- PostDoctoral Research Associate, Ulijn Lab, Nanoscience Initiative
Hema Kuntrapakam, Ph.D.
Hema obtained a BSc and MSc in Organic Chemistry from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh, India). She pursued her PhD in Chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Kana M. Sureshan at IISER Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala, India). Her thesis is focused on the “Synthesis of Various Biopolymer Mimics via Topochemical Azide-Alkyne Cycloaddition,” and she received her doctorate degree in 2019. After completing her PhD, Hema moved to Israel in 2020 to work as a postdoc with Prof. Rafal Klajn at the Weizmann Institute of Science. During her time there, she worked on “Stimuli-Responsive Transformations in the Cage-Guest Inclusion Complexes.” Hema joined the Advanced Science Research Center at CUNY (New York, USA) in 2023 as a postdoc. She works in the group of Prof. Rein Ulijn, where she is involved in the synthesis of metal-peptide complexes, which have potential applications in chiral molecular recognition. When she is not in the lab, Hema loves to travel and explore different cultures. She also enjoys reading books on psychology, personality development, and fiction, and listening to music. Additionally, she likes to communicate science to non-science audiences.
