Principal Investigator

B.A., Augustana College, 2001

Ph.D., North Dakota State University, 2007

Levi M. Stanley

Levi was born in Bismarck, North Dakota in 1979. He grew up in Washburn, North Dakota and graduated from Washburn High School in 1997. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD in 2001, where he worked with Professor Gary Earl and Professor Jetty Duffy-Matzner. In 2002, he began his graduate studies with Professor Mukund P. Sibi at North Dakota State University. There he developed enantioselective dipolar cycloaddition reactions and applications of chiral relay ligands and auxiliaries in enantioselective catalysis. He received his Ph.D. in 2007 and moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign to begin an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship with Professor John F. Hartwig. At the U of I he developed a variety of enantioselective, iridium-catalyzed allylic substitution reactions. In 2011, he received an NIH Pathways to Independence Award (K99/R00) to develop new strategies to generate artificial metalloenzymes with Professor Huimin Zhao and Professor Hartwig. In January of 2012, he joined the Chemistry Department at Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor.

Email: lstanley@iastate.edu

Graduate Student, 5th Year

B.S., Seton Hall University, 2016

Ph.D. candidate

Patrick Heinz

Patrick was born in Utica, NY. He graduated from Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ with a chemistry ACS degree. His research experience was in fluoridated metallo-phthalocyanines. Patrick joined a co-advised program between Stanley’s and Huang’s research groups in 2016. His primary focus is synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity of covalent organic frameworks. In his free time, Patrick is a fan of golf and an avid traveler.

Email: pheintz@iastate.edu

Graduate Student, 5th Year

B.S., Hillsdale College, 2016

Ph.D. candidate

Haley Banovetz

Haley was born in Aurora, IL. After moving to Fort Wayne, IN, she graduated from Bishop Dwenger High School in 2012. She attended Hillsdale College and completed a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry as well as a minor in Spanish. As an undergraduate, Haley worked under the guidance of Dr. Courtney Meyet working on a 3-component, 1-pot synthesis of alpha-beta unsaturated ketones. Haley began her graduate studies at Iowa State University during the fall of 2016.

Email: hbano@iastate.edu

Graduate Student, 5th Year

B.A., Knox College, 2016

Ph.D. candidate

Alexander Volkov

Alex grew up in Moscow, Russia. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Knox College in 2016. During his undergraduate research experience, he worked with Dr. Helen Hoyt on iron catalysis and development of green chemistry. During the summer of 2016, he joined a co-advised program between Stanley’s and Huang’s research groups and started his research on the synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity of novel chiral covalent organic frameworks.

Email: avolkov@iastate.edu

Graduate Student, 4th Year

B.S., Ho Chi Minh City University of Science, 2014

Ph.D. candidate

Hai Tran

Hai grew up in central highlands of Vietnam where he finished his high school in 2010. He then spent his undergraduate life in Ho Chi Minh City and graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Science in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. Hai continued working at University of Science as a research assistant before beginning his graduate program at Iowa State University and joining the Stanley research group in 2017.

Email: hntran@iastate.edu

Graduate Student, 3d Year

Butler University, 2018

Ph.D. candidate

Austin Moore

Austin grew up in the small town of Lebanon, Indiana and graduated from Lebanon High School in 2014. He attended Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in 2018. He began research for the Stanley group during the summer of 2018.

Email: asmoore@iastate.edu

Graduate Student, 3d Year

Concordia University, 2018

Ph.D. candidate

Mason Koeritz

Mason grew up in Northrop, MN where he graduated from Martin Luther High School in 2013. He did his undergraduate work at Concordia University Nebraska, earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Arts in Music. His previous research involved the expression and purification of transmembrane proteins via bacterial plasmid constructs. Beyond chemistry, Mason enjoys cooking, golfing, and composing music.

Email: mkoeritz@iastate.edu

Graduate Student, 3d Year

Illinois Institute of Technology, 2018

Ph.D. candidate

Melisa Alkan

Melisa grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, but completed her high school in Moscow, Russia. Afterwards, she attended Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to obtain her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. There, she worked with prof. Rogachev to study curved polyaromatic systems from theoretical point of view. Melissa is hoping to merge theoretical and organic chemistry in her future graduate school career, so she joined a co-advised program with prof. Levi Stanley and prof. Mark Gordon in the Fall of 2018.

Email: alkan@iastate.edu

Graduate Student, 1st Year

B.A., University at Buffalo, 2020

Dustin Youmans

Dustin was born in Syracuse, NY. He attended Onondaga Community college before transferring to SUNY Buffalo located in Buffalo, NY. Here he received a bachelor’s degree in medicinal chemistry and conducted undergraduate research under Dr. Steven Diver. His research was based in ruthenium, cobalt catalysis and synthesis. He joined the Stanley group in the Fall of 2020.

Email: dyoumans@iastate.edu

Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate Student, 3d Year

Iowa State University, 2021

Russell Burgett

Russell grew up in the towns of Sequim, Washington and Norwalk Iowa; and graduated from Norwalk High School in 2017. He joined the Stanley Research Group in 2018 as part of an undergraduate research program and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Iowa State University. Looking forward, Russell plans to attend Graduate School and continue his studies in Chemistry. In his free time, he is pursuing minors in Mathematics, American Indian Studies, and Data Science. Russell is also an active member of the Martial Arts Club at Iowa State.

Email: burgett1@iastate.edu

Undergraduate Student, 3d Year

Iowa State University, 2021

Rachel Croyle

Rachel grew up in Granger, Iowa and graduated from Iowa Christian Academy in 2017. She is currently pursuing a degree in Chemistry with a minor in Music. While working on a freshman research project she was introduced to the Stanley research group, which she later joined in 2019. After graduating, Rachel plans to attend graduate school and continue her studies in Chemistry.

Email: rcroyle@iastate.edu

Undergraduate Student, 3d Year

Iowa State University, 2021

Chau Nguyen

Chau was born and grew up in the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. She graduated with the High School degree and the Associate of Science degree in Chemistry at Everett Community College. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Iowa State University and planning to graduate by 2021. She joined Stanley research group in 2020. Afterwards, she plans to do OPT, then apply for graduate school to continue her studies in Chemistry.

Email: cmnguyen@iastate.edu