Current Group Members                                                                   

Dr. Teddy

Dr. Teddy came from Costco in Houston, TX.  He is a 53-inch-high chemist bear.  He joined the Lee group in 2017 as the Group Mascot / Assistant Lab Manager.  His research duties include group entertainment and stress relief.  He enjoys watching the students write in the student office.



Pailinrut Chinwangso

Pailinrut Chinwangso (Lin) is the Laboratory Manager in Dr. Lee’s group. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Houston in 2012, M.Agri. in Applied Biological Sciences at Saga University, Japan in 2007 and B.S. in Biology at Chiang Mai University, Thailand in 2004. After graduation with Ph.D., she worked in a pharmaceutical company in Thailand for 6 years and moved to work in academic institution as a data researcher for 4 years before moving back to H town and joining the Lee group in September 2023.



Pooria Tajalli

Pooria Tajalli was born in Babol, Iran.  He obtained a B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran.  He later attended Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy to obtain a M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering.  In 2018, he joined Dr. Lee’s group to pursue his Ph.D. in Chemistry.


Jong Moon Lee

Jong Moon Lee was born in Incheon, South Korea. He received a B.S. and Master's degree in Chemical Engineering from Inha University. He worked in the LCD industry for 4 years in Korea before joining the Lee group in 2019 to pursue his Ph.D. in Chemistry.




        
         Minh Dang Nguyen

Minh was born in Hanoi, Vietnam. He recieved a B.S. degree in Advanced Material Science and Nanotechnology from University of Science and Technology of Hanoi in 2019. He is pursuing Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. T. Randall Lee and Dr. Shoujun Xu. His research interest is in Magnetic Nanoparticles.



Mapa Maparathne

Sugandika (Mapa) was born and raised in Kandy, Sri Lanka. She attended the University of Peradeniya for her BSc study. She received her MSc degree in analytical chemistry from the same university with a focus on natural compounds and drug delivery systems. Mapa joined Lee's group in Spring 2021. Her research interests are nanoparticles, nanomaterials, and drug delivery. In her free time, Mapa enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and music.




Rafiqul Islam

Rafiqul Islam is  from Bangladesh. He obtained his B.S. degree in Chemistry from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Then, he earned a Masters of Engineering degree from the department of Applied Chemistry & Life Science, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan in 2019. Rafiqul is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. T. Randall Lee with a research focus on polymer and organic materials for energy and biomedical applications.. In free time, he likes to play cricket.


Quoc M. Tran

Quoc was born in Hanoi, Vietnam.  He earned a B.S. degree in Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi.  He is pursuing his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. T. Randall. Lee.  His research interest is in self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on inorganic substrates.


Refia Atik

Refia is originally from Izmir, Turkey.  She obtained her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chemistry at Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, with a specialization in synthetic organic and polymer chemistry.  She is now pursuing her Ph.D. degree at the University of Houston and joined Dr. T. Randall Lee's research group in Fall 2021.  Her research interests are nanoparticles, biomaterials, and drug delivery systems.  She enjoys traveling, photography, and reading non-fiction books in her free time.


Melissa Ariza Gonzalez

Melissa was born in Bucaramanga, Colombia.  She obtained her B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB) in 2020.  Currently, she is pursuing her Ph.D. in Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. T. Randall Lee (Department of Chemistry) and Dr. Debora F. Rodrigues (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) at the University of Houston.  Her research interest is nanoparticles-based materials for water treatment applications.  Melissa was part of the UTPB tennis team when she was in undergraduate study and enjoys playing tennis as well as golf in her free time.


Amir Abu-Talib

Amir Abu-Talib is originally from Egypt but was born in Houston, TX.  He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Houston in 2021.  In the interest of staying in Houston, Amir is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Houston under the joint guidance of Dr. T. Randall Lee (Department of Chemistry) and Dr. Jeffrey D. Rimer (William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering).  His research interest resides in the synthesis and catalysis of zeolite materials, specifically those that contain heteroatoms and metals incorporated into the frameworks.




Ruwanthi Amarasekara

Ruwanthi is from Gampaha, Sri Lanka. She obtained her Bachelor's degree from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She joined the University of Houston as a graduate student in Inorganic Chemistry in 2022. Currently, under the guidance of Dr. T. R. Lee, she is pursuing research focused on the study of self-assembled monolayered (SAMs) on gold surfaces using fluorinated alkanethiloates.




           
       Ramtin Yarinia

         Ramtin Yarinia was born in Bandar Anzali, Iran. He obtained his B.S degree in Pure Chemistry from Guilan University. He          also received his M.S degree from Guilan University, with a focus on catalyst system. He joined Dr. T. Randall Lee's                  research group in Fall 2023 in order to pursue his Ph. D. in Organic Chemistry.