Sandra Kaabel

Sandra was born and raised in Tallinn, Estonia. She originally joined the group in 2017 as a graduate research trainee, studying the mechanochemical synthesis of cucurbituril-type macrocyclic hosts as a part of her PhD project. She completed her PhD at Tallinn University of Technology in 2019, under the co-supervision of Prof. Riina Aav and Prof. Kari Rissanen (University of Jyväskylä), after which she returned to McGill as a postdoctoral researcher, working with Prof. Karine Auclair and Prof. Tomislav Friščić to explore new mechanoenzymatic reactions. In her spare time, she enjoys photography, creating scientific illustrations, running and cross-country skiing.

     Filip Topić

Filip Topić joined our group as a Banting Fellow after completing his PhD at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland under the supervision of Dr. Kari Rissanen. He obtained his M.Sc. and B.Sc. from the University of Zagreb. Filip's works focuses on the interface between supramolecular chemistry and crystallography such as halogen bonding and cocrystals.

     Lori Gonnet

Lori was born and raised in Aix-les-Bains, France. She obtained her Bachelor and Master degree from Montpellier University, France. During her PhD at IMT Mines Albi and Paul Sabatier University, France, she studied organic mechanosynthesis under the supervision of Dr Michel Baron, Dr Rachel Calvet, and Dr Michel Baltas. Lori joined the Friščić lab in January 2020 for a Postdoc to explore solvent-free methods for the synthesis of pharmaceutical components. In her spare time, she likes skiing and spending time with friends.

     Michael Ferguson

Michael was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He obtained his M.Sc. degree in Chemistry from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), Northern Ireland. Continuing at QUB his PhD work was focused on the simulation of mechanochemical reactions and was supervised by Prof Stuart L. James Prof. Jorge Kohanoff . After defending his thesis in 2017, Michael moved to the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina as a postdoctoral researcher to work with Dr. Mario G. Del Pópolo on the simulation of liquid-liquid interfaces and pore opening in biological membranes. Michael joined the Friščić lab in April 2020 to study the mechanochemical formation of nanoparticles through computational and experimental approaches. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, cycling, and having a beer with friends.

     Luzia Germann

Luzia was born and raised in Interlaken, Switzerland. Luzia obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Bern. She first visited the Friščić group in 2016 as a graduate research trainee, studying the mechanochemical formation of metal-organic frameworks and cocrystals as part of her PhD project. She completed her Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart under the supervision of Prof. Robert E. Dinnebier in 2019, studying solid state reactions of molecular functional materials by in situ X-ray powder diffraction. Luzia joined the Friščić lab in October 2019 with an early.Postdoc mobility fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation to explore the mechanochemical formation of cocrystals and molecular functional materials using different in situ techniques. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, hiking, gardening, and art.

     Dylan Shields

Dylan grew up in the Cincinnati, Ohio area before getting his Ph.D. from Dr. Anna Gudmundsdottir at the University of Cincinnati. His PhD research focused primarily on determining solid-state photoreaction mechanisms using pump-probe spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, and quantum mechanical calculations. Additionally, Dylan’s favorite subject during his PhD was photomechanical crystals. By understanding the factors that controlled these crystalline reactions, the photoinduced mechanical effect in the crystals could be modulated by simple substitutions to perform different macroscopic applications. In the Friščić group, Dylan will be working on hypergolic materials, crystallography and solid-state reactions. When Dylan is not in the lab, you can find him in nature listening to whatever music fits his current mood.

     Mario Pérez Venegas

Mario was born and raised in Texcoco, Mexico. He completed his B. Eng. in March 2015, majoring in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico. He completed his Ph. D. at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV) in Mexico under the supervision of Prof. Eusebio Juaristi, studying mechanoenzymatic reactions to obtain enantiopure pharmaceutical compounds. He joined McGill in September 2020 as a postdoctoral researcher under the co-supervision of Prof. Karine Auclair and Prof. Tomislav Friščić to study new mechanoenzymatic reactions. He enjoys reading, playing videogames, listen to music, and he loves to go for long walks with his dog.

