Leopoldo Posada is originally from Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas, MX, but he has lived in the southern tip of Texas for the past 10 years. He comes to the CSN REU/NSF REU program from UTRGV, where he will be a senior who is pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry. Back home at UTRGV, Leopoldo has been a member of Dr. Shizue Mito’s organic laboratory for the past year. He has worked in the synthesis of benzo fused indolequinones, and with the collaboration of the Biology department at UTRGV, he hopes to determine if these quinones have potential anti-carcinogenic properties. This summer, Leopoldo is working in Dr. Rosenzweig’s laboratory on the synthesis and functionalization of gold nanoparticles with different surface ligands containing varying ratios of amine to polyoxonorbornenes. The purpose of this is to investigate the effect amine content has on the surface charge density of gold nanoparticles. This project is part of the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN) whose focus is to develop next generation highly functional nanomaterials with minimal impact to biological and environmental systems.
In his free time, Leopoldo likes playing basketball, jogging, going for a swim, reading, doing all kinds of puzzles, and hanging out with friends. Having done research for a year now, Leopoldo plans to pursue graduate school with the intention of obtaining a PhD in Chemistry and becoming a faculty member in a research university.