Meet the Team

October 15th , 2025. Cheers!

Raúl Hernández Sánchez (PI)

​2015   Ph.D Chemistry, Harvard University
2012   A.M. Chemistry, Harvard University
2010   B.Sc. Chemistry ITESM Campus Monterrey

R e s a r c h   S c i e n t i s t

Hormoz Khosravi

Google scholar profile
Hormoz was born in Gilan-e Gharb, Iran and received his BSc in chemistry from the Razi University in Kermanshah. In 2014, he began his MSc in polymer chemistry with Dr. Ali Rostami at the Shahid Beheshti University, where he worked on "squaramide as a hydrogen-bonding catalyst for the synthesis and investigating of ring-opening polymerization of cyclic carbonates". In 2022, Hormoz completed his doctoral degree at K. N. Toosi University of Technology under the supervision of Prof. Saeed Balalaie, which he worked on the development of domino reactions of enynes such as enynals and 1,3-diene-5-ynes that had shed light on 8π-electrocyclization with alkynes experimentally and computationally. During his PhD, he received two scholarships to join the Prof. Bernhard Breit research group at the Albert Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, which he focused on "electrophilic allyl metal precursors in transition metal catalysis". In August 2023, Hormoz joined Dr. Raúl Hernández Sánchez’s research group as a postdoctoral researcher.
[email protected]

P o s t d o c s

Holly Haflich

Google scholar profile
Holly is originally from Indianapolis, Indiana. She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees at Purdue University in Environmental and Ecological Engineering. Holly then earned a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, advised by Dr. Orlando Coronell. Her PhD research focused on organic solute transport mechanisms in ion exchange membranes for applications of resource recovery, energy storage, and contaminant remediation. Specifically, she investigated the role of ion exchange membrane properties on volatile fatty acid recovery and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances capture from diverse feedwaters.
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Holly joined Dr. Raúl Hernández Sánchez’s group as a postdoctoral fellow in the Rice Center for Membrane Excellence (RiCeME). She is also co-advised with Dr. Menachem Elimelech and Dr. Rafael Verduzco. Her research focuses on fabricating next-generation membranes for selective contaminant remediation.
[email protected]

Junyi Wang

Google scholar profile
Junyi was born in Henan, China. She earned her B.S. degree in Chemistry from the Southern University of Science and Technology. She then completed her Ph.D. at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2023, under the co-supervision of Prof. Zhenyang Lin and Prof. Qing Ye. Her doctoral research focused on the synthesis and reactivity of strained boracycles. Following graduation, Junyi worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Prof. Todd Hudnall at Baylor University. In June 2026, she joined Rice University.
[email protected]

G r a d u a t e   S t u d e n t s

Victor Espinoza Castro

Victor was born in Sinaloa, Mexico but grew up in Los Angeles, CA. He earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). As a McNair Scholar at CSUF, he worked in the lab of Dr. Peter de Lijser and studied the reactive intermediates that form from the photooxidation of oxime and oxime ethers. These intermediates can potentially provide a novel synthetic route for the formation of isoindole heterocycles. Over the Summer of 2019, he worked in the lab of Dr. Alina Schimpf at the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego). At UC San Diego, he synthesized polyoxovanadate clusters and frameworks in order to form thin films using polyethylene glycol. He came to the University of Pittsburgh in the Summer of 2020 to pursue his PhD in Chemistry.
[email protected]

Alejandro Fuentes Beltran

Alejandro was born in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Design and Nanochemistry as well as his Master’s degree in Chemical Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos (UAEM). During his undergraduate and graduate studies, he worked under the supervision of Dr. Hugo Morales Rojas on the synthesis and study of organic co-crystals with molecular hosts assembled through boron–nitrogen bonds as platforms for capturing electron-deficient guest species. In addition, these B–N hosts were studied in the solid state as nonporous adaptive solids for the formation of new solid phases with industrially relevant solvents such as styrene/ethylbenzene and benzene/cyclohexane, which were selectively captured at solid–gas interfaces. In 2024, he was awarded the Fulbright García-Robles fellowship to pursue his doctoral studies in the United States. He joined Rice University in the fall of 2024 to pursue his Ph.D. studies.

Nghi La

Nghi is originally from Vietnam and earned her B.S degree in Chemistry at Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, TX). During her undergraduate studies, Nghi worked in the lab of Dr. Jeff Coffer, where she did research on synthesizing perovskite-loaded materials and studying their optoelectronic properties for the fabrication of new LEDs. She came to Rice University in the fall of 2021 to pursue her PhD in Chemistry.
[email protected]

Lul Sharif

Lul is from Minnesota and received her bachelors in chemistry at Swarthmore College. She worked in the lab of Dr. Kathryn Riley to develop electrochemistry techniques to quantify the dissolution kinetics of LiCoO2 nanoparticles. At Rice, Lul hopes to continue using chemistry to address environmental concerns. In her free time, she likes to play ultimate frisbee, run, and bake. She came to Rice University in the summer of 2022 to pursue her PhD in Chemistry.
[email protected]

U n d e r g r a d u a t e   S t u d e n t s

Andrew Cherry

Andrew, from Manhattan Beach, California, is a chemistry major in the Class of 2027 at Lovett College. During his studies, he has become interested in inorganic chemistry and organometallic/organoactinide chemistry, especially after his participation in the Summer School in Nuclear and Radiochemistry (NCSS) at BNL. In the Hernández Sánchez Group, Andrew hopes to explore metal-metal bonding in cluster compounds and the synthesis of polydentate ligand scaffolds for polynuclear cluster formation.

