Group Members

Fan Yang (she/her) - Fan received her B.S. in Chemistry in 2016 from Brigham Young University-Idaho. She joined the group in June of 2016. Fan is currently studying the thermochemistry of hydrated manganese dications using guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry (GIBMS). Her future work is thermochemical studies of hydration energies of various transition metals. 

Amanda Bubas (she/her) - Mandy received her B.S. in Biochemistry in 2018 from Duquesne University. She joined the group in December of 2018.  Mandy is investigating the thermochemistry and mechanisms of Th and U fluoride cations in the gas phase using guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry (GIBMS). 

Samantha K. Walker (they/them) - Sammy received their B.S. in Chemistry in 2017 from Boise State University. They joined the group in June 2019. Sammy is currently studying the thermochemistry and mechanism of deamidation of small peptides including H⁺(AsnIle), H⁺(AsnIleGly), and H⁺(AsnLeuGly) using guided ion beam mass spectrometry (GIBMS), theoretical calculations, and modeling. They are also on studying the thermochemistry and mechanism of dehydration of Me-H⁺(AsnSer) and other methylated variants. They are also working on infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) of metallated peptides with collaborators at the FELIX facility at Radboud University Nijmegen.

David Loertscher (he/him) - David received his B.S. in Chemistry in 2019 from Brigham Young University-Idaho. He joined the group in December of 2019. David is currently working on ion mobility separation of metal-cation electronic states. His research interests are in instrumentation design, spectroscopy, metalloorganic, and theoretical chemistry. His future work includes developing and incorporating an ion mobility system into the guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry (GIBMS) instrument.

Talley Fenn (she/her/hers) - Talley received her B.A. in Chemistry in 2021 from Rollins College. She joined the group in December of 2021. Talley is currently studying the exothermic Tb + O chemi-ionization reaction using guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry (GIBMS) and theoretical calculations. Her future work includes evaluating the effect on the thermochemistry of using different collision partners for metal oxide and carbonyl cation dissociation and determining relevant periodic trends of the lanthanide series. 

Gonzalo Perezmaldonado (he/him) - Gonzalo received his B.S. in Chemistry in 2023 form California State University San Bernardino. He joined the group in December of 2023. Gonzalo is currently studying the thermochemistry of Ammonia and Uranium ions in gas phase using guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry (GIBMS).

Brandon C. Stevenson, PhD (he/him/his) - Brandon received his B.S. in chemistry from Boise State University (2017) and doctorate in chemistry from the University of Utah (2023) with P. B. Armentrout. His current work lies across several domains (from small, biomimetic system structural identification to fundamental actinide and lanthanide thermochemistry), with a particular interest in the development of robust mass spectrometry instrumentation. His publications can be found here.  

Satish Kumar (he/him) - Satish obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER Pune, India) under the supervision of Prof. Aloke Das in 2022. He joined the group in August 2023 as a postdoctoral researcher. Satish is in pursuit of understanding the reactivity of actinide (mostly U + and Th + ) cations with small neutral molecules in the gas phase. He is currently working on the study of the activation of methane C-H bond by U⁺ cation using guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry (GIBMS) and quantum calculations. He is also interested in the study of thermochemistry and reactivity of molecules that are found in the interstellar medium.

Farah Sadat (she/her) -  Farah is a current undergrad in her second year at the University of Utah majoring in biochemistry. She joined the lab group in 2024. She is currently studying the thermochemistry of fragmentation pathways, specifically, deamidation, in the small peptide H⁺(AsnHis) using guided ion bean tandem mass spectrometry and theoretical calculations.