Chemistry Personnel

Matthew Ray Mena- was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. He attended New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico where he graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry and a minor in Physics as an NIH MARC Fellow. He worked under the guidance of Dr. Jessica P. Houston on contrasting mitochondrial metabolism with glycolysis in cancer cells with time-resolved flow cytometry. During his time at NMSU, he spent the summer of 2017 at the University of Missouri working under Dr. Heather K. Hunt on the synthesis of silica films for the inhibition of biofilm formation in joint replacement coatings. After graduating in 2018, he went on to Arizona State University to work under Dr. Ryan J. Trovitch on exploring small-molecule activation utilizing earth-abundant metals featuring redox non-innocent ligands. Following his time at ASU, Matthew moved to the University of Pennsylvania July of 2021 to continue his education under the co-supervision of Dr. Daniel Mindiola and Dr. Neil Tomson.