Ahmed I. Abdelrahman was born in January 1977 to Ibrahim Abdelrahman and Y. M. Abdelkhalek, in Cairo, Egypt. In the fall of 1994, he began his undergraduate studies at Cairo University. Directly after graduation from the Chemistry department, in the summer of 1998, he worked for Coatech (Electrostatic Powder Coatings Company). In 1999, he moved to Salem, Ohio, USA to join American Standard Acrylic plant and move back to their plant in Egypt to be their Analytical Equipment and Training Coordinator, especially for GC and HPLC (GPC) analysis. Later he was promoted to be Lab. Deputy Supervisor with special interest in crosslinked-polymer formulations and colorant perpetrations. After spending one year as a lab supervisor in American University in Cairo AUC, he decided to move to Japan, in the fall of 2004, to join The Department of Electronic Chemistry at Tokyo Institute of Technology as a master degree student in the field of gold nanoparticles’ electrocatalysis under the supervision of Professor Takeo Ohsaka.

In January 2007, Ahmed has joined Winnik group to design Lanthanide-containing polymer (by mini-emulsion polymerization) for biological tagging applications like non-specific endocytosis and cell adhesion employing ICP-MS to detect the metal-tagged biological cells like cancer cells.

Markus Bannwarth was born in Basel (Switzerland) in 1984 and began studying chemistry in 2005 at the University of Mainz (Germany). He joined the Winnik group in September 2008 as an undergraduate exchange student. He is working as part of the Lanthanide Tags project during his time here in Toronto.

In his spare time he enjoys listening to music, playing basketball, volleyball or soccer, biking, juggling or meeting friends.

Sebastian Berger was born in 1981 in Finsterwalde, Germany. He finished school in 2001 and began his studies in chemistry at University of Dresden in fall 2002. He graduated in macromolecular chemistry and got his Diploma in summer 2007. In the same year he started commenced his PhD at The University of Dresden as a member of the Pich group. His project involved the development of new biocompatible sensitive polymer dispersions (microgels) and their application in heterophase systems to create stimuli responsive composite capsules. In spring 2008 he changed to the group of Professor Stamm (IPF Dresden, Germany) and worked on synthesis and application of polymer modified, silica-based Janus particles. In summer 2008 he awarded a DAAD fellowship for PhD students and joined the Winnik group in September 2008. His topic of research deals with synthesis and characterization of lanthanide-microgel composites for biological applications.

Graeme is from the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. He got his B.Sc in Applied Chemistry and Biology at Ryerson University, Toronto in 2006. He joined the Winnik group as a Masters student in Septmeber 2006 and is currently working on the Poly Ferrocene Silane block copoylmer system, with emphasis on light scattering.

In his spare time he indulges in cooking, tennis, golf, and reading.

Sheng was born in Wuhan, China. He earned his Bachelor degree from Zhejiang University, followed by M. Eng. and Ph.D degrees from Nanyang Technological University. He has previously worked as a researcher at Singapore-MIT Alliance, McMaster University, and the National Institute for Nanotechnology National Research Council Canada. From January 2008 Sheng joined the Winnik group as a NSERC post-doctoral fellow, working on the project of lanthanide containing functional microbeads for biological applications.

His research experience includes water-soluble polymers and self-assembly, biomacromolecules and hybrid nanomaterials, biosensing, fluorescence, light scattering, rheology and Raman scattering.

  

Neda graduated from the University of Tehran in 1998 with a B.A. Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering and earned her M.A. Sc. degree in the area of Polymer Science and Engineering from Ryerson University in 2002. In September 2002, Neda enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto, working under supervision of Professor Mitch Winnik. The goal of her research is to investigate the morphology, interphaces and adhesion in painted automotive plastic parts using Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Technique.

Gerald Guerin graduated in 2002 from Laval University with a Ph. D. In 2004, He joined the Winnik research as a Post-Doc. His current research involves Light Scattering investigation of the micelle formation of organometallic block copolymers in solution.

Feng He graduated in 2007 from Jilin University, China with a Ph. D. in Polymer Chemistry. He joined the Winnik research group as a postdoctoral fellow in August 2007. His current research involves design and synthesis of PPV based block copolymers as well as their self-assembly and applications.

Since September 2005, Isaac Herrera has been pursuing a Ph. D. in Polymers and Materials Chemistry at this University under the supervision of Prof. M. A. Winnik. He is currently working in an exciting multi-disciplinary project that involves the development of metal-containing polymer labels for antibodies as means to improve the detection of cancer cells by ICP-MS.

In 2005, Isaac graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) with an M. Sc. degree in Chemistry. During his time at UTEP, he worked under the guidance of Prof. Jorge Gardea-Torresdey in a project that employs biomaterials to recover precious metals from aqueous solutions in an environmentally friendly and cost effective way.

When not in the lab, Isaac enjoys spending time with his friends, cooking (...and eating), dancing, and cycling. He also likes to wander around to catch some of the events that this multicultural city has to offer.

Wanjuan (Betty) Lin was born in Fujian, China, on December 1983. She received her B. Sc. Degree from Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China in June 2005. She joined the research group of Professor Mitch Winnik at the University of Toronto in September 2005. She is currently a master student focusing on surface modification of quantum dots by polymers.

