The Pieri Group is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia. Our lab welcomes students and researchers from all backgrounds: we believe that diverse sets of experiences, preferences and ideas fuel the best science. We are committed to prioritizing mental health and kindness: we build together.
Principal Investigator
Elisa Pieri
Elisa completed her undergraduate studies in Chemistry in Siena, and got her PhD in Computational Chemistry in Marseille in 2018. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford (USA) in the Martínez group for four years, prior to joining the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Department of Chemistry in 2023.
LIKES: track&field, pets, white tea
DISLIKES: pineapple on pizza, the middle seat, cucumbers
Postdoc
Gregory Curtin
Greg completed his undergraduate studies at Rochester Institute of Technology in 2018. He went on to receive his PhD in Chemistry under the direction of Elena Jakubikova at North Carolina State University in 2023.
LIKES: Arsenal F.C., sand cats, golfing
DISLIKES: brutalist architecture, city driving, loose change (coins)
Postdoc
Eleftherios (Lefteris) Mainas
Lefteris completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Athens, Greece. He then moved to Rhode Island to get his Ph.D. at Brown University under the supervision of Richard Stratt.
LIKES: coffee, triathlon, dogs
DISLIKES: cake donuts, the person who invented them
Graduate student
Kaiyi Tong
Kaiyi completed his undergraduate study in Physics at the University of Hong Kong. Then, he got a master’s degree in Physics at Stony Brook University, SUNY, under the supervision of Prof. Cyrus Dreyer. Kaiyi enjoys watching and playing football, gaming, reading, and cooking in his free time.
LIKES: NFL games, Arknights, fishes, Chinese traditional literature
DISLIKES: 8 am classes, foods being too sweet
Graduate student
Noureen Abdelrahman
Noureen completed her undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering at Lafayette College. She worked in clinical trial design for three years before returning to academia for her master's in Biophysics at Rutgers University under the supervision of Grace Brannigan.
LIKES: hiking, coffee, spicy foods
DISLIKES: 8 am classes, pickles, snow
Graduate student
Madeline Thomas
Madeline completed her undergraduate studies in Chemistry at The University of Alabama. Madeline enjoys cooking, baking, and drawing.
LIKES: Sweaters, Studio Ghibli Movies, Random Smiles
DISLIKES: Wet Socks, Seafood, Mosquito Bites
Graduate student
Janis Zellmer
Janis completed his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Rutgers University.
LIKES: Foxes, World of Warcraft, Cucumbers
DISLIKES: exercises left for the reader, peanut butter
Undergraduate Student
Shaena Riddles
Shaena is a junior undergraduate student from Oak Ridge, NC majoring in biochemistry and minoring in neuroscience. In her free time she enjoys painting, baking, and watching football and basketball.
LIKES: the color yellow, cats, candles
DISLIKES: pancakes, sand, afternoon classes
Undergraduate Student
Ding Ma
Ding is a sophomore undergraduate from Winston Salem, NC majoring in chemistry. In his free time he enjoys going to the gym and watching Youtube.
LIKES: Clash of Clans, Peach Vibe Celsius
DISLIKES: unskippable ads
Our Gallery
Pictures from lab life and events!
Alumni
Undergraduate student
Trevor Du
NOW: chemistry graduate student at Purdue