Our People

Timea Kolozsvary (G4)

Timea grew up in southern Florida until she moved to New Jersey during high school. She received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Northeastern University in 2017.
Afterwards, she joined Wave Life Sciences, a biotech company in Lexington, MA. There, she worked on developing the synthesis and downstream processing of oligonucleotides as genetic medicines, until she became a part of the Department of Chemistry at Brown in the fall of 2021 as a graduate student. Timea hopes to shift her experience with natural polymers towards the fascinating world of synthetic, responsive and programmable polymeric materials for biomedical and environmental applications in the McDonald Lab.

Timea is also passionate about climbing and yoga, crafting and baking, and her family- which includes her bird Polly.

Kennalee Orme (G3)

Kennalee was born and raised in Rexburg, Idaho. She received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at Idaho State University in December of 2020. While at Idaho State, she conducted research in polysulfide materials under the guidance of Dr. Courtney L. Jenkins. Upon graduation, she was accepted into the SULI program and worked as an intern at the Idaho National Laboratory, until she was hired as a full time researcher in May of 2021. At INL, she specialized in electrochemical characterization of rare earth metal-ligand complexes in ionic liquids. Kennalee decided to pursue her graduate degree in chemistry and joined the McDonald lab at the beginning of her PhD program at Brown University in September of 2022. She hopes to combine her diverse training in polymer science and electrochemistry to study and develop polyelectrolytes for energy storage devices.

Kennalee’s hobbies include sketching, ballroom dancing, and playing the piano. She also spends every moment of free time with her wife and cats.

Manto “Tommy” Lam (G2)

Manto was born in Hong Kong and raised in Guangzhou, China. He received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at New York University in May of 2023. While at NYU, he conducted research in organic synthesis and self-assembly of conductive polymers under the guidance of Professor Marcus Weck. Upon graduation, Manto decided to pursue his graduate degree in chemistry and joined the McDonald lab at the beginning of his Ph.D. program at Brown University in September of 2023. He hopes to further continue his training in polymer science and organic chemistry at Brown.

Outside the lab, Manto loves cats and reptiles. Together with his girlfriend, they have 7 pets, (3 cats, 2 snakes, a gecko, and a Blue tongue skink.) and he spends his weekends with their lovely pets.

Shanice Agyekum (G1)

Shanice was born and raised in Ohio, just a few minutes away from the football hall of fame. She recieved her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Kent State University in 2022. Afterwards, she joined DOW Inc., a materials science company located in Midland, MI. There she worked building high throughput platforms to streamlines catalyst development within the corporate sciences of the company. After a few years with the company, she furthered her career by becoming a graduate student within the Chemistry departmetn at Brown in the fall of 2024. Here, Shanice hopes to continue her work in the field of polymers by taking a synthetic organic chemists approach towards creating tunable polymer networks in collaboration with her new colleagues!

When Shanice is not working, she enjoys spending time with her two dogs, making memories with friends, and taking spontaneous adventures!

Manh Khang Trang, Ph.D. (Post-Doc)

Khang was born and raised in Vietnam. He earned his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Can Tho University in December 2016. He then moved to Taiwan to pursue a Ph.D. at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, which he completed in 2023 under the guidance of Professor Hong-Cheu Lin. His research focused on designing and synthesizing multi-stimuli responsive supramolecular systems with applications in biomedical devices.

His dissertation centered on how light and mechanical forces can be used to control fluorescence in certain materials, in particular, by using diarylethene-based rotaxanes to influence oxygen reactions and manipulate light emission. These mechanisms were also applied to stretchable elastomers, which were strengthened through the incorporation of polyrotaxanes.

He joined the Department of Chemistry at Brown University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Fall 2024. In his free time, he enjoys running, playing badminton, and cooking Vietnamese food.