Roman Korol is from Ukraine. He obtained a PhD at Caltech, where he developed and applied the Path Integral methods under the supervision of Tom Miller and Bill Goddard. During his Undergrad Roman has also studied conductance of DNA molecular wires with Dvira Segal at the University of Toronto. Roman joined the Franco group in September of 2023, where he is tackling open quantum dynamics with analog simulators.
Members
Postdoctoral Associates
Ph.D. Students
Xinxian Chen is from China. In 2019, he graduated from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, where he completed his B.Sc. in chemistry and B.Phil. in philosophy. As an undergraduate in chemistry, Xinxian gained some experience in wavefunction-based simulation methods for quantum dynamics. He joined the Franco group in December of 2019, and now is working on understanding entanglement and decoherence processes with rationalized simulation methods.
Vishal Tiwari finished his B.S.-M.S. from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research(IISER), Mohali, India, in 2019 and is from Jaipur, India. He worked on stabilizing the linear geometry of water molecule in presence of high-intensity high-frequency oscillating electric field for his M.S. thesis. He joined the Franco group in 2019 and is currently working on the theory and computation of optical absorption properties of laser-dressed materials. He likes to play volleyball and video games.
Ignacio Gustin received his BS degree in Chemical Physics from the National University of Córdoba (Argentina) in 2019. During his undergraduate, he became interested in Chemical Physics and Quantum Mechanics and joined the Raúl A. B. Marún group for his senior thesis. There, he worked in the determination of metastable states in collisional complexes through Green’s functions. He joined the Franco group in December 2020 and is now working on the study of realistic decoherence dynamics of molecules in the condensed phase by combining experimental information and theoretical methods. Outside of the lab, he enjoys soccer, climbing, and drinking a glass of good wine.
Rishabh Dora is from Delhi, India. He received his BS-MS (Dual Degree) in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, India, in 2022. For his MS thesis, he worked on simulating polaron transport in optomechanical arrays. He joined the Franco group in 2022 and is interested in working on molecular dynamics and open quantum systems simulation. Always up for watching good movies and playing basketball outside the lab.
Rahul Chourasiya is from Jaipur, India. He received his BS-MS (Dual Degree) in physics from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal, India, in 2022. For his MS thesis, he worked on exciting the Rydberg atoms interacting with twisted lights. He joined the Franco group in 2023 and is interested in working on electrodynamic simulations of nano-junctions. Outside of the lab, he enjoys soccer, meowing at cats and exploring national parks.
Undergraduate Students
Derek Chien, Beckman Scholar. Summer 2023-present
Derek is from Reno, Nevada and is pursuing a BA in Chemistry/Bioethics. He obtained his high school diploma from the Davidson Academy of Nevada in 2021 with a concentration in Chemistry. With previous experience in organic synthesis and biochemistry, he found an interest in the computational work of the Franco Group, joining in 2023 as a Beckman Scholar. In collaboration with the Partridge Group, he conducts electronic structure calculations and coarse-grained simulations to study the self-assembly of biomimetic two-faced nucleobases into hierarchical rosette nanotubes. Outside of the lab, he enjoys boxing and a good game of trivia.
Jhoan Alexis Fernandez Sanchez, Summer 2023
Jhoan received his BS degree in Physics from Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, in 2023. During his undergrad, he became interested in theoretical techniques to tackle nonequilibrium open quantum systems such as the nonequilibrium Green’s functions (NEGF) technique. He joined the solid-state physics group there and worked on the quantum transport of an interacting quantum dot for his senior thesis. He joined the Franco Group in June 2023 as an i-scholar and worked on including electron correlation effects in ultrafast laser-induced transport using NEGF. Outside of the lab, he enjoys basketball, table tennis, puzzles, and knowing new places.
Alumni
Postdoctoral Fellows:
Prof. Chang Woo Kim, Postdoctoral Fellow, Sep. 2019– Aug. 2021. Currently: Assistant Professor, Chonnam National U. (Korea) (link)
Dr. Bing Gu, Postdoctoral Fellow, September 1, 2016– October 30, 2018. Recipient of the 2018 ACS Physical Chemistry Young Investigator Award. Currently: Assistant Professor, Westlake U (link)
Dr. Arnab Kar, Postdoctoral Fellow, July 1, 2014– July 1, 2016. Currently: Engineer at Intel.
Dr. Liping Chen, Postdoctoral Fellow, July 1, 2013– March 1, 2016. Currently: Researcher at Zhejiang U.
Graduate Students:
Dr. Leopoldo Mejía, Ph.D. Student, Jan. 1, 2017– August 18, 2021. Thesis: “Mechanical Control of Charge Transport and Chemical Reactivity in Molecular Junctions”. Recipient of the 2021 ACS Graduate Award in Theoretical Chemistry. Currently: PDF at Berkeley (Rabani).
Dr. Wenxiang Hu, Ph.D. Student, Feb. 1, 2016 – May 6, 2021. Thesis: “Modeling and control of quantum decoherence in molecules”. Currently: Engineer at Amazon.
Dr. Antonio Garzón, Ph.D. Student, Jan. 1, 2016– Feb. 25, 2021. Thesis: “Ultrafast Control of Electrons Using Few-cycle Laser Pulses.” Currently: PDF at Northwestern (Tempelaar).
Dr. Zhi Li, Ph.D. Student, Jan. 1, 2014– Jan 5, 2019. Thesis: “Frontiers in the Atomistic Modeling of Molecular Junctions: Bringing Theory Closer to Experiment”. Currently: Engineer at Meta.
Dr. Alessandro Pirrotta, Ph.D. Student, U. Copenhagen, 2013–2017 (co-supervised with Prof. G.C. Solomon). Thesis: “Modulating Pathways for Electron and Energy Transfer Through Molecules”. Currently: Data science Engineer at PFA Pension, Copenhagen.
Undergraduate Students:
Rylee Neumann, 2022-2023. Currently: Scientist at Lincoln Labs.
Junjie Wang, 2022-2023. Currently: Graduate student at Northwestern.
Luis Alejandro Sierra Ossa, Summer 2022. Currently: Graduate student at Northwestern.
Anjana Seshadri, 2021—2022. Currently: Graduate student at Cornell.
Yueheng Min, Summer 2021. Currently: Graduate student at U. Rochester.
Luis Delgado, Summer 2021. Currently: Graduate student U. Chicago.
Garrett Beals, Jan. 1, 2020– May 2021. Thesis: “Finite-Difference Time-Domain Electrodynamics Simulations of Petahertz Electronics”. Recipient of an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 2021. Currently: Ph.D. student at Columbia.
Daniel Carstairs, U. Rochester. Fall 2020. Currently: Graduate student at U. Chicago.
Francisco Fernández, M.Sc. Student, U. Madrid. Summer 2019. Currently: Ph.D. student at UAM.
Yuly Chamorro, Visiting M.Sc. Student, Jan 15, 2019– May 15, 2019. Currently: Ph.D. student at Groningen.
Diego Garay, U. Barcelona. Summer 2018. Currently: Postdoc at Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia.
Pawel Wojcik, U. Warsaw, Poland. Summer 2017. Currently: Ph.D. student with Anna Krylov at USC.
Reshmi Dani, IIT-Guwahati, India. Summer 2016. Currently: Engineer at Intel.
Dr. Ulises Torres, UNAM, Mexico. Summer 2015.