Eva Harth
Eva studied chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany and the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She obtained her PhD in 1998 from the MPI for Polymer Research in Mainz. A postdoctoral fellowship with CPIMA (NSF-Center for Polymer Interfaces and Macromolecular Assemblies) brought her to the IBM Almaden Research Center, California USA, focusing on the development of new living free polymerization techniques and approaches to nanoscopic materials. In 2001, she joined XenoPort, Inc. as a Staff Scientist and started 2004 at Vanderbilt University as Assistant Professor with a primary appointment in the Department of Chemistry and a secondary appointment in the Department of Pharmacology, VUMC. In 2007, she was awarded with the NSF CAREER Award. In 2011, she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and served three years as the Director and DGS of the Interdisciplinary Materials Science Graduate Program (IMS). Starting in the Fall 2017, she moved to the University of Houston where she is appointed as Full Professor with tenure in the Department of Chemistry and serves as the Director of the Center of Excellence in Polymer Chemistry, funded by the Welch Foundation and the University of Houston. From 2009-2018 she served full term as an Associate Editor for Polymer Chemistry, a journal of the RSC.
Inquiries about the vision of the Center of Excellence in Polymer Chemistry, please address directly to Eva Harth: harth@uh.edu
The center intents to develop strong collaborations with local industry and academia and please feel welcome to contact me.
Principal Investigator
Team
Dr. Dain Beezer
Dain is originally from Jamaica and received a B.S. degree from Fisk University, Nashville, TN in 2012 and after transferring to Vanderbilt, he graduated with a M.S. degree in organic chemistry (Johnston group) in 2013. He graduated with a PhD. from Vanderbilt in August 2017 with work on polyglycidol hydrogel materials conducted in the Harth group. He then moved to UH to continue to work in the Harth group as postdoctoral researcher to prepare himself towards an academic career. His current research interests are hydrogel materials, initiator and metal organic catalyst design and mechanistic aspects of polymerizations.
Dr. Glen Jones
Glen graduated from the University of Warwick, UK in July 2018 and worked on living free radical polymerizations (ATRP) in the Haddelton group. At UH he will further explore living free radical polymerizations and the MILRad polymerization, a novel polymerization pathway discovered in the Harth group.
Michael Lampley
Before starting at Vanderbilt, Michael graduated with a B.S. degree "summa cum laude", from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in 2014. His work is focused on light initiated polymerization techniques and macromolecular structure design. He is continuing his practical work on photo-expandable nanomaterials at UH.
Laken Williams
Laken graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2015 and started in the Fall of 2015 in the Harth group. Her research explores the synthesis of dual drug delivery systems and hydrogels. She is the recipient of the NSF Graduate Fellowship and will continue her practical work on nanomaterials at UH.
Breyinn Loftin
Breyinn is a native of Winston-Salem, NC. She graduated from Hampton University (Virginia) in 2016 earning a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a minor in nanoscience. She joined the Harth group in Spring 2017 with research interests in the synthesis of novel polymer networks and hydrogels. She is now continuing her graduate career at UH and is a recipient of the NSF graduate fellowship in 2018.
Anthony Keyes
Anthony received his Bachelors of Science at Jackson State University, and went on to obtain his Master in Materials Science (June 2017) at the University of Bordeaux, LCPO working with Olivier Sandre. Anthony has received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to fund his PhD in Polymer Chemistry. He is working in the Harth group on the development and expanding the scope of the newly discovered metal organic insertion/light induced radical (MILRad) polymerization.
Enkhjargal "Enja" Tsogtgerel
I’m originally from Mongolia and I’ve graduated from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2016 with B.S in chemistry with Magna Cum Laude and worked on natural product synthesis projects. Started at UH August 2017 to pursue my PhD degree in Physical Chemistry and joined the Harth Lab in September 2017. She is working on nanoparticle development and the investigation of MILRad polymerization. In my free time I like to cook or explore restaurants in Houston.
Uyen Ha
Uyen is originally from Vietnam and finished her higher education at Prairie View A&M University, TX in 2017, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. She now continues to pursue her Doctorate degree at the University of Houston. Recently, joining the Harth lab in September 2017, she is thrilled to start new upcoming projects in photo polymer chemistry methodologies and catalyst design.
