The Lara Estroff Research Group

Making Bio-Inspiration Crystal Clear
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Principal Investigator

Prof. Lara Estroff


lae37@cornell.edu

 Herbert Fisk Johnson Professor of Industrial Chemistry
Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Previous Education:
NIH Postdoctoral Researcher, Harvard University 2003-2005
Ph.D. Chemistry, Yale University 2003
B.A. Chemistry, Swarthmore College 1997

Professional Background - Curriculum Vitae

Postdoctoral Research Associates

Dr. Christopher Petroff


cpetroff@cornell.edu

 Previous Education:
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh 2021
B.S. Chemistry, Boston College 2015

Chris is a joint postdoc between the Estroff group and the Marohn group in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department. His research focuses on metal halide perovskites for solar applications. Specifically, he is working to better understand how processing conditions affect the morphology, crystal texture, and other properties of blade coated thin films and how these changes affect the resulting optoelectronic properties of the films.

Ph.D. Students

Stephan Sutter


ss2667@cornell.edu

 Previous Education:
B.S. Biochemistry and Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2020

My primary research interest is studying biological materials involved in pathological mineralization, particularly the matrix-mineral interactions of calcifications found in breast tumors. I aim to use Raman spectroscopy and (cryo) electron microscopy to study the tumor microenvironment and understand the role that calcifications play in the growth and spread of breast tumors.

Kuan-Ting Liu


kl633@cornell.edu

 Previous Education:
B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, National Taiwan University 2020

I joined the group in fall 2021 as a Ph.D. student in MSE. I'm working in the Perovskite Project, which is funded by DOE, and collaborated with many research groups and national labs. My research focuses on using in-situ AFM and NMR to study the mechanism of growth of perovskite crystals and solution chemistry.

Emily Hiralal


eeh82@cornell.edu

 Previous Education:
B.A. Chemistry and Biological Sciences, Northwestern University 2022

Emily Hiralal is a PhD student in the Chemistry and Chemical Biology department. She is co-advised by Lara Estroff and John Marohn. Her research focuses on the synthesis and optoelectronic characterization of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite single crystals and thin films.

Brenda Javier-Boodhan


bsj32@cornell.edu

 Previous Education:
M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, Cornell University 2024
B.S. Biotechnology, Universidad Ana G. Mendez Recinto de Carolina 2021

My research focuses on mapping calcifications and their associated organic matrix from human tissues using FTIR microscopy and examine potential relationships between mineral properties and disease state. I am working in collaboration with the Butcher group in the School of Biomedical Engineering, where we have obtained a set of calcified human heart valve samples with associated patient data ready for spectroscopic analysis.

M.S. Students

Aditya Kaipa


ak2529@cornell.edu

 Previous Education:
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Undergraduates

Kenadee Morrow


 My primary research interest is biomineralization seen in marine invertebrates, such as barnacles and corals. In the Estroff group I will be studying how the calcification of barnacles shortly after the larval stage is impacted by changing aspects of our oceans, including salinity, pH, temperature, etc.

Ethan Seiz


 I'm a first-year from New York City studying computer science. The research project I'm helping with seeks to better understand and quantify the lacunar-canalicular networks in subchondral bone. In order to do this, we take CT scans of bone and annotate components of them including the cartilage, bone marrow, and lacuna. The resulting non-annotated space is a class that contains the osteocytes and lacunar-canalicular network. I'm working on refining a dataset of existing segmentations and training a deep learning network to automatically annotate scans.

