Our group is always interested in hearing from enthusiastic students and scholars who want to establish new frontiers for inorganic chemistry, magnetism, and the quantum world. Please reach out to Prof. Joe Zadrozny at zadrozny.13@osu.edu with a copy of your CV and a brief statement of your interests in the group to learn more and explore potential employment opportunities.
Professor Joe Zadrozny
Joe was born and raised in Virginia. Joe studied at Virginia Tech for his bachelor’s degree where he got his start in molecular magnetism working with Prof. Gordon Yee. Joe then went to UC Berkeley to study low-coordinate metal complexes and single-molecule magnetism with Prof. Jeff Long. After obtaining his PhD, Joe performed a postdoctoral stint with Prof. Danna Freedman (then at Northwestern) investigating molecular qubits and spin coherence. His curiosity in magnetism was sufficiently piqued at this point, and Joe then built a lab at Colorado State University in 2017 finding new curiosities at the intersection of magnetism and molecular inorganic chemistry. In 2024 Joe moved his lab to The Ohio State University to elevate his research program in new directions.
In-lab Interests: Rocking out, good quartz work, the coffee machine, proper schlenk technique.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Cooking, cocktails, craft breweries, reading, cycling.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Ökten Üngör
Ökten earned her Ph.D. from Florida State University under the guidance of Prof. Michael Shatruk, where she focused on developing hybrid materials that combine spin crossover with organic radical anions. In the Zadrozny group, she is working on developing new design strategies for 59Co NMR thermometry, focusing on molecular symmetry and chemical control of molecular vibrations, which involves the use of synthetic chemistry, 59Co NMR, and Raman spectroscopy. Recently, she transitioned to EPR and is working on understanding the nature of forbidden singlet to triplet EPR transitions in copper(II) dimers.
In-Lab interests: Spins under magnetic field, crystallography, spectroscopy, breaking records.
Out-of-Lab interests: Traveling, contemporary cinema, reading, and learning different languages.
Dr. Srikanth Dasari
Srikanth grew up in India, He completed his Ph.D. in 2020 from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India under the guidance of Prof. Ashis K. Patra developing luminescent lanthanide bioprobes for light-responsive theranostic applications. After Ph. D, Srikanth worked as a postdoctoral associate with Prof. Valerie Pierre on developing luminescent metal-based receptors for catch and release of phosphate anions for environmental and biomedical applications. Then with Prof. Lawrence Que Jr, (at the University of Minnesota), designing and generating high-valent iron(IV)-oxo species and studying their reactivity towards oxidation catalysis. In the Zadrozny group, he is interested in designing and investigating high-spin metal complex-based EPR imaging probes.
In-Lab Interests: Designing new metal complexes, growing crystals, spectroscopy and discussions.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Playing badminton, cooking, trekking, spending time with friends and family.
Dr. Firoz Khan
Firoz finished his PhD in 2019 from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, under the guidance of Prof. Sankar P. Rath, and his research dealt with designing metalloporphyrin dimers as a synthetic mimic for diheme cytochrome enzymes. Subsequently, he joined Prof. Shabnam Hematian’s research group at UNC-Greensboro as a postdoctoral fellow where he explored the potential of oxo-bridged heme copper species as photocatalysts for C-H activation. In the Zadrozny group, he is investigating the environmental dependance of magnetic noises in paramagnetic metal complexes through EPR spectroscopy.
In-Lab Interests: Synthesizing colorful complexes, crystallography, inert air chemistry.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Running, cooking, listening to music, reading fiction.
Graduate Student Researchers
Brandon Landis (3rd year)
Brandon graduates from the State University of New York at Fredonia working under Dr. Allan Cardenas on the capture of nitric oxide using transition metal complexes. He is currently studying metal complexes with organic radical ligands to probe their potential for new imaging probes in electron paramagnetic resonance imaging (EPR imaging, or EPRI)
In-Lab Interests: Synthesis, inert-atmosphere chemistry, and transition-metal chemistry.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Metal and J-pop music, Anime, and Gunpla.
Jude Stapf (3rd year)
Jude graduated from Missouri Western State University working under Dr. Michael Ducey investigating the spectral properties of ionic liquid modified gold nanoparticles. Jude is currently working in the group on maximizing the NMR temperature sensitivity of the 59Co nucleus through ligand design and spin conversion experiments. In doing so, Jude hopes to find a greater understanding of the trends in tuning temperature sensitivity and further develop the use of the 59Co nucleus for use in NMR Thermometry.
