The Finkeldei Lab

Jessica Granger-Jones

Jessica received a B.S. in Chemistry and a minor in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2017. As an undergraduate, she joined a materials chemistry research group under Dr. Ting Xu, working on the development of peptide-polymer conjugate micelles to enhance drug delivery.  After graduation, Jessica served in the US Peace Corps in Mozambique as a high school chemistry teacher and as the National Science Fair coordinator. She can often be found playing very intense 7 on 7 soccer with her rec team "Eat My Zots," proposing a mid-afternoon "sneaky decaf" or accidentally messaging her colleagues in Portuguese. Outside of the laboratory, she also enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, as well as hiking and watching Premier League soccer.​​​​​​​​​

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Steven Nguyen

Steven graduated with high honors from the University of California, Riverside in 2021 with a B.Sc in Chemistry. Now in the Finkeldei Group, he studies the redox chemistry of uranium dioxide with stainless steel and Zircaloy-4. Legend has it he also has a drawer full of granola bars, but this has not been confirmed. When not in the lab making the rest of us jealous of his SEM images and flexing his uncanny knowledge as our resident mineralogy expert, Steven spends his time archiving various media, taking up new hobbies like woodworking, learning the piano, chilling in the backseat of our carpools, and being a victim of Audrey's very encouraging belaying at the ARC  Climbing Wall. He's most famous for sneaking into the Democratic National Convention after giving a conference presentation in Chicago. His only comment - "I saw food. And I was hungry."​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Audrey Miles

Audrey graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2023 with a B.S. in Chemistry with Computing. At Notre Dame, she performed first-principles quantum chemistry calculations for catalytic systems with Prof. Bill Schneider. She later joined Prof. Amy Hixon's research group, where she studied the chemistry of uranyl peroxide nanoclusters. She then skipped across the pond to the University of Cambridge for a Master's in Nuclear Energy. Audrey now spends her time trying to convince the rest of the group that her atomistic simulations are cool and pretending she'll "get into lab when she finishes her current project," which involves developing machine learning potentials for advanced fuel systems. When she isn't coding at her desk, she's probably crocheting or being a very encouraging belayer for her fellow lab members.

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