Jean-Hubert Olivier

Principal Investigator

Jean-Hubert is originally from Strasbourg (France) and attended University of Strasbourg where he obtained his MSc in Organic and Supramolecular Chemistry. During his PhD work at University of Strasbourg, he developed new classes of luminescent liquid crystals and studied light-matter interactions. He then moved to Duke University in 2011 as a postdoctoral associate and engineered novel carbon nanotube-based materials for solar energy capture and conversion.  Jean-Hubert joined University of Miami in 2016. As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, he is creating entirely new classes of structure-function optimized organic materials that are constructed from non-equilibrium supramolecular architectures. His research program targets applications in mechanical energy harvesting, tactile sensors, organic electronics and optoelectronics.

Ifigeneia Tsironi

Graduate Student

Ifigeneia Tsironi is from Crete, Greece. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2018. In the same year she joined the graduate program of the University of Miami. She is currently working on creating structurally defined nanostructures by locking-in NDI-based superstructures at the equilibrium state and  when placed out of equilibrium.

Brianna Bernard

Graduate Student

Brianna was born and raised in Philadelphia and attended Rider University to receive her B.S. in chemistry in 2018.  In 2019, she started at the University of Miami where she soon joined the Olivier Laboratory to develop a project that utilizes peptide self-assembly as a driving force for the orientation of dipoles in the creation of soft, flexible organic piezoelectric materials. In her spare time, she enjoys training and competing with her dog, Kai.

Dalia Husainy

Undergraduate Student

Dalia Husainy is an undergraduate student at the University of Miami, majoring in Mathematics on the Applied Analysis track and planning on attending medical school. She joined the lab August 2018 after a semester in our experimental organic chemistry 2 laboratory section. In her free time, she enjoys reading and going to concerts.

Arindam Mukhopadhyay

Postdoctoral Fellow 

Arindam was born and raised in the Indian state of West Bengal, which is renowned for its rich cultural heritage. He received both his MSc (2011) and PhD (2017) degrees in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. During his PhD, Arindam developed stimuli-responsive organic and metal-organic hybrid materials based on photochromic and fluorescent molecular systems. He joined the University of Miami, where he is currently a postdoctoral research associate in the Olivier group since August 2018. He is currently working on a project funded by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation that aims at developing dipole-oriented nanoscale objects to engineer a de novo class of piezoelectric materials for tactile sensor applications.

Kaixuan Liu

Graduate Student

Kaixuan Liu received a B. Sc. in Chemistry from Nankai University (China) in 2015. He entered the graduate program in chemistry of the University of Miami in 2015.  He is currently examining redox-stimulated aggregation of π-conjugated building blocks to construct far-from-equilibrium superstructures.

Victor Paulino

Graduate Student

Victor was born in the Dominican Republic and migrated to the United States when he was 15 years old. He received his B.S. in Biochemistry from Florida International University. Borrowing from his experience in Biological and Inorganic chemistry research laboratories, Victor joined the Olivier lab in 2018 and is currently working on water-soluble NDI-based foldamers that demonstrate neoteric and reversible structure-function property changes upon continuous input of chemical fuel. In addition, he’s also working on the synthesis and characterization of biocompatible hydrogels with enhanced mechanical properties and well-defined network morphologies using few-walled carbon nanotubes (FWNT) as monomeric tethers to engineer electrodes with tissue-like properties. In his spare time, likes reading, fishing, and hiking. He’s a tenor at his church choir and loves to travel.

Alejandra Curbelo-Paz

Undergraduate Student

Alejandra was born in a small town in Cuba, and at the age of 6 she came with her parents to the United States in pursuit of a better future. In 2019, she started at the University of Miami (where she pursues a B.S in Health Science), and she soon joined the Olivier Laboratory. She hopes to one day be a Pediatric Oncologist, and in her free time she enjoys volunteering with kids and being involved in her school’s community.

Madison Purkerson

Undergraduate Student

Madison is from Palm Bay, Florida and is a sophomore studying Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She plans on going to graduate school to continue pursuing research. In her free time, she likes sailing and playing tennis. She enjoys playing with her dog and traveling.