In-Lab Interests: Optimizing synthetic pathways, learning new skills, and working with all the pretty colors that come with working with metals.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Brass band music, video games, and listening to philosophy podcasts.
Yiwei Zhou (2nd year)
Yiwei obtained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she worked under Dr. Michael Marshak on redox flow batteries and Li-ion batteries. Then she moved to Copenhagen, Denmark to obtain her master’s degree at the University of Copenhagen. She worked under Prof. Stergios Piligkos to study the electronic and magnetic properties of different lanthanide complexes. She is currently working on temperature-dependent 59Co NMR with different ligands.
In-Lab Interests: Synthesis, spectroscopy, learning something new, shiny crystals.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Traveling, cooking, exploring nice bars and restaurants, and occasionally drawing.
Alli Jessup (2nd year)
Alli graduated from Xavier University working under Dr. Davis using computational methods to investigate the relationships between alcohol pKa and respective ester formation constants as well as the trans-effect in metal complexes. In the Zadrozny group, she focuses on synthesizing complexes based on [V(C6H4O2)3]2- that vary the location, type, and number of methyl groups. She will then use these to investigate spin dynamics with EPR.
In-Lab Interests: Working in the glove box, spectroscopy techniques, and computational methods.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Reading, listening to music, and writing.
Mason Flora (1st year)
Mason graduated from the University of Michigan, where he worked under Dr. Joshua Buss synthesizing linear low-coordinate metal complexes with single-molecule magnetic properties. He is currently working on elucidating the role of environmental electronic spins on magnetic relaxation using molecular cocrystals.
In-Lab Interests: Air-free chemistry, molecular synthesis, and crystallography.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Baking, reading, tennis, and playing all kinds of games.
Kayla Spinner (1st year)
Kayla graduated from Florida State University where she worked under Dr. Zeng designing solid state Li-ion batteries. In the Zadrozny group, she is exploring how metal-ion identity and coordination environment influence forbidden spin transitions in transition metal complexes.
In-Lab Interests: Growing crystals, synthesis, and spectroscopy techniques.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Playing the guitar, going to concerts, and reading.
Emil Weihe (1st year)
Emil got his BS and MS degrees in chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. He worked under Prof. Jesper Bendix to synthesize and characterize chromium(V) nitride complexes. His masters project focused on synthesizing cubic elpasolite-like lanthanide complexes and then performing single crystal EPR measurements to measure magnetic anisotropy. He is currently working on synthesizing novel nickel and manganese complexes.
In-lab Interests: Synthesizing nice crystals, EPR, and magnetization.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Video & board games, westerns and trying different kinds of beers.
Undergraduate Student Researchers
Race Schwartz
Race is a fourth-year undergraduate at The Ohio State University, by way of San Diego, California. With the Zadrozny group, he is working to understand the mechanisms of 59Co NMR temperature sensitivity and improve molecular design.
In-lab Interests: Clean spectra, clean work spaces, synthesis, and olving problems.
Out-of-lab Interests: Cooking, cars, running, and talking shop.
Alexa Koler
Alexa is a third-year undergraduate at The Ohio State University. In the Zadrozny group, she is developing new vanadium(IV) complexes and exploring how minor electronic-structure modifications can influence their magnetic noise characteristics.
In-Lab Interests: Working in the glove box, clean workspaces, and synthesis.
Out-of-Lab Interests: Tennis, animals, Legos, and painting.
Alumni
Former Doctoral Students
Roxanna Martinez (PhD, 2024)
Ian Moseley (PhD, 2023), last known whereabouts: Tolmar
Anthony Campanella (PhD, 2023), last known whereabouts: Corden Pharma
Cassidy Jackson (PhD, 2022), last known whereabouts: IDA
Tyler Ozvat (PhD, 2022), last known whereabouts: Q Magnetics
Former MS Students
David Harmon (2025), Nick Schaffner (2024), Josef Grundy (2023), Jacob Fromm (2021), Christina Charles (2019), Manuel Peña (2018), Blake Gerold (2018).
Former Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr. Muhammad “AB” Abdullah (2021-2022): Now at Global Foundries
Dr. Siyoung Sung (2020-2021): Now at Intel
Dr. Chun-Yi Lin (2017-2019): Now Prof. at NCKU
Former Undergraduate Researchers
Manning Huang (2024)
Mingtian Yang (2024)
Amanda Gin (2021-2024): NSFGRFP awardee at MIT
Stephanie Sanchez (2021-2022)
Fred Anderson (2020-2022)
Spencer Johnson (2018-2021)
Monique Broussard (2018-202)
Jeremiah Choate (2019-2020): NSFGRFP awardee at USC