Contact & People

Department of Chemistry
Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science
University of British Columbia Okanagan
3247 Research Road
Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7
Canada

Email: chemistry.okanagan@ubc.ca
Please direct all general inquires to the above email address.

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Adeyemi Adebowale | Sessional Lecturer | Chemistry | adeyemi.adebowale@ubc.ca | SCI 216
Research Interests: Analytical Chemistry; Food Analysis; Food Chemistry.
Courses & Teaching: Analytical Chemistry.
Scott Minh An | MSc Student | Chemistry | scott.an@ubc.ca | FIP 378B
Research Interests: Single-molecule; optical tweezer; rolling adhesion, and instrumentation.
Muhammad Ashraf | Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Chemistry | muhammad.ashraf@ubc.ca
Adam Bergren | Affiliate Professor | Chemistry | adam.bergren@ubc.ca
Michele Cannon | Lab Technician | Chemistry | michele.cannon@ubc.ca | 250.807.9942 | SCI 224C
Parandis Daneshgar | Research Associate | Chemistry | parandis.daneshgar@ubc.ca
Thu-Thuy Dang | Assistant Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystems Services (BRAES) | thuy.dang@ubc.ca | 250.807.9468 | SCI 207

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Discovering new biosynthetic enzymes and pathways; generating specialized metabolites structural and functional diversities; re-constituting natural products metabolism in synthetic biology chassis.
Courses & Teaching: Biochemistry
Amanda Darbyshire | Sessional Lecturer | Chemistry | amanda.darbyshire@ubc.ca
Eric Dennis | Lab Technician | Chemistry | eric.dennis@ubc.ca | 250.807.9031 | SCI 224B
Gino DiLabio | Professor | Chemistry | gino.dilabio@ubc.ca | 250.807.8617 | FIP 357

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Computational studies of i) radical reactions involving organic, inorganic, biological and solid-state systems; ii) noncovalent interactions; iii) oxygen-centred radical induced damage of proteins.
Courses & Teaching: Physical and computational chemistry.
Lauren Erland | Affiliate Assistant Professor | Chemistry | lauren.erland@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Plant perception and response to environmental change, phytohormones, morphogenesis, metabolomics, plant signaling, plant chemistry, biotechnology
Courses & Teaching: CHEM412 Introduction to Bioanalytical Chemistry CHEM533 Bioanalytical Chemistry
Tamara Freeman | Associate Professor of Teaching | Chemistry | tamara.freeman@ubc.ca | 250.807.8223 | SCI 210
Research Interests: First year coordinator of lectures and laboratories.
Courses & Teaching: CHEM 111/113 & CHEM 121/123 CHEM 214
Liubov Frolova | PhD Student | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | liubovf@mail.ubc.ca
Research Interests: Exosome biogenesis; exosomal biomarkers; drug delivery; single molecule imaging.
Bhavesh Gnnanapareddy | MSc Student | Chemistry | bha217@mail.ubc.ca
Robert Godin | Assistant Professor | Chemistry | robert.godin@ubc.ca | 250.807.8438 | FIP 341

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Transient absorption spectroscopy/microscopy to determine the charge carrier dynamics; carbon-based photocatalytic materials; sustainable energy production; sustainable photochemistry for water purification and chemical transformations
Courses & Teaching: Solar energy; chemical kinetics; physical chemistry; spectroscopy.
Janet Heisler | Department Manager | Biology, Chemistry | janet.heisler@ubc.ca | 250.807.8757 | SCI 164
Omid Hosseinzadeh | MSc Student | Chemistry | ohzde@mail.ubc.ca
Jackline Irungu | PhD Student | Chemistry | jackline.irungu@ubc.ca
David Jack | Associate Professor | Chemistry | david.jack@ubc.ca | 250.807.8747 | FIP 344

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Chemical and physical processes at solid surfaces; phase transitions; molecular computer simulations; heterogeneous catalysis; functional surfaces; nanoscience.
Courses & Teaching: Physical, biophysical, quantum, and computational chemistry.
Zhehan Jia | MSc Student | Chemistry | zhj05@mail.ubc.ca
William Kennedy | MSc Student | Chemistry | william.kennedy@ubc.ca
M. Hossein Khalilian | PhD Student | Chemistry | hossein.khalilian@ubc.ca | FIP 245A
Research Interests: Using quantum mechanical modelling techniques to see quantum effects in radical enzymes; investigating mechanism of chemical reactions, including those related to organic and biological systems by means of computational methods.
Sutripto Khasnabis | PhD Student | Chemistry | sutripto@mail.ubc.ca
Seongho Kim | Postdoctoral Fellow | Chemistry | seongho.kim@ubc.ca | 236.457.3480
Research Interests: Mechanobiology
Truc Kim | Research Associate | Chemistry | truc.kim@ubc.ca
Omkar Kulkarni | MSc Student | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chemistry | omkar.kulkarni@ubc.ca
Isaac Li | Associate Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI) | isaac.li@ubc.ca | 250.807.8069 | FIP 343

