Team Members

Director

Carson J. Bruns Assistant Professor

I grew up in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Loveland, Colorado before attending Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where I concentrated on chemistry, religion, and mathematics. After receiving a BA in 2008, I attended graduate school at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and got my PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2013 under the supervision of Professors J. Fraser Stoddart and Samuel I. Stupp. I spent three years as a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, where I was hosted by Matt Francis in the College of Chemistry. Currently, I am an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering with the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

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Graduate Students

Diane Jung 6th Year PhD Student, Mechanical Engineering

Diane earned her BA in physics at Willamette University in 2020 before moving to Boulder to pursue a PhD in mechanical engineering. Her past research projects include an experimental analysis and computational modeling of motor protein motility and designing and testing a prototype of a miniature microscope for three-dimensional imaging. Her current research is on designing human-robot collaboration systems in synthetic chemistry labs.

Aseem Visal 5th Year PhD Student, Materials Science & Engineering

Aseem is a graduate student in the Materials Science & Engineering program. He is from India, where he received a Bachelor of Polymer Engineering from the University of Pune in 2014. He is currently researching different applications of polyrotaxane slide-ring materials.

Meenakshi Skandarajan 2nd Year PhD Student, Biomedical Engineering

Meena graduated from CU Boulder’s Biomedical Engineering BS program and joined the Emergent Nanomaterials Lab as an undergraduate through the Discovery Learning Apprentice Program before staying on as a PhD student in 2025. She enjoys dancing in her free time and is currently developing conductive smart inks.

Undergraduate Students

Colin Watkins Undergraduate Researcher

Colin is a first-year undergraduate student majoring in Chemical Engineering. He’s a self-described fan of sci-fi and philosophy, and enjoys researching polymer and battery chemistry.

Group Alumni

**Karan Dikshit**, PhD (2018–2022), Materials Science & Engineering

**Jesse Butterfield**, PhD (2017–2022) Mechanical Engineering

**Purnendu**, PhD (2018-2024) Creative Technology & Design

**Hyejin Kwon** *Postdoctoral Researcher 2018–2021 + 2026*

**Kailey Shara**, PhD Student (2018-2023) Creative Technology & Design

**Joshua Coffie** PhD Student (2023–2025)

**Subhankar Mandal** *Postdoctoral Researcher 2023–2025*

Sean Keyser MS Student — **Sean Keyser,** MS (2019)

**Emma Thomure** Undergraduate Researcher

**Jennifer Quigley** *Discovery Learning Apprentice*

**Neely Quirk** *Discovery Learning Apprentice*

**Roan Gerrald** Undergraduate Researcher

Rita Kamenetskiy Undergraduate Researcher — **Rita Kamenetskiy** *Undergraduate Researcher*

**Aven Hart** *Discovery Learning Apprentice*

Nicole Leon-Molina Undergraduate Researcher — **Nicole Leon-Molina** *Undergraduate Researcher*

Aya Ishikawa Discovery Learning Apprentice — **Aya Ishikawa** Discovery Learning Apprentice

Ian Stokes Undergraduate Researcher — **Ian Stokes** *Summer Undergraduate Researche*r

**Justin Hall** *Undergraduate Researcher*

**Caitlin Rogers** Undergraduate Researcher

**Mollie Stockton** Foreign Exchange Student

**Jaime Wickersheim** *Summer Undergraduate Researcher*

Phillip Vo Undergraduate Researcher — **Phillip Vo** *Undergraduate Researcher*

**Zoe Zeidler** *Undergraduate Researcher*

Emily Powis Undergraduate Researcher — **Emily Powis** *Undergraduate Researcher*