Group Members | Wolf Research Group

Current Members

Dr. Michael Wolf

Principle Investigator

Michael Wolf completed a Combined Honours Degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry at Dalhousie University, followed by a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry at MIT where he worked under the supervision of Mark Wrighton. He then completed a one and a half year stint as a NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas-Austin working with Marye Anne Fox. He has been on the faculty at the University of British Columbia since 1995, and is now full professor and Head of the Department. Prof. Wolf is a materials chemist, whose major contributions are to the fields of conjugated polymers and materials, the photochemistry and photophysics of conjugated materials and coordination complexes, and the synthesis and applications of modified nanomaterials. Prof. Wolf won a CNC/IUPAC Travel Prize in 1999, a UBC Killam Research Prize in 2003, the CSC Award for Pure and Applied Inorganic Chemistry in 2004, was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada in 2015, and won the Rio Tinto Alcan Award in 2016.

Detailed CV

Dr. Zhen Xu

Postdoctoral Fellow

Zhen Xu, aka Allen, grew up in Nantong, a small city in China. He received his BSc in Chemistry from Wuhan University. In 2020, he completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Prof. Wolf. Allen’s research focuses on designing new inorganic and organic photochromic and luminescent materials. Outside of the lab, he enjoys travelling, hiking and watching movies.

Duane Hean

PhD Candidate

Duane Hean is from Johannesburg, South Africa and completed his MSc (with distinction) in Chemical Crystallography at the University of the Witwatersrand. Duane's research looks at the photochemistry of sulfur bridged anthracene molecules. Outside of the lab, he enjoys the outdoors, gaming and spending time with animals.

Jennifer Yuan

PhD Candidate

Jennifer Yuan was born in Oakville, Canada and grew up in the nearby town of Brantford. She received her BSc in Chemistry from Western University. Jenn’s research focuses on designing new sulfur-bridged chromophores and studying their resulting photophysical properties. Outside of the lab, she enjoys running, watching countless cooking videos on YouTube, and being a plant mom.

Taylor Wright

PhD Candidate

Taylor Wright was born in Nanaimo, Canada. He received his BSc in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia. Taylor's research focuses on new techniques for crosslinking polymers using visible light and the resulting mechanical and rheological properties. Outside of the lab he enjoys board-games, baking, and papercraft.

Olga Yunyaeva

MSc Student

Olga Yunyaeva grew up in Mississauga, Canada. She received her BSc in Chemistry from Western University. Olga's research focuses on designing tunable pyridine-bridged chromophores and studying their photophysics. When not in the lab, Olga enjoys trashy TV/novels, listening to hot jams, and bird watching.

Tobias Overney-Ragan

MSc Student

Tobias Overney-Ragan was born in Montréal, Canada. He received his BSc in Biochemistry from Concordia University. Tobias’ research interests include photochemical organometallic complexes and their excited-state lifetime extensions. Outside of the lab, he enjoys reading and the outdoors

Urmi Mody

PhD Student

Urmi Mody was born in Mumbai, India. She received her BSc in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia. Urmi’s research focuses on developing new flexible lewis pairs and studying their resulting photophysical properties. When not in lab, she loves to sketch and develop a collection of artwork. You can also find Urmi experimenting with different smoothie combinations when she wants some ‘chromic’ inspiration!

Dr. Heewon Bahng

Postdoctoral Fellow

Heewon Bahng is from Seoul, South Korea. She received her BSc and MSc in Chemistry from Yonsei University in Seoul. In 2019, she completed her PhD at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland studying photo-induced charge transfer dynamics of dye-sensitized solar cells. As a PDF, she focuses on photophysical mechanism of sulfur-bridged molecular systems, and also explores Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) or charge transfer mechanisms of quantum dots. Outside of the lab, she spends her time enjoying walking in forests and cooking.

Sebastian Gutierrez de Velasco M.

Undergraduate Student

Sebastian Gutierrez de Velasco M. is from Puebla, Mexico. This will his final year as an undergrad at UBC, and he enjoys materials chemistry and came back from a Co-op at Nano One materials on Lithium ion batteries. When not doing chem, he is probably skiing, scuba diving, surfing, running, or traveling.