Team Members

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!

Email: chris.conrad(at)uni-tuebingen.de

Nayara de Melo Costa Serge (Postdoc)

Nayara is a FAPS postdoctoral fellow from Prof. Rogéria Rocha Gonçalves' group at the University of São Paulo (Brazil). She joined the group in February 2025 and will explore copper-cysteamine/layered double hydroxides with lanthanide for environmental applications for the year to come.

Email: nayara.serge(at)usp.br

Jeremy Doucette (Graduate Student - M.Sc. Thesis)

Jeremy joined the team in September 2023. During his graduate studies, he focuses on the surface modification of lanthanide-doped nanomaterials for targeted biomedical applications.

Email: jdouc060(at)uottawa.ca

Philippe Hébert (Undergraduate Volunteer)

Philippe joined us in fall 2024 to help synthesizing nanoparticles.

Email: phebe085(at)uottawa.ca

Mohammadreza Khodabakhsh (Postdoc)

Reza joined the team in October 2024 to develop novel nanomaterials that push the spectral region of NIR emitters to longer wavelengths. He also explores the capability of these materials for optical thermal sensing.

Email: mkhodaba(at)uottawa.ca

Raquel Matos (Graduate Student - M.Sc. Thesis)

Raquel joined the group in Fall 2024 to study effects of surface chemistry on the spectral features of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles.

Email: rmato037(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, focusing on nano-bio interactions.

Email: smirm082(at)uottawa.ca

Sitharth Partheepan (Undergraduate Volunteer)

Sitharth joined the team in fall 2024 to explore new opto-magnetic nanoparticles.

Email: spart061(at)uottawa.ca

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 NIR-nanothermometers.

Email: apucc043(at)uottawa.ca

Wunnam Saani (Honour's Student)

Wunnam is doing her Honour's project with us, working on the surface modification of silica-coated Ln-NPs.

Email: wsaan073(at)uottawa.ca

York Estewin Serge Correales (Postdoc)

York is a FAPS postdoctoral fellow from Prof. Rogéria Rocha Gonçalves' group at the University of São Paulo (Brazil). He joined the group in February 2025 and will explore nanothermometry and hyperspectral imaging with lanthanide-based nanomaterials for the year to come.

Email: york.correales(at)usp.br

Erik Tunang (Undergraduate Volunteer)

Erik spends summer and fall 2024 with us, learning about materials chemistry.

Email: etuna017(at)uottawa.ca

Lilianna Liang Wu (Undergraduate Volunteer)

Lilianna spends summer and fall 2024 with us, learning about materials chemistry.

Email: llian021(at)uottawa.ca

Alumni

Graduate Students

Nan Liu (Ph.D. 2019 - 2024; Rare-Earth-Based Nanoparticles: From Microwave-Assisted Synthesis to Potential Applications)
Fathi Souissi (M.Sc. 2019 - 2023; Fabrication and Optical Properties of Upconverting Nanoparticle/Graphene Hybrids; co-supervision with Prof. Adina Luican-Mayer, Dep. of Physics, uOttawa)
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

Jessica Berg (September 2023 - April 2024)
Lucas Crozier (September 2023 - April 2024)
Connor Overton (September 2023 - April 2024)
Ryan Way (September 2023 - April 2024)
Sabrina Morin (September 2022 - April 2023)
Connor CampbellSmith (September 2022 - April 2023)
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

Akash Dahiya (Dec 2022 - April 2023)
Ghazal Al Saleh (Dec 2022 - April 2023)
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. Nan Liu (September 2024 - December 2024)
Dr. Christian Homann (July 2022 - July 2024)
Dr. Helliomar Barbosa (October 2022 - May 2024)
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

Trinity Berube (Aug 2022 - May 2023)
Alexandre Sylvestre (May - August 2021 and June 2022)
Gabrielle Chong Foo Yuen (May - August 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

Swantje Funk (visiting PhD student from Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany; February - March 2025)
Gabriel Moronari (visiting MSc student from UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil; February 2025)
Régis Peeters (visiting MSc student from Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium; February - May 2024)
Manuela Mitroi (visiting PhD student from University of Nottingham, UK; July - September 2023)
Coline Charrier (visiting MSc Student from Université de Rennes, France; May - July 2023)
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)