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Single-molecule biophysics; programmable molecular devices and biosensors; cancer and immune cell biology; cell mechanics and mechanobiology.
Courses & Teaching: Nucleic Acid, Cellular and Molecular Biophysics, Instrumentation, Physical Chemistry
Summer Li | Lecturer | Chemistry | summerxia.li@ubc.ca | 250.807.9023 | SCI 212
Research Interests: Exosomal detection and drug delivery.
Matthew McConnachie | MSc Student | Chemistry | mmcc1998@mail.ubc.ca
W. Stephen McNeil | Associate Professor | Chemistry | stephen.mcneil@ubc.ca | 250.807.8751 | SCI 215
Research Interests: Chemistry education: alternative conceptions of advanced bonding models, impacts and effectiveness of active and collaborative learning activities, affective learning outcomes.
Courses & Teaching: Introductory chemistry, molecular structure and bonding, bioinorganic chemistry
Frederic Menard | Associate Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI) | frederic.menard@ubc.ca | 250.807.8225 | FIP 348

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Chemical biology: use of small molecules to study and manipulate biological systems; design of molecular tools to study the real-time dynamics of cellular events; using organic chemistry, natural products are modified to label proteins involved in cellular signaling; the biology questions studied focus on protein-protein interactions, astrocytes communication, synapse elimination, and neurodegeneration.
Courses & Teaching: Synthetic organic chemistry.
Emma Mitchell | Lab Technician | Chemistry | emma.mitchell@ubc.ca | FIP 306
Susan Murch | Department Head (Pro Tem), Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI), Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience, and Ecosystems Services (BRAES) | susan.murch@ubc.ca | 250.807.9566 | FIP 350

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: The Plant Secondary Metabolite Analytical Research Team (PlantSMART) researches chemistry of plants and how plant chemistry affects human health using analytical chemistry, mass spectrometry, biotechnology, metabolomics and hormonomics approaches.
Courses & Teaching: Analytical chemistry; plant biochemistry. Micro-credential in Metabolomics
Mahsa Nazemi Ashani | PhD Student | Chemistry | nazemias@mail.ubc.ca
Tuan-Anh Minh Nguyen | PhD Student | Chemistry | tuananh.nguyen@ubc.ca | FIP 245
Research Interests: Discovering new biosynthetic enzymes involved in plant specialized metabolism; reconstituting alkaloid metabolism in yeast platform; chemo-enzymatic reactions for high-value compounds synthesis.
Minh Thang Nguyen | Postdoctoral Fellow | Chemistry | minhthang.nguyen@ubc.ca | 236.338.3968 | FIP 308
Research Interests: Flow spectroscopy; Single-molecule localization microscopy; DNA nanostructures; Protein-DNA interactions; Diagnostic assays.
Thi Hong Hoa Nguyen | Postdoctoral Research Fellow | Chemistry | hoa.nguyen@ubc.ca
Nitin Nitin | PhD Student | Chemistry | nikhawk@gmail.com
Matthew Noestheden | Adjunct Professor | Chemistry | matt.noestheden@ubc.ca
Research Interests: Analytical chemistry; applied mass spectrometry and chromatography; wine.
Peter Osei Ohemeng | Sessional Lecturer | Chemistry | peter.ohemeng@ubc.ca | SCI 216
Research Interests: Carbon-based photocatalytic materials; Use of spectroscopic tools to understand the inner-workings of carbon-based materials; Development of cost-effective and innovative approaches for environmental remediation; Design of organic semiconductor materials for energy applications.
Courses & Teaching: Introduction to Organic Chemistry; Organic Chemistry.
Shilong Pan | MSc Student | Chemistry | shilong@mail.ubc.ca
Vignesh Pattathil | PhD Student | Chemistry | Vignesh.pn@ubc.ca | 236-338-1286 | FIP 371/372/128
Research Interests: Synthetic inorganic main-group chemistry, synthesis of low-valent group-13 compounds, catalysis, bond activation, crystallography.
Raphael Poirier | MSc Student | Chemistry | raphael.poirier@ubc.ca
Conor Pranckevicius | Assistant Professor | Chemistry | conor.pranckevicius@ubc.ca | 250.807.8577 | FIP 354

