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The group on campus (Summer 2026). L-R: Gab, Bakr, Temi, Sania, Nhu, Ruvini, Ben, Dylan, Nathan.
Gabriel Ménard
Principal Investigator
Gab joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCSB in 2015 as an Assistant Professor. In 2021, he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and, in the summer of 2022, he moved back to Canada to join the University of Calgary.
Born and raised in Eastern Ontario, Canada, near the nation's capital, Gab first completed his B.Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Ottawa in 2006. He then moved to the west coast of Canada to undertake his M.Sc. at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver working on early metal dinitrogen activation in Prof. Mike Fryzuk's group (2008). Gab then pursued another one of his passions, studying climate change and its impacts by completing a Master's in Environmental Studies (M.E.S.) at York University in Toronto (2010). In 2009, he joined Prof. Doug Stephan's group at the University of Toronto to undertake his Ph.D. studies working on small molecule activation – in particular greenhouse gases – using P/Al-based frustrated Lewis pairs, and finishing up in 2013. Finally, Gab went to the U.S. to pursue his post-doctoral studies in Prof. Ted Betley's group at Harvard University. Here, he gained experience working on first-row transition metal clusters investigating metal-metal communication, high-valent Ni clusters, and small molecule activation.
See Gab's CV here.
Graduate Students
Sania B. Mostaghimi
Education: Ph.D. student, UCalgary, 2023-present
B.Sc., University of Tabriz, 2022
Hometown: Tabriz, Iran
Bio: Sania received her B.Sc. from the University of Tabriz under the supervision of Prof. Mahmoud Zarei. In her spare time, Sania enjoys hiking, eating sushi, reading social sciences books, and watching anime.
Ruvini Kirihettiliyanage
Education: M.Sc. student, UCalgary, 2023-present
B.Sc., UCalgary, 2023
Hometown: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Bio: Ruvini received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Calgary in 2023 and worked under the supervision of Prof. Jen Love. In her free time, Ruvini is usually out exploring the Rockies or has her nose burried in a fantasy book.
Oluwatemitope Familoni
Education: Ph.D. student, UCalgary, 2022-present
M.Sc., Beijing Institute of Technology, 2017
Hometown: Ekiti State, Nigeria
Bio: Temi joined the group recently. He is someone that chases his curiosity, if not doing science he is interested in other topics like finance and psychology. He enjoys sauntering, playing sports, and having family time outside the lab.
Dylan Van Spankeren
Education: Ph.D. student, UCalgary, 2024-present
B.Sc., Thompson Rivers University, 2024
Hometown: Calgary, AB
Bio: Dylan competed on the men's volleyball team while an undergrad at TRU and further did two years of undergraduate research under Dr. Heidi Huttunen-Hennelly and Dr Kinglsey Donkor separating polypeptides using capillary electrophoresis. In his spare time, Dylan likes hiking or spending time outside.
Bakr Barnawi
Education: Ph.D. student, UCalgary, 2024-present
M.Sc., UOttawa, 2021
B.Sc., Umm Al-Qura University, 2014
Hometown: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Bio: Bakr earned his M.Sc. from UOttawa under the supervision of Prof. Tom Baker. Bakr's current doctoral research focuses on lithium capture and release for energy conversion technologies. Outside of his academic work, Bakr enjoys spending time with his family and traveling to explore natural landscapes and historical architecture.
Nhu Tran
Education: Ph.D. student, UCalgary, 2025-present
B.Sc., UCalgary, 2025
Hometown: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Bio: Nhu joined the lab in the summer of 2024. Nhu loves good food, especially tropical fruits, coconut coffee, salted coffee, and quality baked goods. She also finds herself deeply connected to Vietnamese history and traditional literature, particularly poetry.
Alex Hankins
Education: Ph.D. student, UCalgary, 2025-present
B.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2025
Hometown: Waterloo, ON
Bio: Alex joined the lab in 2023 as an Inorganic Chemistry Exchange (ICE) Undergraduate fellowship student. Given her favorite hobbies including traveling, hiking, and climbing, she was eager to come back to Calgary as a Ph.D. student.