Yu-Sheng Liu
Yu-Sheng is originally from Taiwan and finished his higher education at the National Sun Yat-Sen University in 2014 and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. After completing his military service he worked as Research Assistant at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Yu-Sheng is now continuing his education to pursue his Doctorate degree at the University of Houston and joined the Harth lab in September 2017. He is working on catalyst design.
Hatice Basbug Alhan
Hatice is originally from Turkey and finished her higher education at Bilkent University, Turkey and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Chemistry. After working in industry for several years, she is now pursuing her Doctorate degree at the University of Houston and has joined the Harth group in September 2017. Her interest are the exploration of the MILRad polymerization and development of new photoactive catalysts.
Quynh Huong "Jen" Dau
Huong is originally from Vietnam and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy in 2014 and worked as Research Scientist at AstraZeneca in Ho Chi Minh for more than two years. She is now pursuing her Doctorate degree at UH and has joined the Harth group in September 2017. She is interested in mechanistic aspects of polymerizations and catalyst design.
Estela Ordonez Arteaga
Estela is originally from Ecuador and graduated with a double major in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2017. She is now pursuing her Doctorate degree at UH and has joined the Harth group in September 2017. Her interests are in nanoparticle design concerning drug delivery and probing the scope of MILRad polymerization .
Victoria Peckham Kirk
Victoria graduated from Texas A&M university and worked at Solvay after her graduation. She joined UH to further gain expertise in the polymer field.
Undergraduate Students: Alumni
Undergraduate Students Vanderbilt 2005-20017
Fiona Denham (Honors Thesis); Evan Kravitz; Ariel Kravitz; Brian Mayersohn, Vasanth Sathiyakumar (Honors Thesis and Pearson Award Recipient 2013; Julian Greenbaum; Tyler Terrill; Brian McGrath; Joanne Chou; Harry Watson; Ray Wang; Julian Waksal; Sicheng Ma; Chris Gross; Mark Philipson; Philip Goldberg; Jesse Fenton; Anisse Chaker
Alumni
Alice van der Ende , PhD.
Alice defended in 2010 and she holds a current position as manager at DuPont.
Teresa Croce, PhD.
Teresa defended her thesis in July 2009 and holds a current position as CSO (Chief Food Safety Officer) at the FDA.
Sharon K. Hamilton, PhD.
Sharon defended in July 2009 her thesis and after postdoctoral work at Georia Tech she is now an Assistant Professor at Delta State University, MS.
Chinessa T. Adkins, PhD.
Chinessa defended in August 2009 and after postdoctoral work at the Howard Hughes Institute she is now a Patent Examiner at USPO.
Julia Dobish, M.S.
Julia obtained her M.S. in 2009 and continued as Research Assistant in the Harth group from 2009-2011. She is now working as consultant.
Artez Sims, PhD.
Artez defended in May 2013 and works in his current position as Instructor at Southwest Georgia Technical College and Educator at Thomasville City Schools.
David Stevens, PhD.
David graduated in 2014 with a PhD. in Pharmacology and is currently a Senior Scientist at the NCI Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NIH/NCI) in Fredrick, Washington DC.
Benjamin Spears, PhD.
Ben graduated in 2015 and is now a Senior Research Scientist at SeLux Diagnostics, Inc. in Boston, MA.
Dain Beezer, PhD.
Dain defended his thesis in August 2017 and currently working as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Harth group at UH.
Kelly Gilmore, PhD.
Kelly defended her thesis in June 2017 and is now working as a Principal Scientist at Eco Labs, St. Paul, MN.
Jacob Lockhart, PhD.
Jake defended his thesis in December 2017 and started at Invista in February 2018.
Michael Marin, PhD. in Engineering
Michael defended his thesis in March 2018 and graduated in August 2018. He holds a position at Hewlett Packard in San Diego, CA.
Guangzhao Li, PhD.
Dr. Guangzhao Li was a postdoctoral scholar in the Harth group from 2012-2015 and went back to China where he is now an Associate Professor.
Fanny Joubert, PhD.
Dr. Fanny Joubert was a postdoctoral scholar in the Harth lab from January 2015 - January 2016.
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