Professor Pu Chen

Canada Research Chair in Nano-Biomaterials
Professor
Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology
Department of Chemical Engineering

Office: QNC 4622
Email:  p4chen@uwaterloo.ca
Research Interests

Nita Modi

Research Laboratory Manager

Office: DWE 3513B
Email:  n3modi@uwaterloo.ca

Nita is responsible for the effective operation of our research laboratory. She manages and supports day-to-day operations for the laboratory research activities, safety and inventories. She ensures that state-of-the-art equipment and supplies are available for our graduate students and research associates.

Xiaoxia Han

Postdoctoral Associate

Area of Research: Nano-Biomedical Engineering

Dex Dong

Postdoctoral Associate

Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Dafeng Chu

Postdoctoral Associate

Area of Research: Nano-Biomedical Engineering

Mingqi Li

Postdoctoral Associate

Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Sameh Saad

NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellow, Ph.D. (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto), M.A.Sc. (Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University)

Area of Research: Colloid and Surface Science

Research Interests: surface tension and contact angle measurements, pharmaceutical applications of surfactants and foams

DOAN The Nam Long

Postdoctoral Associate, Doctor of Engineering (Chemical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests: rechargeable batteries, nanopowder technology, electrochemical technology and catalysis

Xin Wang

Postdoctoral Associate

Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Huan Zhang

Postdoctoral Associate

Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Ji Yan

Postdoctoral Associate

Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Xianwen Wu

Postdoctoral Associate

Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Parisa Sadatmousavi

Ph.D. Candidate
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: I am currently a Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering (Nanotechnology) in University of Waterloo. I received my B.S. and M.A.Sc in Chemical Engineering from University of Tehran and University of Waterloo, respectively. My research interest is polymer-peptide conjugated nanoparticles for drug delivery in cancer therapy. The objective of my research is developing the drug delivery system with affinity of targeting and long circulating in blood stream. I specifically working on synthesizing and characterizing peptide nanoparticles as a cargo for anticancer drugs. I also have detailed studies on cellular uptake and the uptake mechanism of our drug delivery system in cancer cells.

Wen Xu (Vivian)

Ph.D. Candidate
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: RNA interference (RNAi) is a valuable tool for the validation of gene identification and functional genomics. However, they have experienced only limited success in clinical studies due to the poor stability and inability of naked siRNA to translocate through cell membranes. A wide range of materials have been developed toobtain desired capabilities to act as carriers for siRNA, such as lipids, polymers, ceramics and virus vectors. Among which, peptides are of biological origin, which makes them biodegradable and likelyto be biocompatible. My research focuses on studying the possibility to use self-assembling peptide as siRNA carrier. Now we have several promising peptides, which have the potential to become good siRNA carriers.

Baoling Chen(sophie)

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Ran Pan

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Mohammad Mohammadi

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Research Interest:
 I am currently working on drug delivery modeling and simulation. My specific focus is on Angiogenesis simulation.

Mahmood Ghaznavi

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests:

Kazem Jeddi

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests: My research is mainly focused on Polymer electrolytes in Lithium/Sulfur batteries. Also, I am working on mobility and segmental dynamics of polymer chains as the Li-ion carriers in solid-state polymer electrolytes. The main aim of my research is to develop electrolytes with high ionic conductivity, safety, flexibility, mechanical strength and so on.

Sheng Lu (Shane)

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: I am currently studying self-assembling peptides and am developing self-assembling peptide mediated bio-functional delivery of anti-cancer agents.

Yong (Frank) Ding

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: Design and engineering of self-assembling peptides for HIV Vaccine. Also because of my organic chemistry background I am also intersted on modification of peptide with
organic compounds.

Kaveh Sarikhani

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Colloid and Surface Science

Research Interests:

Surface tension of polymers in presence of supercritical fluids

Microcellular Polymeric Foams

Polymer Nanocomposites

Mohammadali Sheikholeslam(Ali)

Ph.D. Student (Co-supervised by Prof. Mark Pritzker)
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Research Interests: My research is focused on developing nanobiosensors for glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). HbA1c levels respond to the long-term progression of diabetes without the short-term fluctuations characteristic of glucose. My research objective is to make use of the knowledge and experience of our group in the fabrication and characterization of glucose nanobiosensors based on self-assembling peptide modified electrodes to design and fabricate a sensitive and rapid HbA1c nanobiosensor.

Ye Tian

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Sunny Xiao Zhu

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Lei Zhang

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Jin Shi

Ph.D. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Aishuak Konarov

M.Sc. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests: I am working on Lithium-ion and Lithium Sulfur batteries. My research focus on synthesis and preparation of cathode materials and their characterizations. The main aim of my research to increase capacity and cycle life of cathode materials

Danyang Zhao

M.Sc. Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Jay Je Yeol Hwangbo

M.Sc. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Yan Yu(Ryan)

M.Sc. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Zhixu Han

M.Sc. Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Diana

Co-op Student
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Keely Duke

Co-op Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Kimoon Yoo

Co-op Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Jason Li

Co-op Student
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Weiping Sui

Visiting Scholar
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Amir H. Navarchian

Visiting Scholar
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Sheva Naahidi

Ph.D. Graduate
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Madjid Soltani

Ph.D. Graduate
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Kai Li

M.Sc. Graduate
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Zizhen Wan

M.Sc. Graduate
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Yan Zhao

M.Sc. Graduate
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Jing Li (Jim Lee)

MASc Graduate, Chemical Engineering (Nanotechnology)

Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Zhang Yongguang (Wiley)

Ph.D. Graduate
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Morteza Torabi

PhD Graduate
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Mousa Jafari

Ph.D. Graduate
Area of Research: Nano-biomedical Engineering

Denise Gosselink

Postdoctoral Associate, Ph.D. in Chemistry (University of Waterloo), M.Sc. in Polymer Science and Technology (IMA/UFRJ)

Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests: I am a Materials Scientist with expertise on Polymers, Catalysts, and Li-Ion Batteries. I am currently working on alternative technologies for energy generation and storage. My research focuses on the development and characterization of low cost, environmentally friendly materials, that deliver high energy at high specific and volumetric capacity.

Yang Liu

Postdoctoral Associate, Ph. D. in Polymer Chemistry (University of Montreal)

Area of Research: Polymer materials and rechargeable battery materials

Research Interests:

• Secondary batteries: redox flow cell, lithium ion battery, and characterization of electrode, membrane and electrolyte materials.
• Material science:  synthesis of polymer, copolymer, polyseudorotaxane and the characterization of polymer materials, including nanofibers, inclusion complexes, underfill materials, optical fiber coating, drug delivery materials and epoxy materials.

Yuan Chen

Postdoctoral Associate, Ph.D. (Physical chemistry in TIPC, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in P.R.C)
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests: material science, lithium batteries, nanotechnology, electrochemistry

Hao Liu (Leo)

Visiting Scholar
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests: My research is focused on the cathode material of Li-S batteries and lithium ion solid state conductors. The main purpose of my research is to increase the life cycle of Li-S batteries.

Mikhail Sadhu

Visiting Scholar
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Jenny Wang

Visiting Scholar
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests: Chemical engineering, Lithium batteries.

Jing Yan

Visiting Scholar
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Research Interests: Electrochemistry, Lithium ion battery material, Novel Aqueous energy storage system.

I am an battery scientist with both science enthusiasm and engineer experience. My main project is to invent and develop a reliable energy storage system which can launch a evolution in new energy field.

Guanghui Yuan (Henry)

Visiting Scholar
Area of Research: Energy and Integrative Research

Chad Mitchell Sweeting

Associate Professor, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

Visiting Scholar