     Thomas Auvray

Thomas obtained his Bachelor and Master degrees from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris, France) before moving to Montréal to complete in 2019 his PhD at the Université de Montréal, working with Prof. G.S. Hanan on (supra)molecular assemblies for artificial photosynthesis. In 2020, he moved to Rochester, NY as a postdoctoral research associate with Prof. E.M. Matson, working on organofunctionalized oxo-clusters. He joined the Friščić lab in January 2021, as an FRQNT postdoctoral fellow, to study the solvent-free synthesis of organometallic compounds. In his spare time, he enjoys warm cups of coffee, reading (sci-fi, fantasy, ...), and fencing (épée).

     Cristina Mottillo

Born and raised in Montreal, Cristina completed a B.Sc. at McGill in Chemistry in 2011, during which she worked as an undergrad in the labs of Dr. Ralf Schirrmacher, Dr. David Thomas, and Dr. Ashok Kakkar. She began working on her PhD in the Friščić Group in September 2011, focusing on developing accelerated ageing and mechanochemistry for the solid-state synthesis of zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs). Since 2016 she works as Postdoc and serves as a CEO of ACSYNAM, a spin-off company of McGill University. She enjoys skiing, skating, reading, and salsa dancing in her spare time, and is an avid movie buff.

     Hatem M. Titi

He received his B.Sc. in Chemistry (2008) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and his M.Sc. (with Honors, 2011) and Ph.D. (2016) degrees from Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Israel Goldberg. In 2016, he joined the group of Prof. Robin D. Rogers at McGill University as postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Chemistry, and in 2017 he joined the Friščić group. His research interests are currently focused on designing and developing new green synthetic methods for solids materials. In addition, he is the manager of the X-ray facility in McGill.

     Linda Bechnak

Linda was born and raised in Lebanon. She obtained her Bachelor and Master degree in Chemistry from the American University of Beirut. Her work was focused on understanding the self-assembly behavior of Pluronic copolymers and their application as a vehicle for drug delivery and fluorescence sensing. In 2020, Linda started her PhD studies in McGill, where she joined the group of Prof. Tomislav Friscic. Her research interests are currently focused on mechanochemistry and developing novel boron-based clusters for various applications. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, singing, and reading.

      Jean-Louis Do

Louis is originally from the suburbs of Boston, MA. He got his first taste of chemistry when he used a gummy bear to make fireworks in junior high and plated a penny with zinc in high school. His love for chemistry and a need for a change of scenery drove him to come to McGill where he graduated with a B.Sc in Chemistry and Pharmacology. He originally worked in (bio)chemical kinetics of nanomaterials but quickly realized that he enjoyed making the nanomaterials more. He first joint the group in 2013. Currently, he is a PhD student, co-supervised with Prof. Louis Cuccia working on the synthesis of chiral cage structures. When he not in the lab shaking up something awesome with nickel, olefins, or ruthenium, he is probably playing chess, reading, planning his next (bow)fishing trip, or trying to learn a new language.

     Farshid Effaty

Farshid was born and raised in Iran. He graduated from Shahid Beheshti University at Tehran in 2016 with a B.Sc. degree majored in Chemistry. Then he moved to Montréal to obtain his M.Sc. in Inorganic Chemistry at Concordia University under the supervision of Prof. Ottenwaelder. Currently, he is a PhD student co-supervised between Prof. Friščić and Prof. Ottenwaelder working on solid-state catalysis in organic reactions and tries to obtain mechanistic insights.

     Cameron Lennox

Cameron was born and raised in Montréal, completing his B. Sc. in Chemistry in 2019 at McGill. Having worked with Prof. Friščić throughout his time as undergraduate on various projects, Cameron stayed with the group and is now M.Sc. candidate working on projects examining the role solid-state chemistry can play in various enzymatic-driven reactions, as well as mechanochemical driven metal-oxide material synthesis. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, hiking, and playing with his dogs.

     Tristan Borchers

Raised in Victoria BC, Tristan completed his B.Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Victoria in 2016. Under the co-supervision with Prof. Barrett, Tristan's research focuses on photoresponsive crystalline materials, with emphasis on halogen bonding. In his spare time, he enjoys brewing beer, watching sports, and reading nonsense on Twitter.

