Current Members
Principle Investigator
Y. Charles Cao
Dr. Charles Cao is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is known for his work in the areas of nanocrystal synthesis, assembly, and surface functionalization. In addition to developing a new way (called non-injection synthesis) of making large-scale quantities of semiconductor quantum dots and metal oxide nanoparticles, Dr. Cao has demonstrated an innovative way of doping quantum dots with position-controlled dopants at Angstrom-scale precision; he has shown how such position-controlled doping correlates optical and magnetic properties. He has invented a fundamentally new class of ligands (called dual-interaction ligands) for making super-stable, water-soluble nanocrystals. Moreover, he has developed a supramolecular approach for controlling nanocrystal assembly into extended superlattices that allows control over the size and shape of such assemblies, which has led to the creation of a class of new superparticles. These nanostructures are being evaluated for their photophysical properties, in energy conversion, as labels in biomedical diagnosis, and as novel vehicles in drug delivery. He has published over 44 papers and extensively in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Angewandte Chemie. His accomplishments have been recognized with an NSF Career Award and covered in several highlight articles in Chemical Engineering News, Science, and many popular magazines, newspapers and trade journals. His research program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, and Department of Energy.
Post-Doctoral Researchers
Dr. Qiang Zhang
Research Area: Super-Assemblies of Nanorods
Qiang is a post-doc from University of Texas at Arlington.
Graduate Researchers
Wen-Ting Chen
Research Area: Nanozyme synthesis
Wen-Ting is a doctoral student with a B.S. in Chemistry from National University of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. She joined the Cao group in Fall 2016.
Derek LaMontagne
Research Area: Nanostructural Shape Control; Quantum Dot Enhancement
Derek is a doctoral student with a B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from the College of William & Mary located in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA.
Jingzhu Shi
Research Area: Quantum Dots synthesis and Self-Assemblies
Jingzhu graduated from Beijing Normal University and received bachelor’s degree in 2019. She joined the Cao group in Fall 2019.
Tianyuan Xiao
Research Area: Quantum dot Synthesis and Self-Assemblies
Tianyuan is a doctoral student with a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China located in Hefei, Anhui, China.
Undergraduate Researchers
Del Carter
Del is a Political Science major and French and Francophone Studies minor on the pre-medicine track at the University of Florida.
He joined Dr. Cao’s group in the spring of 2017.
Peter Chiarelli
Research Area: Nanoparticles
Peter is a Food Science major at UF.
He joined Dr. cao’s group in the Fall of 2016
Vanessa Honorat
Research Area: Nanoparticle heat treatment and modeling.
Vanessa is a student at UF.
She joined Dr. Cao’s group in the Fall of 2015.
Bauer Ly
Research Area: Nanoparticles
Bauer is a Chemical Engineering major at UF.
He joined Dr. Cao’s group in the Summer of 2016.
Nicolas Mejio
Research Area: Nanoparticles
Nicolas is a Pre-Dental Biology major at the University of Florida
He joined Dr. cao’s group in the Summer of 2017
Rolando Perez
Research Area: Nanoparticles and biochemistry
Rolando is a Biochemistry major at UF.
He joined Dr. Cao’s group in the Fall of 2015.
Melanie Vargas
Research Area: Nanoparticles and chemistry
Melanie is on the Pre-Medical track at UF.
She joined Dr. Cao’s group in the Fall of 2016.
Visiting Students & Researchers
Xingguang Su
Visiting Scholar (2/25/16-8/25/16)
Research Area: Synthesis and biomedical applications of nanoparticles
Xingguang is a visiting scholar. She is a professor of chemistry from Jilin University in China.