Nathaniel Leonard
Education: Ph.D. student, UCalgary, 2025-present
B.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry, University of Victoria, 2025
Hometown: Victoria, BC
Bio: A real BC kid, Nathan loves coffee, plants, morning dew, and complaining. Nathan completed his B.Sc. (Hons.) under the supervision of Prof. Fraser Hof at UVic. Nathan is enthusiastic about synthetic organic and main-group chemistry and has a healthy appreciation of computational chemistry.
Undergraduate Students
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Silas Mertz
Education: B.Sc. Chemistry, University of Calgary, 2023-present
Hometown: Crowsnest Pass, AB
Bio: Silas is a fourth-year undergraduate student completing his honours thesis with the group. When he's not in the lab, Silas can often be found skateboarding, playing electric guitar, or practicing jiu jiutsu.
Alumni
Post-doctoral fellows:
Dr. H. D. A. Chathumal Jayaweera, 2024-2026.
Current position: Development Scientist at Impact Chemistry
Dr. Mahendra Aswathi, 2024-2025.
Current position: Scientist (Manager) at Reliance Industries
Dr. Jitendrasingh Rajpurohit, 2023-2025.
Current position: R&D Associate, Concordia University.
Dr. Benjamin Rennie, 2023-2024.
Current position: Research Officer, National Research Council of Canada.
Dr. Jiaxiang Chu, 2016-2018.
Current position: Professor, UCAS (China).
Graduate students:
Dr. Gustavo Alcántara, Ph.D., 2025.
Current position: Scientist, Analytical Chemist at Neurocrine Biosciences.
Maxwell Lohoar, M.S., 2025.
Dr. Hila Benhaim, Ph.D., 2024.
Current position: Scientist I at Allonnia.
Dr. Arunavo Chakraborty, Ph.D., 2024.
Current position: Postdoc in Boettcher Group, UC Berkeley.
Dr. Shannon Heinrich, Ph.D., 2023.
Current position: Senior Electrolyte Scientist at Blue Current.
Dr. Timothy Carroll, Ph.D., 2020.
Current position: Senior Scientist - Heterogenous Catalysis at Clariant.
Dr. Camden Hunt, Ph.D., 2019.
Current position: CEO and Co-founder at Rock Zero.
Dr. Samuel Jacob, Ph.D., 2021.
Current position: Assistant Professor - Research Promotion at Nagoya University.
Dr. Megan Keener, Ph.D., 2020.
Current position: Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Chae Yeong Kim, M.S., 2022.
Current position: PhD Candidate at UCSB.
Christopher Kirby, M.S., 2018.
Current position: High-school teacher in New Jersey.
Dr. Maxwell Mattejat, Ph.D., 2023.
Current position: Energy Innovator Fellow at Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.
Dr. Madeline Peterson, Ph.D., 2021.
Current position: Senior Scientist at Donaldson.
Dr. Zongheng Wang, Ph.D., 2022.
Current position: Senior Analytical Chemist at Exemplify.
Dr. Anthony Wong, Ph.D., 2021.
Last updated: Nov 4, 2026.
Undergraduate students:
Ben Stresman, 2026
Sabrina Hussain, 2023-2025
George Doerksen, 2024-2025
Jessica Lam, 2024
Claire Cannon, 2024
Helen Leslie, 2024
Nhu Tran, 2024
Alexandra Hankins, 2023
Nathaniel Leonard, 2023
Matthew Avalos, 2021-2023
Lucas Pattantyus, 2023
Daniel Pan, 2020-2022
Afton Gustafson, 2019-2021
Rachel Garwick, 2017-2020
Gillian Kutrosky, 2018-2020
Delenn Ganyo, 2019-2020
Paige Dixon, 2020
Chenyue Yang, 2020
Jonas Kaare-Rasmussen, 2019
Rachel Huang, 2019
Solène Perot, 2019
Kevin Guevara, 2018
Clarissa Magallanes, 2018
Cassidy Anderson, 2017-2018
Ruoshui (Louis) Li, 2017-2018
Amaani Desai, 2017
Ali Mahdi, 2017
Yasmine Soliman, 2017
Natalie Kashanchi, 2016-2017
Clayton Silva, 2016-2017
Nicole Delgado, 2015-2016
Spencer Baker, 2015