     Yong Teoh

Yong was born and raised in Singapore and completed his B.Sc. in Nanyang Technological University. He stayed on for a year to continue working on his honors project, the mechanochemical synthesis of planar and curved polyaromatic hydrocarbons, under the supervision of Dr Mihaiela Stuparu and Dr Felipe Garcia. He joined the group in January 2020 with a research interest in mechanochemical organic synthesis and coming up with unorthodox toys for ball milling. In his free time, he enjoys outdoor adventures, gaming, daydreaming and being a busybody.

     Blaine Fiss

He obtained his BSc. majoring in nanoscience with a focus on inorganic and materials chemistry from the University of Guelph, where he completed an honours project focusing on solvent-free synthesis of nickel complexes. He then joined McGill University in September of 2016, starting his M.Sc. under Prof. Audrey Moores focusing on the phosphorylation of cellulose nanocrystals in the solid state. Won over by the community and research around him, he transferred to his PhD, co-supervised by both Prof. Audrey Moores and Prof. Tomislav Friščić and is currently working on the synthesis of novel metal and semiconductor nanoparticles in the solid state. Outside of the lab he enjoys drinks with friends, playing guitar, and photography.

      Daniel Therien

Daniel was born in Revelstoke, British Columbia and eventually moved to Ottawa, Ontario. He completed a bachelors and Master’s in Biochemistry under the supervision of Prof. John Baenziger at the University of Ottawa. He joined McGill in the Winter of 2016 as a Ph.D. student jointly supervised between Prof. Tomislav Friščić and Prof. Karine Auclair. He is currently working on new and exciting mechanoenzymatic reactions. In his spare time, he enjoys playing piano, cooking, graphic design, and learning how to code.

    Austin Richard

Austin completed his B.Sc. in June of 2019, majoring in Materials & Nanosciences at the University of Waterloo. During his undergraduate studies Austin participated in several research work terms, having the opportunity to work on developing novel structures for magnetically programmed anisotropic liquid crystal elastomers at Harvard University with the Aizenberg Group, and working in the Duhamel Group at the University of Waterloo engineering thermo-responsive starch nanoparticles for oil sands extraction applications. Austin began his M.Sc. and joined the Moores Group in January of 2020 and is co-supervised by Prof. Audrey Moores and Prof. Tomislav Friščić. He is currently working on nanoparticle synthesis via mechanochemical methods.

    Galen Suh

Galen is a graduate researcher with an undergraduate education in Chemistry from the University of Windsor. They joined the group in Fall, 2019, and they're currently studying syntheses of antimony compounds. Outside the lab, they can be found enjoying avant-garde music, archive fashion, and rock climbing in their spare time.

     Jogirdas Vainauskas

Born in Lithuania, Jogirdas grew up in various parts of the United States. He is in his fourth year of undergrad, working towards a B.Sc. in Chemistry. Since joining the Friščić group in 2018, Jogi has worked on several different projects involving halogen bonded cocrystals, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), and most recently, lead-based perovskites. In his spare time, he enjoys supporting Liverpool F.C., folk dancing, and making people laugh.

     Joseph Marrett

Joe started in the Friščić group in 2016 as an undergraduate, and started his M.Sc. with the group in the fall of 2018. He is from New Jersey, USA. His interests involve the synthesis and characterization of organic and metal-organic solid state materials.

     Yonger Xie

Yonger was born in Hangzhou, China and she moved to Montreal seven years ago. She is a U2 chemistry major student doing a undergraduate research project with the Friščić group. Her research is focused on the theoretical methods of molecular dynamics, specifically the modelling of solids in the presence of small amount of included guest molecules. In her free time, she enjoys painting, jogging and hiking with friends.

     Toni Spilfogel

Toni was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. She is currently pursuing a B.Sc in Chemistry at McGill University. She joined the Friščić lab in the winter of 2020 and her research is currently focused on solid-state self-assembly of substituted porphyrin systems via halogen bonding interactions.

      Zizi

Zizi joined the group in 2016 from Croatia. She has a very diverse research interest, including the study of motion of balls, surface science of floors, social interaction and behaviour. She is particularly fond of group picnics in Park Jeanne-Mance. She is responsible for morale in the Frišcic group.

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