spectroscopy of UCNPs in our lab in 2022, Chris is now focusing on theoretical aspects of upconversion under supervision of Prof. Reinhold Fink at Tübingen University, Germany. Looking forward for your next visit at uOttawa, Chris!
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Email: chris.conrad(at)uni-tuebingen.de

Sinedu Dejene (Graduate Student - Ph.D. Thesis)

Sinedu focuses on the synthesis of silica-coated lanthanide-doped nanoparticles and their optical properties, seeking implementation into optoelectronic devices with the Lessard Research Group.

Email: stefera(at)uottawa.ca

Dr. Christian Homann (Postdoc - Mitacs Fellow)

Christian joined the team in summer 2022 to develop inks based on lanthanide-doped nanoparticle for printing applications with Optech (Montreal).

Email: chomann(at)uottawa.ca

Nan Liu (Graduate Student - Ph.D. Thesis)

Nan started to work on the surface modification of magnetic nanoparticles in September 2017. After having finished her Master's thesis in October 2019, she is now working on her PhD project. Great news in 2020: her project receives funding through the Chinese Scholarship Council.

Email: nliu039(at)uottawa.ca

Hana Mirmajidi (Graduate Student - Ph.D. Thesis)

Hana became a Ph.D. candidate at the lab in fall 2021. She is exploring lanthanide-based nanoparticles for biomedical applications from imaging to sensing.

Email: smirm082(at)uottawa.ca

Sabrina Morin (Honour's Student)

Sabrina joined the group for her Honour's Thesis Project during which she will optimize the silica-shelling of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles.

Email: smori038(at)uottawa.ca

Ryan Nguyen (High School Student - Research Intern)

Ryan joined the group to explore upconverting nanoparticles modified with aptamers for bioimaging and sensing applications.

Email: 

​Abigale Puccini (Graduate Student - M.Sc. Thesis)

Abigale joined the group in September 2021 to tune near-infrared emission properties of lanthanide-doped core/shell nanoparticles obtained by microwave-assisted routes and to apply them in biomedical applications.

Email: apucc043(at)uottawa.ca

Fathi Souissi (Graduate Student - M.Sc. Thesis)

Fathi is co-supervised by Dr. Adina Luican-Mayer and brings together the worlds or lanthanide-based nanoparticles and 2D-materials. 

Email: fsoui096(at)uottawa.ca

Alexandre Sylvestre (Undergraduate Summer Volunteer)

Welcome back to the lab, Alexandre, for your second summer of volunteering in the lab, performing photoluminescence specroscopy on upconverting and downshifting nanopowders!

Email: asylv045(at)uottawa.ca

Alumni

Graduate Students

  • Nikita Panov (M.Sc. 2017 - 2020; Microwave-Assisted Solvothermal Synthesis and Optical Characterization of M(RE)F4 (M – Alkali  Metal; RE – Rare-Earth Metal) Nano- and Microscale Particles​)
  • Ilias Halimi (M.Sc. 2017 - 2020; Energy Transfer in Lanthanide-based Nanomaterial)
  • Nan Liu (M.Sc. 2017 - 2019; Tailoring Crystalline Phase and Surface of Lanthanide-Based Nanoparticles for MRI Applications)

Undergraduate Honours Project Students

  • Anne-Pascale Murebwayire (September 2021 - April 2022)
  • Julia Bernard (January - April 2021)
  • ​Justin Crawford-Corriveau (January - April 2021)
  • Natalie Millan (January - April 2021)
  • Jessica Holmes (September 2020 - April 2021)
  • ​Kusuma Virginna Adiningtyas (January - April 2020)
  • Parrish Evers (September 2019 - April 2020)
  • Nicholas Gobeil (September 2019 - April 2020)
  • Tina Sun (September 2019 - April 2020)
  • Itzel Lopez-Carreon (January - April 2019)
  • Nathaniel Leslie (January - April 2019)
  • Faduma Abdirahman (September 2018 - April 2019)
  • Emma Boase (September 2018 - April 2019)
  • Fadi Oussta (September 2017 - April 2018)
  • Qing Qing (Kinna) Zhao (September 2017 - April 2018)
  • Jeffry Colin (September 2016 - April 2017)
  • Rebecca Duris (September 2016 - April 2017)
  • Alex Therien (January - April 2017)

Undergraduate COOP Students

  • Nathaniel Leslie (Mai - August 2017)
  • Alex Therien (May - December 2016)
  • Rayan Ghadieh (May - August 2016)

Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Students

  • Adam Omari (May 2021 - March 2022)
  • Luciana Yu (November 2020 - April 2021)
  • Yifei Wang (November 2018 - April 2019)
  • Brad Martire (November 2016 - April 2017)
  • Kinna Zhao (October 2016 - April 2017)
  • Nathaniel Leslie (October 2016 - April 2017)
  • Jamal Al-Refaee (November 2016 - March 2017)

Postdocs

  • Dr. Deepika Jamwal (February - June 2022; Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Postdoctoral Fellow from February to March 2022)
  • Dr. Emille M. Rodrigues (March 2019 - November 2021)
  • Dr. Riccardo Marin (November 2017 - November 2018)

Volunteers

  • Alexandre Sylvestre (May - August 2021 and June 2022 - )
  • Nihar David (May - August 2021) 
  • Sinedu Dejene (October 2020 - April 2021)
  • Amanda Friio (January - October 2020)
  • Nelson Rutajoga (May - August 2019)
  • ​Faduma Abdirahman (May - August 2018)
  • ​Joelle Machaalni (June - July 2017)
  • Nathaniel Leslie (May - September 2016)
  • Fozia Nur (May - August 2016)

Visiting Students

  • Kevin Soro (visiting PhD Student from Université de Strasbourg, France; funding: Canada Research Fund; July 2022)
  • Chris Conrad (MITACS Globalink Student; graduate student from University of Tübingen, Germany, February - April 2022)
  • Laura Kelly (RISE Summer Student; undergraduate student from University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada, May - August 2021)
  • Manjot Grewal (RISE Summer Student & NSERC USRA Scholar; undergraduate student from McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, May - August 2019)
  • Nabojit Kar (MITACS Globalink Summer Student; undergraduate student from Indian Research Institute of Science and Education, Kolkata, India, May - August 2019)
  • Camille Laot​ (Undergraduate Student from Lycée Pierre Gilles de Gennes, Paris, France, October - December 2018)
  • Steven Maurizio (RISE Summer Student; undergraduate student from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, May - August 2018)
  • ​Yacine Mazouzi (Graduate Student from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France, April - August 2017)

Visiting Postdocs & Researchers

  • Dr. Loic Charbonnière (visiting researcher from Université de Strasbourg, France, July 2022)
  • Prof. Pawan Khanna (visiting professor from Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune, India, December 2021)
  • Dr. Isabel Gessner (visiting postdoc from University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, February-April 2019)
  • Dr. Nicholas Obitte​ (visiting researcher from University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria, February-March 2019)
  • Dr. Ute Resch-Genger (visiting researcher from the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), Berlin, Germany,  December 2018)