• Home
  • Research
    • Synthesis and Catalysis
    • Structural Chemistry
  • Members
    • Alumni
  • Media
  • Opportunities
  THE NELSON LAB
  • Home
  • Research
    • Synthesis and Catalysis
    • Structural Chemistry
  • Members
    • Alumni
  • Media
  • Opportunities

Graduate Students

Picture
Christopher Jones

​Ph.D., Caltech, 2023​
M.S., San Jose State University, 2017
B.S., CSU East Bay, 2013

Chris was born and raised in Rochester, NY. After a stint in the U.S. Navy, he moved to the Bay Area to pursue a B.S. in computer engineering at CSU East Bay. He then pursued his M.S. in Chemical Engineering at San Jose State University while concurrently working at Sandia National Laboratories in the energy nanomaterials department. Chris is now pursuing his PhD in Chemistry. His hobbies include working out and mixing gratuitous amounts of whey protein into any drink.

Picture
Woojin Lee 

​Ph.D., UCLA, 2023
B.S., UC Berkeley, 2016
Postdoc at Katritch Lab at USC

Woojin was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. After he finished his mandatory military service, he started studying abroad in the United States. He attended a community college in Kansas and transferred to UC Berkeley, where he obtained a B.S degree in chemistry and also worked on the deoxydehydration/hydrogenation of sugar acids under the guidance of Professor F. Dean Toste. Outside of lab, he likes to learn stock trading, watch Youtube videos, and ride a bike on Santa Monica beach. 

Picture
Sepand Nistanaki

Ph.D., Caltech, 2023
B.S., UC Berkeley, 2016
​Postdoc at Jacobsen Group at Harvard University

Sepand was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland and raised in Irvine, California. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry at UC Berkeley, where he conducted research under Professor Christopher Chang. In 2017 he moved back down to Southern California to attend UCLA and begin working in the Nelson lab. Some of Sepand's hobbies include coffee brewing and tasting, advocating for Peaky Blinders as the best show ever, recommending yogurt soda to his lab mates, and calling his mother. ​

Picture
​Chloe Williams

Ph.D., Caltech, 2023
B.S., DePaul University, 2018
​Scientist at Bristol Myers Squibb

​Chloe was born and raised in Valparaiso, Indiana. She graduated from DePaul University in 2018 where she conducted research with Professor Paul Vadola working on gold(I)-mediated cyclization reactions. Despite her love for Chicago, she decided to leave the Midwest winters behind and come to California. Chloe enjoys going to the beach, eating great food, and hanging out with her cat.
Picture
Ernesto Millan Aceves

M.S., Caltech, 2023
B.S., San Diego State University, 2021

Ernesto was born in San Diego, California and raised in Tijuana, Mexico. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry at San Diego State University and conducted research on regioselective methodologies under Profesor Jefferey Gustafson. He likes to spend his free time watching MMA and getting good at video games to never play them again.
Picture
Lee Joon Kim

​Ph.D., UCLA 2022
B.S., Harvey Mudd College, 2017

Postdoc fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Lee Joon was born in South Korea and grew up in Irvine, California. She conducted research in total synthesis of natural products under Professor David Vosburg and completed her B.S. in Joint Major in Chemistry and Biology at Harvey Mudd College. Some of her hobbies include consuming 20 oz. cans of sugar-free Red Bull, showcasing her collection of long jackets and turtlenecks, and feeding in video games.

Picture
Ben Wigman

Ph.D., UCLA 2022
B.S., UC Davis, 2017

​Senior Associate Scientist at Amgen

​Ben was once an east coaster but is now a west coast dude. He received his B.S. in Chemistry at UC Davis in 2017 where he conducted research under prof. Annaliese Franz, probing Lewis acidity of popular catalysts and building allylsilane oligomers. Outside of lab he likes to bike, play the bass, and enjoy the view at the beach.

Picture
Sydnee Green

Ph.D., UCLA, 2021
B.S., UC Davis, 2016

Scientist at Terray Therapeutics 

Sydnee was born and raised in Chico, CA. At UC Davis she conducted research making synthetic nucleosides to study DNA repair enzymes. She decided to leave her home of northern California and come to UCLA to conduct research in Professor Hosea Nelson's lab. 
Picture
Stanislav Popov 

Ph.D., UCLA, 2021
B.S., Brandeis University, 2016

Senior Scientist at Merck 

Stasik was born in Kazakhstan and grew up in Wayland, MA. After receiving his B.S. in Mathematics and Chemistry from Brandeis University, he moved to UCLA and joined professor Nelson's lab in the summer of 2016. In his free time he enjoys playing video games and working out.
Picture
Alex Bagdasarian