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Low-valent main group compounds, catalysis, small molecule activation, conjugated materials.
Dyuti Raghu | PhD Student | Chemistry | dyuti.raghu@ubc.ca | FIP 308
Research Interests: Kinetics and applications of DNA nanostructures; Novel DNA architecture; Single-molecule biophysics; single-molecule fluorescence and force spectroscopy
Jiao Rui | MSc Student | Chemistry | ruijiao@mail.ubc.ca
Alireza Sadeghifar | Lecturer | Chemistry | alireza.sadeghifar@ubc.ca | 250.807.9025 | SCI 213
Courses & Teaching: Experiment and Content Development for Physical Chemistry Labs; Physical and Quantum chemistry; Atmospheric and Water chemistry; First-Year Chemistry.
Paul Shipley | Associate Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chemistry | paul.shipley@ubc.ca | 250.807.8749 | OM2 113

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Organic chemistry; natural products biosynthesis; the biochemistry of secondary metabolism; nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry; rational modification of biosynthetic pathways in bacteria to produce novel compounds with the potential to be pharmacologically relevant.
Courses & Teaching: Organic chemistry; structural spectrometry; bioorganic chemistry
Kevin Smith | Professor | Chemistry | kevin.m.smith@ubc.ca | 250.807.9933 | FIP 351

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Synthesis and reactivity of paramagnetic organometallic chromium compounds of relevance to catalytic carbon-carbon bond forming reactions; single electron transfer reactions and electronic structure effects in synthetic organometallic chemistry.
Courses & Teaching: Inorganic synthesis; organometallic chemistry; coordination chemistry; transition metal catalysts.
Robert Szilagyi | Associate Professor | Chemistry | robert.szilagyi@ubc.ca | 250.807.8346 | SCI 317

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Computational chemistry of iron-sulphur coordination compounds, clusters, nanoparticles, and mineral surfaces; chemical structure and properties of templated carbon materials; synchrotron spectroscopy of inorganic, bioinorganic, and organometallic complexes.
Courses & Teaching: Environmental Chemistry and Computational Chemistry
Mitra Tabatabaee | Affiliate Assistant Professor | Biology, Chemistry | mitra.tabatabaee@ubc.ca | FIP 236
Research Interests: Microbiology of Built Systems; Signaling; Chemotaxis; Chemotaxis in Brain Cancer cells (Glioma);
Courses & Teaching: Environmental microbiology; Food and Industrial Microbiology; Virology
Dario Villafuerte Vinueza | Senior Department Assistant | Chemistry | dario.villafuerte@ubc.ca | 250.807.8688 | FIP 355
Sheila Williamson | Graduate Program Assistant, Biology & Chemistry | Biology, Chemistry | sheila.williamson@ubc.ca | 250.807.8094 | SCI 154
Kirsten Wolthers | Associate Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry | kirsten.wolthers@ubc.ca | 250.807.8663 | FIP 342

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Mechanistic enzymology; structural and functional analysis of cofactor containing proteins.
Courses & Teaching: Enzymology; biochemistry.
Adam Yasunaga | PhD Student | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | adam.yasunaga@alumni.ubc.ca | FIP 245
Research Interests: Development of molecular force sensors that will be used to study the forces involved in cellular processes such as adhesion and rolling. With these force sensors, we will be able to better quantify the forces that cells experience in their environment and how they respond to these forces.
Wesley Zandberg | Associate Professor | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biotechnology, Chemistry | wesley.zandberg@ubc.ca | 250.807.9821 | SCI 209

Graduate student supervisor


Research Interests: Analytical glycobiology: the use of modern instrumental techniques to study carbohydrates, their oligomers (glycans) and their metabolism; developing new methods to investigate carbohydrates; and using chemical and analytical tools to investigate the functions of protein-linked glycans in cells and animals.
Courses & Teaching: Instrumental analytical chemistry
Ieva Zigg | Chemistry Program Lab Manager | Chemistry | Ieva.zigg@ubc.ca | 250.807.9568 | SCI 217