PI
Contact Information
Administrative Assistant: Annette Luymes Email: aluymes[at]caltech.edu |
Hosea M. Nelson
Professor of Chemistry
Postdoc, UC Berkeley, 2015 (Prof. F. Dean Toste) Ph.D., Caltech, 2013 (Prof. Brian M. Stoltz) B.S., UC Berkeley, 2004 Email: hosea[at]caltech.edu Office: 357 Crellin Laboratory Phone: 626-395-6072 Hosea earned a B.S. in Chemistry from University of California at Berkeley in 2004 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 2013 with Brian Stoltz. After postdoctoral training at University of California at Berkeley with Dean Toste, Hosea joined the UCLA faculty in 2015. In 2021, Hosea became a Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. He is an avid fisherman and motorsports enthusiast (there are even pictures of him on the web wearing a NASCAR hat). Like most native San Franciscans, he spends most of his time talking about how much he loves the Giants, hates the Dodgers, and how much better S.F. is than L.A. |
Graduate Students
Steven Zhao
B.S., Peking University, 2019 Email: zzhao2[at]caltech.edu G5 Research Project: Catalysis Steven was born and grew up in Changchun, a city in Northeast China. Later he moved to Beijing and earned his B.S. in Chemical Biology at Peking University, where he conducted research on metabolic labeling of non-natural sugars in Professor Xing Chen’s group. Despite living in the cold north since his birth, he decided to make a change and come to sun-soaked SoCal. He loves going to the beach, hiking, and having authentic Chinese food in LA. |
Doris Mai
B.S., Stanford University, 2019 Email: hmmai[at]caltech.edu G5 Research Project: Structural Chemistry Doris was born in Shenzhen, China. She obtained her B.S. in Computer Science at Stanford University, where she conducted research under Prof. Vijay Pande. Doris likes collecting postcards and random stuff and finding the best boba place in town. |
Isabel Hernandez Rodriguez
B.A., Barnard College, 2021 Email: ihernan2[at]caltech.edu G3 Research Project: Structural Chemistry Isabel was born in Mexico and raised in Seattle, Washington. She earned her B.A. in Chemistry at Barnard College, where she conducted research under Professor Latha Venkataraman, studying electron transport in single-molecule devices. Outside of lab, Isabel enjoys cooking, being outdoors, and showing people pictures of her dog. |
Josh Signore
B.A., Wesleyan University, 2019 M.A., Wesleyan University, 2021 Email: jsignore[at]caltech.edu G3 Research Project: Biocatalysis Josh was born in Guatemala and raised in Bristol, CT. He earned a B.A. and M.A. in chemistry from Wesleyan University and studied small exotic molecules via microwave spectroscopy under the supervision of Stewart E. Novick. He left Connecticut to escape the humidity and bask in sunny Southern California. Outside of the lab, he enjoys running, hiking, and playing the piano, especially Chopin. |
Conner Wells
B.A., Pitzer College, 2021 Email: cwwells[at]caltech.edu G3 Research Project: Catalysis Conner was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California. He earned a B.A. in Chemistry at Pitzer college where he conducted research under Professor Anna Wenzel. As an undergrad he also spent time at the University of California Santa Cruz conducting research there under Professor Glenn Millhauser. A Californian through and through he moved the 40 minutes from Claremont to Pasadena to study at Caltech where he now works in the Nelson lab. Outside of lab he likes to ride or work on his bikes and spend time with his friends and family. |
Krista Dong
B.A., Wellesley College, 2020 Email: kdong[at]caltech.edu G2 Research Project: Catalysis Krista was born and raised in the great state of New Jersey. In search of more snow and more fun accents, she attended Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA and earned her B.A. in Chemistry in 2020. During her time there, she worked with Prof. Alison E. Wendlandt (MIT) on the arylation of unprotected sugars. After graduating, Krista spent two years in Cambridge, MA working for Amgen’s late-stage process development group. In her free time she enjoys backpacking, playing soccer, watching the Ocean’s Eleven movies on repeat, and sending people pictures of her cat, Wormy Pete. |
Tiffany Hung