Trinity Nguyen

Bio.

Charlotte Lawrence

Charlotte is from Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, and is a Hanszen freshman and expects to graduate in 2027 with a degree in Chemistry. Before starting at Rice, Charlotte ran both the Science and Health Occupations (HOSA) clubs at her high school. At HSG, Charlotte is working under the mentorship of Saeed. Charlotte is thrilled to be a part of the Hernandez Sanchez Lab and gain new knowledge as she pursues a future in chemistry and medicine.

Minxing Pan 

I'm Minxing Pan, an international student at Rice University from Shanghai, China. I'm passionate and talented in Chemistry, especially in Organic Chemistry. And, I'm also interested in biology and psychology. In  my spare time, I like running, playing video games, and reading books. It's my pleasure to learn new skills in our lab and work hard to contribute to our research.

Jonah Simmons

Jonah was born in Shenandoah, Texas, and attends Lone Star – Montgomery as an organic chemistry major. At Lone Star, he is happy to be part of The Honors College, where he gains experience writing semester-long research papers. He has just finished his first year in college and plans to pursue a career within chemistry. Jonah is very excited to be part of the Hernández Sánchez research group and hopes to gain experience with being in a lab environment.

Andi Xu

Andi, from Nanjing, China, is a freshman at Hanszen College in the Class of 2029. He is majoring in Chemistry with a focus on its applications. Before coming to Rice, Andi excelled at various chemistry olympiads and gained early research experience in chemical engineering at Texas A&M. He is excited to join Prof. Hernandez Sanchez’s lab to explore contorted aromatic rings, anion receptors, and beyond.

V i s i t i n g   S c h o l a r s

Prof. Natalia Gonzalez-Pech

Dr. Natalia Gonzalez-Pech is originally from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. She received her B.S. in Chemistry from Monterrey Tech (ITESM). In 2016, Natalia completed her Ph.D. in Chemistry, in Rice University. Her doctoral research focused on nanomaterials synthesis and characterization, and their applications in water processes. Dr. Gonzalez-Pech did her postdoctoral research at UCSD. Her research focus is in the characterization of metal-containing nanoparticles formed in industrial processes with an emphasis on understanding their health-related effects. Currently, she is an assistant professor at Hope College. Her research group focuses on the development of nanomaterials for water remediation and energy-related applications in a sustainable manner.
[email protected]

Prof. Marcelo Videa Vargas

Marcelo Videa earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Sciences from Tecnológico de Monterrey in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Arizona State University in 1999. His thesis project was "Conductivity and self-diffusivity measurements on molten lithium electrolytes for battery applications." He joined Tecnológico de Monterrey in August 2000 and was director of the undergraduate program in Chemistry from 2001 to 2013. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Rice University. His research focuses on the electrochemical synthesis of metallic nanoparticles and the study of parameters for the kinetic control of nucleation and growth processes to understand the control of the size and shape of nanoparticles produced chemically or electrochemically to contribute to the applications of electrocatalysis and the development of sensors. He is a National Research System (SNII) Level II member

Group Alumni
Former postdoctoral associates
Dr. Hong-Lei Xu - Assistant Professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Chang 'an District, Xi 'an, China. 
Dr. Xiangquan (Eric) Hu - Assistant Professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University, China.
Dr. Edison Castro - Scientist I @PCT Therapeutics, Inc.
Dr. Thomas H. Allen - Senior Development Chemist @Boron Specialties, LLC

Former graduate students
Manasseh Osei - Postdoctoral researcher at UT Austin
Odunola Orege - Graduate student at Rice 
Jorge Rodas
Saeed Mirzaei - Graduate student at Cornell University
Valeria Stevens - Graduate student at Rice
Saber Mirzaei - Postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley
Swati Arora - Scientist III Process Chemist at Thermo Fisher 
Brett Lucht - Graduate student in the Transue Group (Pitt) 
Keren Lee - Graduate student in the Hutchison Group (Pitt)
​Mohammad Azizur Rahman - Graduate student @WVU
Omri Abarbanel - Graduate student in the Hutchison Group (Pitt)

Former undergraduate students
Mohammad Bilal - Graduate student at Texas A&M
Agustin Valles - Graduate student at Harvard University
Sam de Armas
Yehjune Moon
Ava Grace Slobin (NSF RLEAD - REU)
Raúl Paredes Noroña (TRREx)
Victor Caycedo
​Mira Goldstein
​Nicholas Figueroa (NSF RLEAD - REU)
​Nicole Imming
Gabriella Prieto
​Gabriella Belsito
​Addison Averill
Emily Nicola
Derek Lamb (BS 2021) - Lab Assistant @Center for Blood Oxygen Transport & Hemostasis, University of Maryland
Bridget Glessner (BS 2020) - Raw Materials Chemist @Eurofins
James Dages (BS 2020) - Quality Control Analyst @Polysciences, Inc.
Madison Keating (BS 2020) - Forensic Scientist @Atlantic Diagnostic Laboratories
Nicolas D'Annunzio (BS 2019) - Research Associate @Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Ryan W. McLane (BS 2019) - Product Optimization Specialist @Thermo Fisher Scientific

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