Athena grew up in Arlington, Virginia. She earned her B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from Texas A&M University in May 2024. As an undergraduate, she worked in Dr. Emily Pentzer's lab on ionic liquids for greenhouse gas capture. Athena also studied metal sulfide ion-exchange materials for toxic waste remediation in the Kanatzidis group through the 2022 MRSEC REU program at Northwestern University. The following summer, Athena participated in the SULI program at Argonne National Laboratory, where she analyzed synchrotron data to understand failure mechanisms in steels during tribological experiments. Athena joined the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering in the fall of 2024 and is co-advised by Dr. Shrayesh Patel and Dr. Stuart Rowan.
Athena works on redox-active polymer particles for energy storage applications.
Multipotent Elastomers via Tempering of Phase-Separated Dynamic Covalent Networks
Nicholas R Boynton, Camaryn M Bennett, Trevor D Hagan, Gabrielle R Solymosy, Charlie A Lindberg, Naomi A Schaller, Stephanie L Vivod, Shrayesh N Patel, Stuart J Rowan. ACS Macro Lett. (2025), 14, 11, 1728–1734. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.5c00653.
Spin Glass Behavior and Giant Magnetoresistance via Aliovalent Fe/Ni Alloying in Amorphous Tetrathiafulvalene-Tetrathiolate Coordination Polymers
Chen-Yu Lien, Jie-Hao Chen, Anna O Schouten, Grant R Wilkinson, Di Wang, Jan Hofmann, Maia E Czaikowski, Barbara Lavina, Alexander S Filatov, Karena W Chapman, Andrew P Higginbotham, Dmitri V Talapin, David A Mazziotti, Henry S La Pierre, Shrayesh N Patel, John S Anderson. J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2025), 147, 43, 39590–39598. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c12985.
Pre-synthetic redox control of structure and properties in copper TTFtt coordination polymers
Ningxian Jiang, Saranya Velliyarat, Chen-Yu Lien, Ha L Nguyen, Jan Hofmann, Arun Ramanathan, Alexander S Filatov, Henry Storms La Pierre, Shrayesh Patel, Jie-Hao Chen, Karena Chapman, Jan-Niklas Boyn, John S Anderson. Chem. Sci., (2025), 16, 19304-19316. https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC03070F.
The Role of Water Volume Fraction on Water Adsorption in Anion Exchange Membranes
Gervasio Zaldivar, Ruilin Dong, Joan M Montes de Oca, Ge Sun, Riccardo Alessandri, Christopher G Arges, Shrayesh N Patel, Paul F Nealey, Juan J de Pablo. Macromolecules 2025 58 (18), 9972-9982. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.5c01256.
Role of Crosslinking and Backbone Segmental Dynamics on Ion Transport in Hydrated Anion‐Conducting Polyelectrolytes
Zhongyang Wang, Kai Wang, Christopher Eom, Yuxi Chen, Ge Sun, Mincheol Kim, Joan M Montes de Oca, Dongyue Liang, Kushal Bagchi, Shrayesh N Patel, Juan J de Pablo, Paul F Nealey. Adv. Funct. Mater. (2025): e14589. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202514589.
IEC-Independent Coupling between Water Uptake and Ionic Conductivity in Anion-Conducting Polymer Films
Joan M Montes de Oca, Ruilin Dong, Gervasio Zaldivar, Ge Sun, Zhongyang Wang, Shrayesh N Patel, Paul F Nealey, Juan J de Pablo. Macromolecules, 2025, 58 (12), 6134-6148. DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.5c00934.
Study of self-assembly behavior and ionic conductivity of conjugated liquid crystals with T-shaped facial-polyphilic structure
Ziwei Liu, Yangyang Sun, Ban Xuan Dong, Shrayesh N Patel, Paul F Nealey, Fernando A Escobedo, Christopher K Ober. Sci. Adv. 11, eadt8303 (2025). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adt8303.
Should I stay or should I flow? An exploration of phase-separated metallosupramolecular liquid crystal polymers
Charlie A Lindberg, Alice E Roberson, Elina Ghimire, Jerald E Hertzog, Nicholas R Boynton, Guancen Liu, Deborah K Schneiderman, Shrayesh N Patel, Stuart J Rowan. Chem. Eur. J., 31: e202404672. https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202404672.
Enhanced Ion Transport and Molecular Packing Stability in Asymmetric 2D Nanostructured π‐Conjugated Thieno [3, 2‐b] Thiophene‐Based Liquid Crystal
Chaoqiuyu Wang, Yangyang Sun, Zhongyang Wang, Wen Chen, Danya Liu, Joseph Strzalka, Shrayesh N Patel, Paul F Nealey, Christopher K Ober, Fernando A Escobedo. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2025, 35, 2423541. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202423541.
Water-mediated ion transport in an anion exchange membrane
Zhongyang Wang, Ge Sun, Nicholas HC Lewis, Mrinmay Mandal, Abhishek Sharma, Mincheol Kim, Joan M Montes de Oca, Kai Wang, Aaron Taggart, Alex B Martinson, Paul A Kohl, Andrei Tokmakoff, Shrayesh N Patel, Paul F Nealey, Juan J de Pablo. Nat. Commun. 16, 1099 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55621-z.