Current members
Group offices: Baker Lab B21, B03
Graduate students
Soham Mukherjee, Fall ’19
Soham completed his undergraduate in Chemistry as Honors from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata (India) and masters in Chemistry from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur (India). During his masters, he joined Prof. Sujit K. Ghosh’s lab to study photophysical behaviours of potential therapeutic molecules in terms of their interactions with solvents, micelles and relevant biomacromolecules like DNA and proteins. In order to advance this penchant for observing light-matter interaction, he joined the group in 2019. He aims to learn how to play with lasers and how they can be utilized to modulate the properties of relevant materials, in order to achieve optimized and affordable solutions to burning scientific problems in energy and health. For some weird reasons, he wants to apply lasers only on proteins. Outside of lab, he likes outdoor games like football, cricket and indoor activities like acting and dancing. He loves dogs, movies, food and sleeping (Who does not!!). Be aware of his jokes and sarcasm!! Oh, he also goes by the name Rony(??!!). Email: sm2758@cornell.edu
David Bain, Fall ’20
David grew up in New Hampshire and completed his B.S. in Chemistry at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. During his time as an undergraduate, he primarily studied the interaction of chemotherapy drugs with DNA, but he also spent time at the University of Oregon studying solar water splitting as well as at UC Berkeley studying 2D materials. Beyond the lab, he enjoys exploring new places – from snorkeling in lakes and rivers and climbing up mountains to trying new foods and restaurants. He brings his adventurous mindset with him to the Musser group where he aims to use ultrafast spectroscopy to better understand fundamental properties of organic materials. Email: dcb295@cornell.edu
Thomas Khazanov, Spring ’21
Thomas received his BS and MS from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. His background is in the spectroscopy and electronic structure of the late 3d ions with a particular interest in the application of many-body methods to correlate the two. He aims to expand his research to include questions into the fundamental electronic and vibrational structure of polaritonic states in semiconducting organic materials. Outside of the lab, he enjoys traveling, cooking, hiking, reading, backgammon, and chess. Email: tmj49@cornell.edu
Amy Vonder Haar, Fall ’21
Who would have thought that someone who grew up homeschooled would end up spending this much time in school? Amy received her BS in Chemistry from Montclair State University. After exploring an array of research fields during her undergraduate education, Amy found that physical chemistry was the most fun. Molecular response to light piqued her interest, and she is thrilled to spend her time at Cornell studying the photocatalytic capabilities of metal-organic frameworks. Outside of work, she most enjoys getting enough sleep, but listening to music, taking walks, and going for road trips is great too. Email: alv62@cornell.edu
Aleesha George, Fall ’21
Aleesha completed her bachelors in Chemistry from Mar Ivanios College, Trivandrum (India) and masters in Chemistry from CMS College, Kottayam (India). During her masters she worked with Prof. Nisanth N Nair (IIT Kanpur, India) investigating the reaction pathway of walker oxidation using ab initio molecular dynamics simulation and with Prof. CH Suresh (NIIST Trivandrum, India) in electronic structure theory calculations of anti-aromatic moieties fused with linear polyacenes. In the aim of exploring the field of spectroscopy and to have fun with lasers she joined the lab. Outside of the lab, she loves playing Badminton, jogging and site seeing along with indoor activities like dancing, debates and acting. She is a workaholic and loves to engage in other extra-curricular activities like outreach, imparting science to school kids, society mobilization activities etc. Email: amg376@cornell.edu
Rana Lomlu, Fall ’22
Rana received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. There, she worked on semiconductor/water oxidation catalyst assemblies for photocatalytic water splitting. During an internship at HU Berlin, she also had the chance to work with dinuclear rhenium complexes for photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction. Now, she’s very excited to learn more about light-matter interactions and can’t wait to watch polaritons move! Outside of the lab, Rana loves singing, writing songs, playing the guitar and flute (anything about music, really), and painting. Email: rl687@cornell.edu
