Row 1: (Left to right) Anwesha, Sharear, Reuben
Row 2: (Left to right) Phil, Liz, Kobie
Row 3: (Left to right) Francesco, Jay, Lauren, Ling, Drew
Current Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Phil Bevilacqua
Principal Investigator
Hometown: State College, PA
B.S.: Chemistry/Physics John Carroll University
Ph.D: University of Rochester
Postdoc: University of Colorado, Boulder
Phil enjoys running, biking, and fly fishing.
Graduate Students
Megan Sylvia
Plant Biology Graduate Student, Started 2016
Hometown: Westerly, RI
B.S. in Biology, Minors in Chemistry and Religious & Theological Studies — Salve Regina University
Megan enjoys reading, walking her dog, swimming, playing sports, and baking.
Kobie Kirven
BG Graduate Student, Started 2021
B.S. In Biochemistry and B.S. in Computational Biology – Presbyterian College
Hometown: Bowman, SC
Kobie likes to watch movies, play bluegrass music, and eat ice cream
Reuben Kern
BMB Graduate Student, Started 2021
B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology — Truman State University
Hometown: St. Lous, MO
Reuben enjoys reading, trivia, playing video games, and hiking.
Anwesha Ghosh
Chemistry Graduate Student, Started 2021
B.S. in Biochemistry– Brandeis University.
Hometown: Franklin, MA; Kolkata, India
Anwesha enjoys cooking, being active, listening to music and hip podcasts, traveling anywhere and everywhere
Francesco PecereChemistry Graduate Student – Started 2022
B.A. In Chemistry (with an emphasis in biochemistry) and Astrobiology
Hometown: Milan, Italy
Francesco enjoys cooking, being outdoors, and taking naps
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Sharear Saon
Postdoctoral Scholar, Started 2022
Hometown: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Ph.D. — Saint Louis University
M.S. in Organic Chemistry — University of Dhaka
B.S. in chemistry — University of Dhaka
Sharear enjoys playing FIFA, playing guitar, and cooking.
Dr. Mrityunjay (Jay) Gupta
Postdoctoral Scholar, started 2024
Hometown: New Delhi, India
Ph.D. In Chemistry from the University of California Irvine (Finished 2024)
B.S. – M.S. Dual degree in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) (Finished in 2014), Bhopal, India.
Jay likes to travel and cook Indian food recipes from the internet
Research Scientists
Dr. Elizabeth Jolley
Assistant Research Professor in RNA Folding
Hometown: Pueblo, CO
Ph.D. St. Louis University with Prof. Brent Znosko
Liz enjoys spending time with her kids, time outdoors, and drinking Red Bull.
Administrative Staff
Undergraduates
Ben enjoys reading, working out, going on long walks, and eating ice cream
Atlas Winemiller
Schreyer Honors Scholar studying Chemistry
Mentors: Jacob Sieg and Elizabeth Jolley
