Graduate Students / Teaching Assistants

CLEMENT ARUADA (Master's Student)

I am from Nigeria. I earned my bachelor's degree in industrial chemistry from the Federal University of Petroleum Resources Effurun Delta State, Nigeria.  

As a graduate student here at Tennessee Technological University, my research is primarily focused on method development and optimization for the determination, and quantification of per fluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS) in post-treatment water, surface water, soil, and packaging materials for consumer goods by solid phase microextraction (SPE), dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME), and gas chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (QqQ-GC-MS)''.

SEKYERE BOATENG (Master's Student)

Education: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, 2018.

I am from Ghana and graduated with a degree in biochemistry focusing on clinical biochemistry. Currently, I am a member of the Zhan lab as a graduate student in chemistry studying protein - protein interactions.

KYLE LYONS (Master's Student)

Hello! I am a 2nd year MS student under Dr. Jiang researching the mechanism of inhibition of topoisomerase II α via thiosemicarbazone-metal complexes. I earned a BS in chemistry at Tennessee Technological University May of 2019. After defending my MS thesis, I hope to matriculate into a MD/PhD dual-degree program to continue a research-oriented career. 

I currently live in Knoxville since 2019 but grew up in Cookeville. Cooking and poking fun at my cats occupies some of my free time. I also volunteer with Remote Area Medical as a Patient Registration Supervisor at clinics within and outside of Tennessee. In 2015 I earned Eagle Scout and in 2016 I backpacked at Philmont in New Mexico for 10 days.

HALEY MAYSE (PhD Student)

My name is Haley Mayse and I am from Morristown, TN.  I received my bachelor's in chemistry from Lincoln Memorial University in 2019.  I moved to Cookeville with my husband and dogs shortly after.  I am studying the degradation of amphetamine-type stimulants when exposed to UV light in wastewater treatment plants.

ROBERT (ROB) OLIVER (Master's Student)

I am originally from Mackay, Queensland, Australia. I graduated from my BSc at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane majoring in Chemistry/Industrial Chemistry in 2009. I completed a Graduate Diploma in Extractive Metallurgy at the Western Australian School of Mines in 2013. I worked at Glencore’s McArthur River Lead-Zinc Project from 2009 to 2012, where I was introduced to selective, sequential froth flotation, selective oxidative leaching, and geochemical analysis of base metal sulfides. I was also the site radiation safety officer. From 2012 to 2021 I was a manager for Intertek PLC’s Indonesian minerals operations where I furthered my understanding of geochemical analysis, in particular speciation of sulfide minerals. While working at Intertek I collaborated with Dr Dominique François-Bongarçon on research into particle size analysis and minerals sampling theory. At Tech, my area of interest is chromatographic separation of actinides and lanthanides, and intraseries separation of lanthanides with Dr Dale Ensor.