GROUP MEMBERS

DR. PEDRO ORTIZ

Research Associate

Pedro Ortiz was born in Havana, Cuba. He received a BSc in Chemistry (summa cum laude) at the University of Havana, under the supervision of Dr. Alex Fragoso. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry, with Cuban Science Academy’s Award, at the University of Havana, under the supervision of Dr. Pedro Ortiz del Toro, and Dr. Gunther Hennrich (from the Autonomous University of Madrid). He joined the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Havana as an Assistant Professor. Later, he joined Dr. Eduardo Schott’s Group at the Catholic University of Chile as a PDF and one of the winners of the Fondecyt/ANID grant. He also collaborated as an associate researcher on several projects devoted to nanostructured materials for catalysis and photocatalysis applications. At TMU, he joined the group of Dr. Bryan Koivisto, and recently that of Dr. Stefania Impellizzeri.
His scientific interests are related to the design, preparation, and characterization of organic and inorganic materials, and composites for a broad scope of applications.

DR. RYAN HUTCHINS

Postdoctoral Fellow & Research Associate

Ryan Hutchins earned a BSc and MSc from the University of Waterloo and a PhD from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Following the PhD, Ryan completed post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Alberta and the University of Waterloo. Ryan's research has focused on understanding the water chemistry and biogeochemistry from diverse impacted and unimpacted environments using a wide variety of analytical instruments and methods. Dr. Hutchins’ current research projects at Toronto Metropolitan University focus on the analytical aspects of ice-making and water quality (part of the Jet Ice Chair in Sustainable Materials Chemistry initiative) and in collaboration with Urban Water TMU.

SUMAYA SOHA

PhD Candidate

Since completing her undergraduate studies, Sumaiya was involved in teaching undergraduate biochemistry and high-school biology. Jointly with the Antonescu and Botelho labs at Ryerson, her research project focuses on the investigation of silver nanostructures to enhance fluorescence imaging of biological systems, bridging nanomaterial chemistry and biology.

ARMAGHAN KHOSRAVI

PhD Candidate

Armaghan completed her bachelor's degree at Lorestan University and MSc degree at Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch (Tehran, Iran) with a thesis on the Mechanochemically Synthesis of Cu-MOFs as a Catalyst and its application in aerobic Chan–Lam coupling. Currently, her research focuses on the assembly of photochromic metal-organic frameworks (P-MOFs).

EMMANUEL FAGBOHUN

PhD Candidate

Emmanuel earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and a Master of Science in Engineering (Applied Chemistry) from the University of the Chinese Academy of Science (UCAS), Beijing, China. He did two years of research in materials science at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Science. He was awarded the Chinese Government Scholarship and the University of Chinese Academy Scholarship for his master's program. His previous research focused on synthesizing nanomaterials and their applications in energy and hydrogen storage, and wastewater treatment. Currently, his research is focused on the synthesis of carbon-based materials for water splitting.

OSEMUDIAMEN IBAZEBO

MSc Candidate

Osemudiamen (Ose) completed her undergraduate studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. During her time there, she served as a peer mentor and tutored high school biology. Jointly with the Antonescu lab, Ose’s research project bridges cell biology and nanomaterial chemistry by investigating how size and shape define functional requirements of clathrin endocytosis using inorganic nanoparticles.

SABA AZIZI SOLDOUZ

MSc Candidate

Saba completed her Bachelor of Science in chemistry at Toronto Metropolitan University with a thesis project entitled “Structure-property relationships of a family of triphenylamine dyes in device fabrication”. After graduation, she continued her project as a Research Associate in Dr. Bryan Koivisto’s research group. In collaboration with the Koivisto lab, Saba's research is currently focused on carbon-based materials and electrochemistry.

JULIEN GAGNON

Research Assistant

Julien recently completed his third year of study in the B.Sc. Chemistry program at Laval University, Quebec City. Starting in the summer of 2022 and during the following year, he was an undergraduate research assistant working on the development of hydrometallurgical methods to recycle waste printed circuit boards. At Toronto Metropolitan University his research is focused on the synthesis of a novel fluorescence-switching Zn-MOF, using a photochromic disulfonylarylthiophene. He is the recipient of a 2023 NSERC USRA.

KATELYN SOWDEN

Research Assistant

Katelyn is a third-year undergraduate biology student at Toronto Metropolitan University. She's currently studying the synthesis and cell endocytosis of silica nanoparticles (together with McS candidate OseIbazebo) with additional research interests in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and organic fluorescent dyes for bioimaging.

ALUMNI

Reese Grandy

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry 2023

Talha Mahmood

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry 2022

Araniy Santhireswaran

BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science (2022)

Nicholas Dogantzis

NSERC USRA (2018), BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2019) and MSc (2022)

Karol Golian

MSc (2021)

Dr. Gregory Hodgson

Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2021)

Aaron Erlich

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2021)

Valeria Morozova

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2021) and NSERC USRA (2021)

Philip Januszyk

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2021)

Lavinia Trifoi

URO (2020), BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2020) and MSc (2022)

Ali Yaghoubian

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2020) and MSc (2022)

Aviya Akari

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2020) and MSc (2022)

Laraa Al Nubani

URO Research Assistant (2019)

Iselina Cascone

URO Research Assistant (2018) and BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2019)