B.S., Emory University, 2021 Email: thung2[at]caltech.edu G2 Research Project: Catalysis Tiffany was born in NYC and raised in Long Island, New York. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry at Emory University where she worked under Professor Frank McDonald synthesizing analogs of a compound connected with treating trauma-induced vision loss. She also worked under Professor Simbarashe Nkomo studying the influence of heterogeneity and time-delay on the emergence of chimera states in small coupled Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) chemical oscillator systems. Outside of lab, she enjoys hiking, cooking, and napping. |
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Abi Nelson
Official Nelson Lab dog B.S., UC Bark-ley Abi joined the Nelson Lab in June, 2018 at only 4 months old. She is a loyal friend and companion of the Nelson Lab members, and also enjoys learning about chemistry too. In her free time she loves napping, playing with grad students, and taking long walks from Crellin to the Beckman Institute. Follow her on Instagram @abi.nelsonlab |
Postdocs
Dr. David Delgadillo
Ph.D., University of California Santa Cruz B.S., University of California Merced Email: ddelgadi[at]caltech.edu Research Project: Structural Chemistry Thesis Title: Cheminformatic Approaches to Decipher Natural Product-Target-Disease Associations David was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. After dabbling in the bustling city life, he decided to pursue a degree in Human Biology at UC Merced. While at Merced, he worked on non-innocent ligand synthesis under Prof. Ryan Baxter. He went on to obtain his Ph.D in Chemistry at UC Santa Cruz under prof. John MacMillan studying marine bacteria-derived bioactive natural products. Outside of the lab, David enjoys being one with nature and tinkering with random hobbies. |
Dr. Kunal Jha
Ph.D., Shiv Nadar University, 2017 M.S., Jamia Hamdard University, 2012 B.S., University of Delhi, 2009 Email: kunaljha[at]caltech.edu Research Project: Structural Chemistry Thesis Title: Systematic Investigation of Polymorphism, Photodimerization and Charge-Transfer Mechanism in Organic Optical Materials: Probing Structure-Property Relationships Kunal was born and raised in Bihar, India. He went to the University of Delhi to pursue his BSc in Industrial Chemistry. He received his master’s degree in Organic Chemistry from Jamia Hamdard University, Delhi. He went on to obtain his PhD degree from Shiv Nadar University, India, where he broadly worked on generation of non-centrosymmetric polymorphs of organic push-pull chromophores for their optical properties. He went on to do his first post-doc in electron density modelling group under Prof. Paulina M. Dominiak at the University of Warsaw, Poland. His research focuses on improving structural model of SC-XRD and micro-ED data by applying quantum crystallographic methods. He believes in multi-disciplinary research and never shy of learning new methods and techniques. He enjoys cooking and listening to classical music in his leisure time. |
Dr. Lygia Silva de Moraes
Ph.D., University of Strathclyde, 2019 B.S., Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 2014 Email: lmoraes[at]caltech.edu Research Project: Structural Chemistry Thesis Title: Generating and Interrogating Crystallographic Data to Predict Solid-State Properties Lygia was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) where she concluded her B.S. degree in Chemistry at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She decided it was a good idea to move to sunny Glasgow (Scotland) to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry working with Prof. Alan Kennedy and to study crystalline pharmaceutical salts and their physicochemical properties. After the Ph.D., Lygia joined Prof. Yves Geerts at the Free University of Brussels (Belgium) for postdoctoral research studying substrate-induced phases and polymorphism in small organic molecules. Lygia likes to play with random dogs in the street, complain about the referee in soccer matches, and listen to horrible music. |
Dr. Jake Rothbaum
Ph.D., Northwestern University B.S., University of Georgia Email: jrothba[at]caltech.edu Research Project: Bio-inorganic Catalysis Thesis Title: Metal-Based Chemodivergence and the Importance of Chemically Non-Innocent Ligand Participation Jake is the youngest son of Barbara and John and Alex’s brother. He was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and obtained his B.S. degree from the University of Georgia where he studied palladium catalyzed C-H functionalization in Prof. Eric Ferreira’s lab. Jake realized metals are the key to his heart and studied organolanthanide catalysis under the mentorship of Prof. Tobin Marks at Northwestern University, where he obtained his Ph.D. and discovered a new chemodivergent reaction pathway within the lanthanide series. Missing the warm weather, Jake moved to the Nelson Lab to develop new bioinorganic catalysts for the use in diagnostics and therapeutics. Other than chemistry, Jake likes playing and watching sports, water coloring, and stealing Martin’s acetone bottle. |
