Principal Investigator
Miguel Garcia-Garibay received his B.S. degree from the University of Michoacan in Mexico and his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. He was a postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University before joining the faculty in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA where he was promoted to full professor. He served as Vice Chair for Education and as chair of the Department and is the current Dean of Physical Sciences. Garcia-Garibay achieved international reputation for work in solid-state organic chemistry, reaction mechanisms, and crystalline molecular machines. Among other honors, he is a fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science and has been awarded the American Competitiveness and Innovation Fellowship, an NSF Creativity Award, the 2013 Inter-American Photochemical Society Award, the 2015 ACS Cope Scholar Award, and the 2016 UCLA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Award.
Email: mgg@chem.ucla.edu
Post-Docs
Indrajit Paul obtained his Ph.D. from Universität Siegen in Germany, with a research focus on Molecular Machine under the guidance of Prof. Michael Schmittel. Following his doctoral studies, he joined the United Kingdom based pharmaceutical company ‘Sygnature Discovery’ as a senior scientist. As of November 2022, he is perusing postdoctoral research in Miguel García-Garibay’s group at UCLA. Outside lab, Indrajit enjoys playing and watching chess.
Email: indrajit@chem.ucla.edu
Krzysztof Konieczny obtained his PhD at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Poland) under the supervision of Prof. Ilona Turowska-Tyrk. He completed his first postdoc at Université de Lorraine (France) under Dr. Sébastien Pillet.
Krzysztof joined the MGG group as a postdoc in October 2022 thanks to the scholarship from Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange. He has a strong crystallographic background and currently he is working on solid-state photochemistry projects using Micro-crystal Electron Diffraction (micro-ED) techniques.
In his free time Krzysztof enjoys exploring LA on his bike, cooking, and video games.
Email: konieczny@chem.ucla.edu
Rishika Rai was born and brought up in Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), India. After completing her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Delhi, India, she moved to Thiruvananthapuram, South India, to pursue higher studies.
She joined the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM), India for an integrated Ph.D. in Chemistry. At IISER-TVM, she joined Prof. Kana M. Sureshan’s research group and gained expertise in topochemical synthesis and study of various peptide-polymers in crystals and aerogel during her M.S. and Ph. D.
After receiving the Ph. in 2022, Rishika joined Prof. Miguel Garcia-Garibay’s Research group at UCLA in January 2023. She is currently working on solid-state photochemistry.
In her free time, Rishika enjoys reading, watching movies, cooking, yoga, and exploring LA with friends.
Email: rishika.iisertvm@gmail.com
Graduate Students
Jared King is a fourth-year graduate student who joined the MGG group in 2021. Originally from Montgomery, Alabama, he graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he majored in chemistry and minored in physics and materials science. While at UAB, Jared conducted research with the physics department, using solid-state EPR to detect defects in GaO2 semiconductors. Now, he specializes in organic photochemistry, using optical spectroscopy methods to measure the rates of photochemical processes in the solid state. In his free time, Jared enjoys playing classical guitar, cooking for friends, and winning at poker.
Email: jaredking@chem.ucla.edu
Antonio Macias Jr. is a graduate student who joined the MGG group in 2022. He was born and raised in La Puente, CA (Bridgetown), but moved to the Bay Area where he completed his undergraduate studies at UC Berkeley in 2020. During undergrad, Antonio conducted research in solid-oxide fuel cells and catalytic materials for electrochemical methane oxidation. After graduating, Antonio worked as a chemistry technician at Biotium, a fluorescent dye company, for a couple of years. Now, he is a part of the MGG lab studying photochemistry and making compounds for studies in quantum information science. Outside of the lab, Antonio is a coffee connoisseur who enjoys cooking and misses his old hobbies.
Email: amaciasjr16@g.ucla.edu
Jing-Ran Shan obtained his bachelor degree in 2021. In 2022, he joined UCLA as a Chemistry PhD student under Prof. Miguel A. Garcia-Garibay & Prof. Kendall N. Houk. As a joint student between two groups, his research includes experimental synthesis of molecular rotors (embedded in MOFs and COFs) as well as computational study (QM, MD) on transition metal catalysis in extensive collaboration with researchers worldwide. Outside of the lab, Jing-Ran enjoys traveling.
Email: jrshan@chem.ucla.edu
Roberto Chavez attended Santa Monica College where he joined STEM/SRI, a program to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in scientific fields. Through this program, he got the chance to do research at UCLA as a community college student under the mentorship of Dr. Miguel Garcia-Garibay. In the summer of 2019, he was awarded his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara where he worked with Dr. Craig Hawker as an undergraduate researcher. He came back to UCLA in fall 2019 and joined the MGG group once more to pursue his Ph.D. in Chemistry. His hobbies include going to concerts, museums, and watching independent films.
Email: rcchavez@g.ucla.edu
Ferdawss Ihiri is a graduate student who joined UCLA chemistry as a PhD student in 2023. Originally from Casablanca, Morocco, she moved to the US for her undergraduate studies at the College of Wooster where she majored in Chemistry and minored in computer science. As an undergrad, she conducted research in green a nd supramolecular chemistry studying the self-assembly of porphyrins for organic photovoltaics. She now leverages computational chemistry and machine learning to study solid-state reactivity as a joint student between the MGG and Alexandrova labs. In her free time, Ferdawss enjoys exercising, reading, and spending time with her family.
Email: ihiriferdawss@g.ucla.edu
Undergraduate Students
Undergraduates interested in joining the group should reach out to Miguel and/or any of the group members to learn about open opportunities.