Kiser Colley, Fall ’22
Kiser received his B.S. in chemistry and applied physics from Ohio Northern University. Kiser was unable to decide what to do with his life, so he bounced around many research groups. He has worked on narcotic detection, rotating dusty plasmas, urea catalysis, and solvatochromes. Kiser wants to investigate the underlying mechanisms in photocatalysis in order to bridge the gap between design and function. Outside of the lab, Kiser enjoys wildlife observation, stargazing, and drawing. Email: kzc3@cornell.edu
Yaejin Kim, Fall ’23
Cora Noble, Fall ’24
Cora received her Chemistry B.S.C. degree with minors in math and physics from Purdue University Fort Wayne where she studied new carbon molecules with Prof. Steven Stevenson. She also has spent time in industry learning analytical chemistry techniques and instrumentation. She was captivated by physical chemistry topics in course work and independent studies with professors in undergrad which lead to her decision to pursue the field and spectroscopy in graduate school. She is interested in studying the fundamental questions of polaritons and light-matter interactions. When she is not in lab, she enjoys hiking, traveling, learning languages, and going to hockey games! Email: can92@cornell.edu
Dayun Hwang, Fall ’24
Dayun completed her bachelor’s in Chemistry and Electronic Engineering, double majoring in Sookmyung Women’s University in Seoul, South Korea. During her undergraduate studies, she worked with Prof. Stefan at Korea University, where she gained experience in DFT calculation using VASP software to investigate the interaction between a gold surface and a water solvent. Her project involved comparing these interactions with MB-pol models in LAMMPS, with the aim of developing a more accurate potential description. In pursuit of further understanding of light-matter interaction in the spectroscopy of materials and polaritons, she eagerly joined the lab. Outside of the lab, Dayun enjoys walking in nature and listening to music. Email: dh755@cornell.edu
Yujing Wang, Fall ’24
Yujing received her B.A. in Chemistry and Computer Science from Mount Holyoke College. During her time there, she conducted computational chemistry research in Prof. Maria Gomez’s group, utilizing Diffusion Monte Carlo to investigate proton delocalization in doped barium zirconate. Then she missed experimental research a lot, and found her passion for spectroscopy (and synthesis)! She is excited to join the group and knock on the door for electrophotocatalysis. Outside the lab, Yujing enjoys baking, listening to music, and watching musicals. Email: yw2673@cornell.edu
Undergraduate students
Sean Griffin, MSE, Spring ’22 – present
Angie Huang, C&CB and Psych, Spring ’23 – present
Kelly Leiby, Physics, Summer ’23 – present
Guanzhong Wang, C&CB, Spring ’24 – present
Daniel Salter, C&CB, Spring ’24 – present
Stephanie Chen, C&CB, Summer ’24 – present
Joel Sookdeo, Summer ’24 – present
Ranya Benchaaboune, Fall ’24
Other
Basil
Founding member and mascot. Specialises in highly excited states and vibrations (esp. wagging modes). Interests include hiking, Ithaca wildlife – especially those damned squirrels! – and students.
Former students & Postdocs
Cornell:
Dr. Suman Gunasekaran, 2021-24
Suman developed new approaches in the lab for modeling and thinking about exciton polaritons, bringing us some healthy skepticism and forcing us to be more rigorous. He established a new research direction on exciton-polaritons in solution, including the first observation of polariton condensation in solution. He left in 2024 to pursue his Beckman Postdoctoral Research fellowship with Steve Boxer at Stanford.
Dr. Juno Kim, 2022-24
Juno spearheaded our new research into perovskites, provided invaluable support to get the ultrafast TA running, and helped drive our breakthroughs into direct triplet-pair excitation. He left in 2024 to take up a Research Professor position at Yonsei University, Rep. of Korea.
Dr. Woojae Kim, 2020-22
The group’s first postdoc, Woojae helped us weather the pandemic, got our main experiments up and running, and spearheaded a family of studies of singlet fission. He left in 2022 to start his own group at Yonsei University, Rep. of Korea.
