GROUP MEMBERS

DR. PEDRO ORTIZ

Research Associate

Pedro Ortiz was born in Havana, Cuba. He received a BSc in Chemistry (summa cum laude) at the University of Havana, under the supervision of Dr. Alex Fragoso. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry, with Cuban Science Academy’s Award, at the University of Havana, under the supervision of Dr. Pedro Ortiz del Toro, and Dr. Gunther Hennrich (from the Autonomous University of Madrid). He joined the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Havana as an Assistant Professor. Later, he joined Dr. Eduardo Schott’s Group at the Catholic University of Chile as a PDF and one of the winners of the Fondecyt/ANID grant. He also collaborated as an associate researcher on several projects devoted to nanostructured materials for catalysis and photocatalysis applications. At TMU, he joined the group of Dr. Bryan Koivisto, and recently that of Dr. Stefania Impellizzeri.
His scientific interests are related to the design, preparation, and characterization of organic and inorganic materials, and composites for a broad scope of applications.

DR. RYAN HUTCHINS

Research Associate

Ryan Hutchins earned a BSc and MSc from the University of Waterloo and a PhD from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Following the PhD, Ryan completed post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Alberta and the University of Waterloo. Ryan's research has focused on understanding the water chemistry and biogeochemistry from diverse impacted and unimpacted environments using a wide variety of analytical instruments and methods. Dr. Hutchins’ current research projects at Toronto Metropolitan University focus on the analytical aspects of ice-making and water quality (part of the Jet Ice Chair in Sustainable Materials Chemistry initiative) and in collaboration with Urban Water TMU.

SUMAYA SOHA

PhD Candidate

Since completing her undergraduate studies, Sumaiya was involved in teaching undergraduate biochemistry and high-school biology. Jointly with the Antonescu and Botelho labs at Ryerson, her research project focuses on the investigation of silver nanostructures to enhance fluorescence imaging of biological systems, bridging nanomaterial chemistry and biology.

ARMAGHAN KHOSRAVI

PhD Candidate

Armaghan completed her bachelor's degree at Lorestan University and MSc degree at Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch (Tehran, Iran) with a thesis on the mechanochemically synthesis of Cu-MOFs as a catalyst and its application in aerobic Chan–Lam coupling. Currently, her research focuses on the assembly of photochromic metal-organic frameworks (P-MOFs) and urea-based MOFs (TMUs).

EMMANUEL FAGBOHUN

PhD Candidate

Emmanuel earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, and a Master of Science in Engineering (Applied Chemistry) from the University of the Chinese Academy of Science (UCAS), Beijing, China. He did two years of research in materials science at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Science. He was awarded the Chinese Government Scholarship and the University of Chinese Academy Scholarship for his master's program. His previous research focused on synthesizing nanomaterials and their applications in energy and hydrogen storage, and wastewater treatment. His research is focused on the synthesis of carbon-based materials for water splitting and hydrogen production.

OSEMUDIAMEN IBAZEBO

MSc Candidate

Osemudiamen (Ose) completed her undergraduate studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. During her time there, she served as a peer mentor and tutored high school biology. Jointly with the Antonescu lab, Ose’s research project bridges cell biology and nanomaterial chemistry by investigating how size and shape define functional requirements of clathrin endocytosis using inorganic nanoparticles.

ISHPREET CHANA

MSc Candidate

Ishpreet completed her Bachelor of Science in chemistry with honours at McMaster University. During her undergraduate studies, she worked on synthesizing a magnetic hydrogel composite containing iron oxide nanoparticles and her thesis focused on synthesizing a photothermal responsive hydrogel waveguide. Currently, her MSc project focuses on encapsulating dye molecules into metal-organic frameworks using both experimental and computational approaches in collaboration with Prof. R. Stephen Wylie.

KATELYN SOWDEN

Research Assistant

Katelyn is a third-year undergraduate biology student at Toronto Metropolitan University. She's currently studying the synthesis and cell endocytosis of silica nanoparticles with additional research interests in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and organic fluorescent dyes for bioimaging.

SARAH EMMANUEL

Research Assistant

Sarah is an undergraduate biomedical science student in her second year at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is interested in examining water from rivers and ponds using various analytical chemistry techniques to detect inorganic contaminants and ions. Currently, Sarah is working on the identification and quantification of optimal ice-making water for energy efficiency in indoor hockey arenas. In her spare time, she enjoys singing, volunteering at her local hospital and retirement residence, and watching mystery movies.

ARMAAN GORAYA

Research Assistant

Armaan is a recent chemistry graduate at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research focuses on synthesizing carbon dots from expired pharmaceuticals. His general interests are in finding green solutions in all aspects of life and leaving a positive impact. Outside the laboratory, his hobbies include painting model kits, producing video content for games, and going for jogs when the weather is warm and the sun is setting.

MARISSA GILBERT

Research Assistant

Marissa is a second-year chemistry student at Mount Allison University. She joined the Impellizzeri Lab as part of the 2024 Inorganic Chemistry Exchange (ICE) program. Her project focuses on the assembly and performance optimization of titania-based materials.

ALUMNI

Reese Grandy

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry 2023

Talha Mahmood

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry 2022

Araniy Santhireswaran

BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science (2022)

Nicholas Dogantzis

NSERC USRA (2018), BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2019) and MSc (2022)

Karol Golian

MSc (2021)

Dr. Gregory Hodgson

Postdoctoral Fellow (2018-2021)

Aaron Erlich

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2021)

Valeria Morozova

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2021) and NSERC USRA (2021)

Philip Januszyk

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2021)

Lavinia Trifoi

URO (2020), BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2020) and MSc (2022)

Ali Yaghoubian

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2020) and MSc (2022)

Aviya Akari

BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2020) and MSc (2022)

Laraa Al Nubani

URO Research Assistant (2019)

Iselina Cascone

URO Research Assistant (2018) and BSc (Hons) in Chemistry (2019)