Gerardo Gamez, Ph.D.
Gerardo Gamez obtained his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), USA, summa cum laude & with Departmental Honors in Chemistry, where he performed research with Prof. Dr. Jorge Gardea-Torresdey in environmental chemistry pertaining to the use of plant tissues to filter aqueous media from heavy metal contamination. There, he also got his Master of Science developing methods to recover noble metals from aqueous media and new processes to produce noble metal nanoparticles. He obtained his PhD in Analytical Chemistry at Indiana University-Bloomington, USA, with Prof. Dr. Gary M. Hieftje, where he employed laser and optical emission diagnostic techniques in fundamental studies of plasmas used in analytical spectrochemistry. During this time, he obtained the American Chemical Society-Division of Analytical Chemistry fellowship, the MERC fellowship, and the first Richard Payling Award from the European Working Group on Glow Discharge Spectroscopy. He did postdoctoral work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, with Prof. Dr. Renato Zenobi developing methods for ambient ionization mass spectrometry and exploring the possibilities of near-field laser ablation techniques. He then worked as a Scientist in the Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, EMPA Thun, Switzerland, where he developed methods and instrumentation in glow discharge spectroscopy. In 2013, he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Texas Tech University. His research bridges instrumentation and method development through fundamental studies toward high-throughput multi-dimensional chemical analysis techniques based on plasma-source optical spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. In 2016 he won the inaugural Royal Society of Chemistry Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry (JAAS) Emerging Investigator Lectureship. He then received Tenure, was promoted to Associate Professor, and won the Arts and Sciences Excellence in Research Award at Texas Tech University in 2019. A year later, his research program was recognized with the Young Plasma Scientist Award at the Winter Conference for Plasma Spectrochemistry. He has been a Full Professor since 2023 and currently serves on the editorial board of JAAS and as vice-president of the International Atomic Spectrometry Association. He has coauthored more than ~80 peer-reviewed publications (Google scholar: h-index 37, i10-index 70), several patents, >50 invited lectures, >20 talks, and >90 posters. He enjoys spending his spare time with his family and playing drums.
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Members in the group get experience in several disciplines outside of chemistry, including biology and materials science. The multi-component character of the research projects allows the early-stage and experienced researchers to obtain and hone skills in instrument development (from design to implementation), method development, and fundamental experiment design.
Ejoke Akatugba is from Nigeria. She obtained his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Biochemistry from Delta State University Nigeria. She is a graduate student in Dr Gamez Lab and is currently working on developing ambient ionization mass spectrometry techniques specifically LAMP-FAPA MS, for the characterization of polymers samples.
Rajendra Joshi (Graduate student)
Rajendra was born and raised in Nepal. He obtained his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) from Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. He also completed his Master of Science (M.Sc.) in Physical Chemistry from the same University in 2021. He has experience of working in the synthesis and application of Nanoparticles. At present, he is a graduate student in Dr Gamez Lab and working on Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy (GDOES).
Daniela Barroso (Graduate Student)
Daniela was born in Celaya, Guanajuato. She moved to McKinney, Texas when she was young. Daniela completed her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry with a minor in math at Texas Tech University. During her undergraduate years, she worked with Dr. Kristufek on the synthesis catechol-based monomers research. As of now, she is working under Dr. Gerardo Gamez and Dr. Samantha Kristufek at TTU on synthesizing biopolymers for herbicide delivery and the characterization of these with the help of LAMP-FAPA-MS. She hopes to complete her PhD degree in Spring 2028. On her free time, she enjoys reading, listening to music, and trying out new restaurants.
Bibek Bhattarai (Graduate Student)
Bibek completed both his Bachelor of Science (BS) and Master of Science (MS) in Chemistry from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. In BS, he has synthesized and characterized nanoparticles. In MS, his research was focused on the isolation and characterization of antibiotics-producing bacteria, particularly Streptomyces species. Throughout his academic journey in Nepal, he gained skills in mass spectrometry- based metabolomics, genomics, and structure elucidation. Currently, he is working on advancing ambient mass spectrometry techniques, with a particular emphasis on LAMP-FAPA, to characterize metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).
From Lubbock, Texas, Ezekiel obtained his Bachelor of Science from Texas Tech University. He began his research in his senior year at TTU. Ezekiel is continuing his work as a graduate student on developing a microwave-enhanced laser induced plasma system for the study of plasma/microwave interaction fundamentals.
Aryanna Monroe (Undergraduate student)
Leslie Aguilar (Undergraduate student)
Brittany Rodriguez (Undergraduate student)
Nicole Jarnagin (Undergraduate student)
Giselle Rodriguez (Undergraduate student)
Saray Alvarez (Undergraduate student)
Katelyn Cobb (Undergraduate student)
Madelyn Blakeman (undergraduate student)
Nathan Weiss (undergraduate student)
Joanna Gurrola (undergraduate student)
Fall 2020
Alumni
Yue She (Graduate student)
Yinglei Pu (Graduate student)
James Fonville (Undergraduate student)
Hanuk Kwon (Undergraduate student)
Tyler Allison (Undergraduate student)
Ezekiel Branch (Undergraduate student)
Paulina Flores (Undergraduate student)
Rushil Choutapali (Undergraduate student)
Jennifer Agu (Undergraduate student)
Heather Scott (Undergraduate student)
Michael Loomer (Undergraduate student)
Mason Moran (Undergraduate student)
Kristin Neystel (Undergraduate student)
David Zeldes (Undergraduate student)
Mariah Budomo (Undergraduate student)
Amarachi Peter-Azorji (Undergraduate student)
Kitiara Griffin (Undergraduate student)
Aldo Hernandez (Undergraduate student)
Paola Rivera (Undergraduate student)
Layan Shabaneh (Undergraduate student)
Irin Luke (Undergraduate student)
Keldric Thomas (Undergraduate Student)
Cody Baker (Undergraduate student, Undergraduate Research Scholar Program, Honors College)
Jong Min Lee (Undergraduate student)
Zachry Kempf (Undergraduate student)
Chad Pesek (Undergraduate student)
Evan Boneta (Undergraduate student)
William Woodward (Undergraduate student)
Inah Embile (Undergraduate student)
Holden Fried (Undergraduate student)
Marcel Kroschk (Undergraduate student)
John Usala (Undergraduate student)
Mohammad Choudhury (Undergraduate student)
Sumin Son (Welch scholar high school program, Texas)
Vineel Mallepalli (Welch scholar high school program, Texas)
Visiting scientists
Thibaud Allaman (Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland)
Adrian Maag (Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland)
Prof. Dr. Thomas Nelis (Bern University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland)
Prof. Dr. Hongtao Zheng (China University of Geoscience, China)