Catherine Pak


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Group Alumni



Name Position or Degree Current Position
     
Victorien Bernat   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2024 ——
Mahdi Ayoubi   Postdoctoral Associate, 2022—2024 Thermo Fischer Scientific, Hillsboro, OR
Wanting (Ting) Zhang   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2024 Ph.D. Student, University of Delaware MSE
Chih-Yi (Joyce) Wang   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2024 Ph.D. Student, University of Florida MSE
Konrad Hedderick   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2024 Postdoc, Universite de Geneve
Leyin Zheng   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2023 Project Executive, BOC Sciences, Shirley, NY
Olivia Rogers   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2023 Mechanical Engineer, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD
Jennie Kunitake   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2021 Senior Scientist, Molecular Pharmaceutics, Pfizer
Dana Chapman   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2022 Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University
Florence Lui Visiting Fulbright Scholar, 2021 Ph.D. Candidate, University of New South Wales, Sydney, AUS
Xun Wang M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2021 ——
Derek Hu   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2021 ——
Wennie Lee   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2021 ——
Siddhartha Nathan   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2021 Ph.D. Student, Northwestern University
Minjee Kang   Postdoctoral Associate, 2–2021 Postdoc, UCLA School of Dentistry
Tianyu Gao M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2020 Ph.D. in Biomedical/Medical Engineering, UC Davis
Amnon Ortoll-Bloch   Ph.D. Chemistry, 2020 Postdoctoral Fellow in Chemistry, Williams College
Reum Scott   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University
Jennifer E. Tasneem   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 Career Services Coordinator, UIUC School of Chemical Sciences
Jeffrey Zhang   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 ––
Jeremy Gershonowitz   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 Parker Hannifin, R&D Materials Scientist
Hengyu Zhou   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 Ph.D. in Chemistry, New York University
Hao Zhou   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 Ph.D. in Bioengineering, University of Washington
Jiazhen Zhu M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 University of Minnesota
Damian Palin   Postdoctoral Associate, 2019 Delft University of Technology, Postdoctoral Associate
Netta Vidavsky   Postdoctoral Associate, 2019 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor)
Marina Chang   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 ––
Abby Goldman   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 IDA Science & Technology Policy Institute, Research Staff Member
Alexander Boys   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2019 University of Cambridge, HFSP Research Fellow
Jordan Harrod   B.S. Biomedical Engineering, 2018 Harvard Medical School & MIT, Ph.D. Medical Engineering and Medical Physics
Ethan Susca   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2018 Intel Corporation, Yield Engineer
Katharine 'Kasia' Oleske   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2018 Draper, Senior Member of Technical Staff
Katherine Barteau   Postdoctoral Associate, 2017 University of Wisconsin–Madison, Research Associate
Jeremy Fredricks M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2017 ––
JooHo Kim M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2017 Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
Natalie Goh   B.S. Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, 2017 Ph.D. Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UC Berkeley
Christian Waibel   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2017 Business Intelligence Analyst – Product Focus, Justworks
Alison Garrett   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2017 IMRA America, Inc., Product Development Engineer
Kiara Chan   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2017 Ph.D. Candidate, Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida
Rachel Connolly   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2017 Harris Orthopaedics Laboratory, Project Manager
Joseph Carloni   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2017 INFICON, Engineer / Site Lead for FPS
Coit T. Hendley IV   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2017 Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head EOD Technology Division, Research Scientist
Fei Wu   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2016 Principal Scientist, Elucida Oncology, Inc.
Danielle Lieber   M.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2016 Second Source Medical LLC, Quality Engineer III
Alyssa Travitz   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2016 Ph.D. Student, Macromolecular Science & Engineering, University of Michigan
Meredith Lee   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2016 Cook Medical, R&D Engineer
Emily Asenath-Smith   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2015 US Army Cold Regions Research & Engineering Laboratory, Research Materials Engineer
Allessandra DiCorato   B.S. Chemistry & Chemical Biology, 2015 Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering, Northwestern University
David Moore   Ph.D. Materials Science & Engineering, 2014 National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Director's Fellow
Amanda Uhl   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2014 Intel Corporation, Process Engineer
Allison Fleck   B.S. Materials Science & Engineering, 2013 PPD, Senior Scientist
Ruiqi Song Postdoctoral Associate, 2013 ––

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