Our Team
Postdoctoral Associate
Graduate Students
William J. Neary
Education
2014 - B.S Chemistry/Math minor, University of Central Florida
2019 - Ph.D. Chemistry, Florida State University
2019 - Postdoctoral Associate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Bio:
William (Billy) grew up in West Palm Beach, FL where he spent his childhood playing baseball and golf and exploring his love of photography. Billy went on to obtain his Bachelors at UCF in 2014 where he worked in the research group of Andres Campiglia studying the detection of PAH metabolites using capillary electrophoresis. After a slight change of heart, he continued his studies with Justin Kennemur at FSU in 2014 where he leveraged thermodynamic parameters of low ring strain monomers to gain control of polymerizations and depolymerizations pathways of cyclopentene variants. Billy became a postdoctoral associate with Jeffrey Moore at UIUC in 2019 where he studied the mechanochemical release of small molecules, frontal ring opening metathesis polymerizations, and the polymerization of cyclic allenes. Billy joined the department of Chemistry at UCR in July 2023. His groups research interests lie in the fields of polymer synthesis, depolymerizations, mechanochemistry, and organometallics.
Xuefen Liu
Xuefen is a first year PhD student who came to us from a small and beautiful city in China. She studies the polymerization mechanism of cyclic allenes via ROAlMP. With her free time, Xuefen enjoys painting, travelling, and watching movies.
Undergraduates
Michael Shih
Michael is a third year bioengineering major on the preliminary medicine route originally from San Bernardino. Michael research is focused on finding novel depolymerization pathways from transiently strained monomers. During his free time, Michael enjoys climbing, tinkering with electronics, and developing software to solve mundane tasks he encounters.
Jarnett Asuncion
Jarnett is a third bioengineering major who is also minoring in data science. He is originally from Porterville, a small city in California that is a gateway to his vacation spot, the Sequoia National Forest. His research is focused on polymer upcyclic through skeletal rearrangements. During his downtime he enjoys hiking, playing video games, boxing, and both listening to and playing music.
Lefei Yu
Lefei received his Ph.D. degree from the College of Chemistry, Peking University under the directions of Prof. Jianbo Wang and Prof. Zi-Chen Li in the summer of 2024. His graduate research focused on the synthesis of polymers via carbene and diazo compounds. He joined the Neary Group in the autumn of 2024 and his research is focused on skeletal editing of polymers.
Anton Serina
Anton is a third-year biology major with a pre-medical focus, originally from Fremont, CA. His research centers on the polymerization of cyclic allenes via Ring-Opening Allene Metathesis Polymerization (ROAlMP). In his free time, Anton enjoys playing different sports, exploring diverse music genres, staying active at the gym, and traveling.