Shamitri Bandyopadhyay, C&CB, Spring ’23 – Summer ’24
Graduated 2024, awarded the department’s ACS Cornell Section Undergraduate Research Award, now pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Rochester.
Julia Chang, MSE, Summer ’21 – Spring ’24
Graduated 2024, now pursuing a PhD at Carnegie Mellon.
Bea Pence, C&CB, Spring ’22 – Spring ’24
Graduated 2024, awarded the department’s ACS Undergraduate Award in Physical Chemistry, now pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at Princeton.
Vivian Ding, CBE, Summer ’22 – Spring ’24
Graduated 2024, now pursuing a PhD in Chemical Physics at University of Maryland, College Park.
Pedro Oliveira, Phys, Spring ’23 – Spring ’24
Graduated 2024, received an NSF GRFP fellowship, now pursuing a PhD in Physics at Harvard.
Gloria Davidova, AEP, Summer ’22 – Fall ’23
Graduated 2023, pursued research at ICFO in the spring, now pursuing a PhD at EPFL.
Trevor Geraghty, C&CB, Spring ’20 – Spring ’23
Graduated 2022 and continued polariton research for another year, now pursuing a PhD in Physics at OSU.
Aaron Li, C&CB, 2020-22
Graduated 2022 with the department’s George C. Caldwell prize. He is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at MIT.
Nicole Silver, C&CB, 2021-22
Graduated 2022, she is pursuing a PhD in Chemistry at CU Boulder.
Scott Renken, C&CB, 2019-21
Scott completed his MSc on the fabrication and spectroscopy of high-quality organic microcavities in 2021. He has happily transitioned to the private sector as an independent technical contractor.
Stavrini Tsangari, AEP, 2020-21
Graduated 2021, moved to sunnier climes to work as an optics specialist in a start-up, Ultima Genomics, Inc..
Alison Park, MSE, 2021
CCMR REU student from Northwestern University in summer 2021.
Alessandra Ronchi, Physics, 2021
Visiting PhD student from Angelo Monguzzi’s group in the University of Milano-Bicocca, Feb-Aug 2021.
Ella Mansfield, Physics, Summer ’24
Anthony Lara, C&CB, 2022-23
Ryan Pinard, C&CB, 2022-23
Leo Gartner, C&CB, 2021-22
Zahra Kelsey, Biol, Summer ’22
Alex Morozov, AEP, Spring ’22
Sophia Rha, C&CB, Fall ’21
Pre-Cornell:
Hannah Stern, PhD Cambridge 2016
Hannah’s formal PhD advisor was Prof Richard Friend. With me she studied the curious phenomenon of endothermic singlet fission, both in solution and the solid state. Her investigations into the fission mechanism in TIPS-tetracene provided a key foundation for the multi-step model we use today. She moved on to a prestigious Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge and now applies single-molecule spectroscopy techniques to two-dimensional materials in her independent position at Oxford University.
Steven Lukman, PhD Cambridge 2017
Steven’s formal PhD advisor was Prof Neil Greenham. Under my guidance, Steven was one of the pioneers of efficient intramolecular singlet fission. His detailed studies of fission in orthogonal dimers produced crucial insights into the role of charge-transfer states in singlet fission and highlighted how seemingly trivial changes in chemical structure can have large mechanistic consequences. He followed his PhD with a stint as a postdoctoral researcher at Institute of Material Research and Engineering in Singapore, using his spectroscopy skills to study two-dimensional materials. Steven now works as an Associate Editor at Nature Communications.
Daniel Polak, PhD Sheffield 2020
Daniel’s principal PhD advisor was Dr. Jenny Clark, with whom he PhD focused on the photophysics of polyenes and their singlet fission properties. Under my influence he gradually succumbed to the allure of polaritons. His studies of triplet-triplet annihilation in the strong-coupling regime led to our breakthrough observation of ‘dark state harvesting’, suggesting that the scope of microcavity-controlled chemistry is much broader than we previously thought. Following his PhD, he moved to the University of Bristol to take up a postdoc working with two-dimensional spectroscopy.