The Team
We’re very happy that our lab, made up of graduate and undergraduate students, from a range of backgrounds have come together to support each other in our scientific, academic, and personal goals.
Christopher R. Harrison
Associate Professor
Senate Distinguished Professor
Where is your hometown?
Franklin Centre, Quebec, Canada
What is your research focus?
My primary focus is on developing new approaches for capillary electrophoretic analyses, and furthering our collective understanding of the factors that influence CE separations.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Long bike rides into the mountains, I don’t enjoy the climbs all that much, but long fast descents make up for that.
What is a fun-fact about you?
Where I grew up it was more convenient to cross the Canada/USA border to go to a movie in NY state than it was drive to an English language movie theater in our corner of Quebec.
What is your dream job?
Astronaut
Graduate Student Researchers
Stephanie “Steph” Khuri
Masters Student
Where is your hometown?
Amman, Jordan
What is your research focus?
Developing novel devices for doing analytical chemistry.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Photography
What is a fun-fact about you?
I film music videos for fun, but got to win an award at a film festival for it when I was in high school.
What is your ethnicity?
Middle Eastern
What is your favorite food?
Eggs Benedict
Ellen Kuang
Also responds to: Elaine, Eileen, Allan, & natural log
Doctoral Student
Where is your hometown?
San Francisco, CA
What is your research focus?
Studying the effects of interspecies and interkingdom communication between a eukaryotic host-microbial community system using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry. The two systems I’m specifically studying are the human-gut microbiome community dynamics on inflammation as well as a dinoflagellate-microbe interactions and implications on harmful algal blooms.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Sleep, bake, cook, garden, take my dog out on long walks, find new places to eat, play Stardew Valley.
What is a fun-fact about you?
I played the violin for 3 years and hated it. So I switched to viola, loved it and played that for 7 years.
What is your ethnicity?
Chinese
Who is your favorite Superhero?
Aquaman
Candice “Candi” Lambert
Doctoral Student
Where is your hometown?
Brighton, MI
What is your research focus?
Metabolites and Cell signaling
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Play with my kids and hike
What is a fun-fact about you?
I REALLY like heavy metal music
What is your ethnicity?
Most of Europe, French Canadian, Algonquin
What is your favorite place to vacation/travel?
Anywhere that is the middle of no where, ie: forest, mountains, deserts, ect.
Muhand Rashid
Masters Student
Where is your hometown?
Baghdad, Iraq
What is your research focus?
Reversing the electroosmotic flow as a method of sample stacking.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Hang out with friends and play Pokémon GO
What is a fun-fact about you?
The most expensive thing I’ve ever held in my hands was a synthetic peptide batch worth ~$250K.
What is your ethnicity?
Middle Eastern
What is your favorite musician/band/album/genre?
Lofi and Chill Trap.
Sergio Alfredo Renteria
Masters Student
Where is your hometown?
Chula Vista, California
What is your research focus?
The use and modification of PDMS polymers for the sampling, collection, and analysis of THS residues (nicotine) in living spaces.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Hang out with my friends, play with my dog, and play video games
What is a fun-fact about you?
I can play guitar.
What is your ethnicity?
Hispanic
What is your favorite place to vacation/travel?
I like going to the mountains or deserts a lot
Jessica Torres
Doctoral Student
NASA OSE Fellowship 2020 Recipient
Where is your hometown?
Chula Vista, California
What is your research focus?
My research heavily involves utilizing CZE and CE-LIF to develop methods to improve analysis of biologically important analytes. Currently, I am collaborating with researchers from Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop an extraction and quantification method that would be applicable to porous rocks for the detection of past life on other planetary bodies such as Mars and Europa.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Playing Animal Crossing, hanging with my dogs, and roller-skating!
What is a fun-fact about you?
I know a lot about comics because I spent 4+ years working in my local comic book store!
What is your ethnicity?
Latina
What/who is your favorite book/author?
Love and Rockets by Los Bros Hernandez and SAGA by Brian K. Vaughn
Undergraduate Student Researchers
Kayla Abigail Arlantico
Undergraduate Student
More details to come
Payton Lee
Undergraduate Student
Where is your hometown?
Freeport, Grand Bahama, The Bahamas
What is your research focus?
My work focuses on understanding how capillary electrophoretic separations can be conducted using deep eutectic solvents as the separation matrix.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Altering clothes, cooking desserts, and writing monologues
What is your favorite food?
Either crab salad or guava duff
What’s your ethnicity?
Bahamian
What is a fun fact about you?
I learned the entirety of Mozart’s Requiem for my high school competition chorus
Hieu Nguyen Schneider
Undergraduate Student
Where is your hometown?
Saigon, Vietnam
What is your research focus?
Identifying the changes in the metabolites of individuals with high, low, and no fruit diets using liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Hanging out with my family, playing video games, cooking.
What is your favorite food?
Any noodle soup
What’s your ethnicity?
Vietnamese
What is a fun fact about you?
I love bluegrass and classical music.
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That is one tall tree!!!!
Carly Nichols
Undergraduate Student
MARC Scholar
Where is your hometown?
Lake Elsinore, CA
What is your research focus?
I am working to advance the labs capabilities to do sampling of biomarkers by looking at the expression of creatinine in fluid around the eye.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
Listen to horror podcasts, spend time with my cats, and do small crafts like embroidery and puzzles.
What is your favorite food?
Spicy miso ramen
What’s your ethnicity?
Ashkenazi Jewish
What is your dream job?
Forensic scientist.
Christian Sandoval
Undergraduate Student
Microbiology Major
Where is your hometown?
San Diego, CA
What is your research focus?
I am working with deep eutectic solvents for labelling and separating chiral amino acids by capillary electrophoresis.
What is your favorite thing to do with your free time?
I enjoy lifting with my friends or going to the beach to surf.
What is your favorite food?
Ramen
What’s your ethnicity?
Mexican
What is your hidden talent?
I’m really good at movie trivia
What is your dream job?
CLS at Scripps hospital