Yuanqin Liu was born in Guilin, P. R. China in 1977. He received his M.Sc. degree from McMaster University in fall 2004. After that he joined the Winnik Group to pursuit his Ph.D. degree. Now he is studying polymer diffusion in latex films and polymer film reinforcement by carbon nanotubes

Xudong Lou graduated in 2002 from Center for Education and Research on Macromolecules (CERM) in the University of Liege in Belgium with a Ph.D degree. In 2004, He joined the Winnik research as a Post-Doc. His current research involves design and preparation of functional polymers for various applications.

Daniel Majonis was born in North York (Toronto) Canada in the fall of 1983. He graduated in 2006 from York University with an H.B.Sc. in chemistry, and proceeded to join the Winnik research group as a Ph. D. student. His current work is related to the early cancer detection project, and focuses on star polymers for the complexation of lanthanide nanoparticles.

In his time not spent in the lab or asleep on the subway, Daniel enjoys chilling with friends, watching movies, reading scifi novels and literary classics, computer gaming, playing sports and exercising, and playing with his sister's guinea pig(s).

Sebastian is originally from Mainz, Germany. After a year of military service he began his studies in Chemistry at Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz, Germany) in 2005. He joined the Winnik group in September 2008 for six months, working on diffusion in polymer latex films. Outside of the laboratory he enjoys basketball, football, tennis and hanging out with his friends.

Fei Qi was born in Taiyuan City in Shanxi province, China. She graduated in 2007 from Beijing Institute of Technology (China) with a Master of Science degree in Analytical Chemistry. She is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Prof. Wenguo Xu's group at the Beijing Institute of Technology. Fei joined the Winnik group in September 2008 as a visiting Ph.D. student. Her current research involves poly(ferrocenylsilane) block copoylmer systems with an emphasis on pulsed-field gradient NMR. Outside of her studies she enjoys reading and travelling.

Jieshu was born on January 1985 in Lianyungang, China. He received his Bachelor and Masters degree from Nanjing University, China. In September 2008 Jeishu joined the Winnik group as a PhD student, and will be working on understanding the self-assembly of poly(ferrocenylsilane) block copolymer, primarily by the method of light scattering. Outside of his studies, Jeishu enjoys novels, music, movies and meeting new people.

Robert Roller graduated from the University of Toronto with a M.Sc. in Physics, followed by a M.Sc. in Chemistry. He has been a Ph.D. student in the Winnik research group since 2003. His current research involves the study of fluorescence resonance energy transfer in solution.

Conrad Siegers joined the Winnik group in September 2007 as a postdoctoral fellow. He graduated in July 2007 from the University of Freiburg, Germany, with a PhD degree in polymer chemistry. During his thesis he investigated resonant energy transfer as a means to enhance the light harvesting of dye solar cells.  During his first year in Toronto he worked on the synthesis of latex particles featuring lanthanide ions.  In September 2008 Conrad was awarded a KAUST GRP Postdoctoral Fellowship (KAUST = King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, www.kaust.edu.sa ).  This generous award allows him to continue his research in the area of molecular photovoltaics.

In his spare time Conrad enjoys biking, climbing, hiking, cooking and spending time with his kids.

Mohsen Soleimani got his B. A. Sc form Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran in 2003 in polymer engineering. He earned his Master in the same department in 2006 and joined Professor Mitch Winnik group in January 2007.

Name: John (János) G. Spiro

Title: Consultant

Education: Dipl. (Chem.) Eng.; Ph.D. (Chem., McGill) 1963; M.Sc. (Math., Carnegie Inst. of Technology) 1965; B.Sc. (Comp. Sci., U. of T.) 1996.

In 1991 he joined the Winnik Research Group as an undergraduate student.

His current research involves the thermodynamics and morphology of block copolymers, and fluorescence decay modeling and simulations.

Stuart was born in April 1982 and is originally from Sydney, Australia. He graduated from The University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Advanced Science in 2002. In 2003 he completed his Honours Program in the area of acrylic acid propagation kinetics under the supervision of Professor Bob Gilbert at the Key Centre for Polymer Colloids (Sydney, Australia). His Doctor of Philosophy (also under the supervision of Professor Gilbert) focused on the kinetics and mechanism of sterically stabilized emulsion polymerization systems, which he completed at the end of 2007.

In January 2008 Stuart commenced a post-doctoral position at The University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia), working in the area of polymer kinetics and mechanisms. Stuart joined the Winnik group in June 2008. He is currently working on the development of micron-sized polymer particles containing various lanthanide compounds for use in bio-assay detection methods. Outside of work he enjoys sports, reading and exploring Toronto.

Mingfeng Wang graduated in 2004 from Jilin University with a M. Sc. degree of Polymer Chemistry and Physics at the Key Lab of Supramolecular Structure and Material, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Xi Zhang. He got his B.S. degree in 2001 in the Department of Chemistry in Jilin University. In 2004, He joined the Winnik research as a Ph. D. student. His current research involves surface modification of quantum dots with functional polymers.

Meng was born in Jinan, China in 1986. He enrolled in an undergraduate program of chemistry and biology at Tsinghua University, China in 2004. In 2006 he participated in research involving molecular imprinting of surfaces and controllable self-assembly under the supervision of Professor Xi Zhang.

In 2008, he received Bachelor of Science degree from Tsinghua University. In September of the same year he joined the Winnik group as a Ph. D. student. His current research involves surface modification of quantum dots with functional polymers. During his spare time, he loves photography, skiing, swimming, cooking and everything that could be shared with friends.