Ph.D., UCLA, 2019
B.S., UC Davis, 2015

Scientist at Denali Therapeutics 

Alex was born and raised in Cupertino, CA.  He left his hometown of Apple headquarters to attend UC Davis where he conducted research under Dr. Mark J Kurth. His research consisted of heterocyclic methodology as well as synthesizing biologically active heterocycles. He graduated in 2015 with a B.S. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. His hobbies include taking long walks in the chemistry building hallways, playing fetch with his cat, and cooking.
Picture
Brian Shao

Ph.D., UCLA, 2019
B.S., UC Davis, 2015

Scientist at Terray Therapeutics 

​Brian was born and raised in Alhambra, CA. After receiving his B.S. in pharmaceutical chemistry at UC Davis, he decided to throw away his free time and hobbies to slave away in the Nelson Lab. Before joining, he liked to go to the gym and play StarCraft and CS:GO at home.

Postdocs

Picture
Dr. Noah Sims

Ph.D., Baylor University
B.S., University of Rochester

​Noah was born and raised in Syracuse, NY. Upon graduating from high school, he went on to get a B.S. from University of Rochester under the training of the late Prof. Robert K. Boeckman, Jr. where he was first introduced to total synthesis. After graduating, he departed for Baylor University in Waco, TX where he did his graduate work under the tutelage of Prof. John L. Wood.  Outside of the lab, Noah spends him time trail running, cooking, and playing the occasional video game.
Picture
​Dr. Martin-Louis Y. Riu 

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.S., Emory University

​Martin was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He earned his B.S. degree at Emory University where he studied photoredox catalyzed carbon-carbon bond forming reactions under Prof. Nate Jui. He went on to obtain his Ph.D. in chemistry under the guidance of Christopher “Kit” C. Cummins at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here, he developed new reagents and reactions for the synthesis of phosphorus-containing tetrahedranes and heterocycles. In his free time, he enjoys learning new sports and music and taking his very fluffy, often mistaken for fat, tuxedo cat on walks.

Picture

​Dr. Jonathan Gordon 

Ph.D., Caltech, 2015 (Prof. Brian M. Stotlz)
Sc.B., Brown University, 2009 (Prof. Jason K. Sello)
Director of Research and Development at Ambercycle 

​Jonny did his undergraduate research at Brown University with Professor Sello in the area of rare-earth metal catalysis for 4-component Ugi reactions. At Caltech, his graduate work focused on the syntheses of Transtaganolide and Basiliolide natural products. He is a Los Angeles native who is a big fan of the L.A. Lakers and the L.A. Dodgers.

Dr. Matthew Asay

PhD, UC Riverside / Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse III
Postdoc, Humboldt Fellow TU Berlin, JSPS Fellow University of Tsukuba
Senior Research Scientist at Universal Display Corporation


Matt was born in SLC, Utah but generally claims the ambiguous ‘SoCal’ because he hasn’t lived in Utah in a long time. He received his PhD from UC, Riverside in the Lab of Prof. Guy Bertrand making carbene related ligands. During his PhD he spent a year in Toulouse, France also making carbene related ligands in the LHFA. Upon completion of his doctoral degree he began a world tour with postdoctoral research stays in Germany and Japan where he learned many of the intricacies of fundamental silicon chemistry. After a return to UCR to work with Prof. Vince Lavallo on carborane cluster chemistry Matt began an independent research career at UNAM in Mexico City. He now finds himself again on American soil using carborane anions. He enjoys American Football, French Rugby, German Football, Japanese Karaoke, and Mexican cochinita pibil.

Visiting Scholars

Picture
Melody Tang

Melody was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. In the Nelson lab, she spent 2 summers working with David learning how to leverage microED for natural product discovery. She’s currently a second year majoring in Chemistry and Biological Chemistry at the University of Chicago where she studies Ni catalysis in Prof. Guangbin Dong’s lab during the school year. Outside of chemistry, Melody enjoys advocating that SoCal is better than NorCal, pushing Gen Z slang, and playing with her dog.
Picture
Nils Rendel

M.S., Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster
B.S., Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster, 2021

Nils was born and raised in Grevenbroich, a city near Cologne in Germany. He moved to Münster and earned his B.S. in Chemistry, where he conducted research on photocatalysis in Professor Frank Glorius group. Outside of lab, Nils enjoys hiking, sports, and photography.
  • Home
  • Research
    • Synthesis and Catalysis
    • Structural Chemistry
  • Members
    • Alumni
  • Media
  • Opportunities