Dr. Kevin Martin
Ph.D., Montpellier University, 2022 Pharm.D., Montpellier University, 2018 M.Sc., Montpellier University, 2018 Email: keloil[at]caltech.edu Research Project: Structural Chemistry Thesis Title: Structural characterization of the cap-binding complex (CBC) with innovative molecules of pharmaceutical interest by cryogenic-electron microscopy Kevin was born and raised in south of France. He obtained his Pharm.D. at Montpellier University, France, in 2018, where he specialized in pharmaceutical research through different internship, in academic labs and private companies. In 2019, he started a Ph.D. between the center of structural biology and Abivax pharmaceuticals in Montpellier, France. He conducted research under the supervision of Pr J. Tazi and Dr. P. Bron, where he aimed to understand the interaction between an original molecule developed by the company and its target by cryogenic-electron microscopy. On his free time, Kevin enjoys playing music, hiking, working out and discovering new wonderful places in Southern California. |
Dr. Vincent Wang
Ph.D., University of California Davis, 2017 B.S., California State University Northridge, 2012 Email: shw062[at]caltech.edu Research Project: Catalysis Thesis Title: Reactivity Studies of Bulky Terphenyl Ligand Supported Low Valent Tin(II) Hydride Species toward Unsaturated Olefins and the Synthesis and Reactivity Investigation of the Low Valent Tin(II) Azide I received my B.S. degree in biochemistry from California State University, Northridge in 2012. My undergraduate research was focusing on synthesis of Ru complexes with the commercially available Ru precursors, mimicking the Grubb’s catalysts, for olefin metathesis, under the tutelage of Professor Yann Schrodi. I then joined Professor Philip Power’s group at University of California, Davis for low valent main group organometallic chemistry investigations. Upon earning my Ph.D. degree in 2017, I moved to New York and joined Professor Jack Norton’s lab for methodology and mechanistic studies on transition metal catalysis via hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) pathway. In 2018, I came back to California, and conducted fundamental research on highly reduced and unsaturated first row transition metal complexes supported by bulky terphenyl isocyanide ligands in Professor Joshua Figueroa’s group. On my spare time, I like to lift weights, talk about crazy (even unrealistic) chemistry ideas with my colleagues, and hang out with my friends. |
Dr. Yan Liu
Ph.D., University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2023 B.S., Shanxi University, 2017 Email: yanliu23[at]caltech.edu Research Project: Biocatalysis Thesis Title: Artificial directed evolution of hydratase Yan was born and raised in Shanxi, China, and obtained her B.S. degree from Shanxi University. In 2017, she came to Beijing to start a Ph.D. at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Under the supervision of Professor Hailin Wang, she conducted research on the artificially evolved super binder for specific recognition of N6-methyladenine base modification in DNA and RNA. Outside the lab, she enjoys swimming, using adobe illustrator to draw scientific illustrations, and exploring interesting places in California. |
Staff Scientist
Dr. Jessica Burch
Ph.D., UCLA, 2021 B.S., UT San Antonio, 2015 Email: jburch[at]caltech.edu Research Project: Structural Chemistry Thesis Title: Catalytic Terpene Polycyclization Reactions and Structural Determination of Small Molecules by MicroED Jessica completed her B.S. at The University of Texas at San Antonio and performed research in the laboratory of Dr. Oleg Larionov. In the summer of '17, Jessica left the great land of Tex-Mex cuisine behind and began graduate school at UCLA. She avoids LA traffic by commuting via horse and uses "y'all" unironically. |
Rotation Students
Analiese Wiedenbeck
B.S., Colorado State University, 2023 Email: awiedenb[at]caltech.edu Analiese finished her B.S. in chemistry from Colorado State University in May 2023. She worked for Garret Miyake on the development of chemically recyclable polymers. In her free time she likes to ski and play tennis. |