Our Team

The Yanan Lab is a collaborative and inclusive group of scientists from diverse backgrounds. We celebrate curiosity, rigor, and creativity.

Principal Investigator

Prof. Yanan Huang

Principal Investigator

Department of Chemistry, Westfield University

Programmable NanostructuresPlasmonic BiosensorsNanomedicineSelf-Assembly

Prof. Yanan Huang leads the Yanan Lab for Nanomaterials & Self-Assembly at Westfield University. Her group develops bottom-up strategies to engineer nanoparticles with programmable optical and chemical properties, applying these materials to challenges in diagnostics, drug delivery, and sustainable energy.

She teaches undergraduate Physical Chemistry and a graduate seminar in Nanoscale Materials. She is actively involved in mentoring students from underrepresented groups through the Westfield STEM Bridge Program.

Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr. James Okafor

Postdoctoral Researcher

James received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge (2022) working on anisotropic gold nanorod synthesis. He joined the Yanan Lab in 2023 and is developing novel plasmonic nanostructures for point-of-care diagnostics.

Gold NanorodsPlasmonic SensorsPoint-of-Care Diagnostics

Dr. Sara Kim

Postdoctoral Researcher

Sara completed her Ph.D. at Stanford University (2023) studying DNA-mediated self-assembly of nanoparticles. She is currently developing stimuli-responsive nanomaterials for targeted cancer therapy.

DNA NanotechnologyStimuli-Responsive MaterialsCancer Nanomedicine

Ph.D. Students

Luca Ferrari

Ph.D. Student

Luca received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Bologna (2021) and joined the Yanan Lab in 2022. His thesis focuses on scalable synthesis of gold nanostars for SERS-based molecular detection.

Gold NanostarsSERSMolecular Detection

Priya Patel

Ph.D. Student

Priya earned her M.S. from IIT Bombay (2020) and is pursuing her doctorate on polymer-coated nanoparticles for controlled drug release. She joined the lab in 2021.

Drug DeliveryPolymer CoatingsControlled Release

Ethan Brooks

Ph.D. Student

Ethan completed his B.S. at UC San Diego (2022) and began his Ph.D. at Westfield in 2023. He is studying the self-assembly of amphiphilic nanoparticles at liquid–liquid interfaces.

Amphiphilic NanoparticlesInterfacial AssemblyEmulsions

Master's Students

Aisha Rahman

M.S. Student

Aisha completed her B.S. in Materials Science at Westfield University (2023) and is pursuing her M.S. on the optical properties of silver nanocubes.

Silver NanocubesOptical PropertiesColorimetric Sensing

Undergraduate Researchers

Noah Wu

Undergraduate Researcher

Noah is a junior Chemistry major who joined the lab in Summer 2024. He is assisting with nanoparticle characterization using TEM and DLS.

Nanoparticle CharacterizationTEM Imaging

Alumni

Name	Degree	Year	Current Position
Dr. Elena Vasquez	Ph.D.	2020	Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Marcus Leigh	Ph.D.	2019	Senior Scientist, Genentech

Join the Yanan Lab

We are always looking for enthusiastic PhD students, postdocs, and undergrads. If you are passionate about nanoscience, reach out!

View Open Positions