Chae was born in Seoul, South Korea, and got her BA at Dongguk University(DGU) in 2017. She managed to get out of  POSTECH and earn an MS in 2019. She now is pursuing her Ph.D. in Léonard’s group at UCSB. Outside of the lab, she likes to explore many hobbies. So far she has explored her interest in playing tennis, poker, and learning bjj, surfing and still exploring more.

Robert Till grew up in Royersford, Pennsylvania. While at Bucknell University, Robert studied asymmetric natural product derivatization of bile salts under the mentorship of Professor Michael Krout. After earning a B.Sc. in Biochemistry in 2023, Robert joined Professor Nadia Leonard's research group at UC Santa Barbara, focusing on developing transition metal catalysts for the electrochemical reduction of small molecules. When not working in the lab, Robert likes computer programming, video games, and discovering new wines.

AJ Chavez grew up in Downey, California, went to the USC and received a B.S. in Chemical Biology. During his time, he worked under Travis Williams and worked on the use of formic acid as a liquid organic hydrogen carrier using an Iridium catalyst. After his undergraduate, he decided to get his PhD at UCSB, where he joined Mahdi Abu-Omars group to investigate biomass upcycling. During his first year, he helped discover a class of nickel catalysts and wanted to explore their electrocatalytic properties under co-advisement of Nadia Leonard. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis, hanging out with his friends and going on adventures!

Jessica grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, home of the 32-story Bass Pro Shop pyramid. She completed her undergraduate education at Christian Brothers University and had great fun during her two REUs at MTSU and USC, where she also learned she actually likes inorganic chemistry. She is now pursuing her Ph.D. in the Léonard group with a focus on rare earth metal separation. In her free time, she likes running, reading, crossword puzzling, hula-hooping, concert going, frisbee flicking, and talking!

Joel graduated from New Jersey Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Chemistry, where he worked on gaseous oxidized mercury detection under the mentorship of Professor Alexei Khalizov. He joined Professor Nadia Léonard’s research group in 2024 to investigate homogeneous carbon dioxide reduction pathways that yield multi-carbon products. In his free time, Joel likes listening to experimental music, painting, and playing video games.