Current Members

Senior Associates/Post-Doctors

Dr. Dejun Chen, Assistant Professor

BS. 2006, PhD, 2012 in Chemistry, Xiamen University, China

Dejun was an exchange PhD student from Professor Shi-Gang Sun's lab at Xiamen University and studied in the TongLab from October 2009 to April 2012, which was partially supported by a two-year Chinese Scholar Council scholarship. He started a post-doc position in August 2012 working on in situ spectroelectrochemistry (SEIRAS and SERS) and Pt-based electrocatalysts for electrooxidation of small organic molecules and oxygen reduction. He then started his current appointment of teaching assistant professor in the Environmental Metrology & Policy Graduate Program in Fall 2018.

Graduate Students

BS (2012) and MS (2015) in chemistry from Jilin University, China.

Rongfeng joined the group in Fall 2015. Before coming to Georgetown, Rongfeng has already co-authored three papers, one of which appeared in Langmuir and entitled "Syntheses and characterization of nearly monodispersed, size-tunable silver nanoparticles over a wide range of 7-200nm by tannic acid reduction". Her research project is on synthesis and characterization of organo-chalcognate stabilized metal nanoparticles.

BS (2017) in chemistry from St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia, PA.

Kaitlyn joined the lab in Fall 2017. Her current project focuses on using the potential oscillations that occur during the Formic acid electro-oxidation on palladium electrode to understand the details of its reaction mechanism.

Undergraduate Students

Biochemistry Major/Pre-med, Col’ 2023

Lauren joined the Tong lab in Fall 2020 as an incoming freshman, and she works under Rongfeng studying atomically precise gold nanoclusters bound by organoselenate ligands. Outside of the lab, Lauren is an EMT and a tutor in the Georgetown University Writing Center. She is also an active member of the Georgetown

University Signs Club, whose mission is to spread literacy and awareness of American sign language and deaf culture, and of the Georgetown University Contemporary Choir. She is originally from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, but now lives with her family to a seaside town in Maine called Castine, where she enjoys outdoor adventures with her three dogs.

Biochemistry Major/Pre-med, Col' 2023.

In addition to majoring in biochemistry, Abby is planning to minor in Justice and Peace Studies. She joined TongLab in spring 2020 and works with Rongfeng and Nick on learning atomically precise gold clusters research. She’s from Amherst, NH but went to boarding school in Groton, MA. Outside of lab, she is an EMT, an operations assistant at a Massachusetts community hospital, an advocate for Hoyas for Choice, and a “Women in STEM” mentor for an independent student-run tutoring business. She also loves running, cooking and baking with friends, soapy TV shows, and her dog, Clover.

Biochemistry Major/Pre-med, Col' 2024.

Andy joined TongLab in Fall 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is originally from San Jose, California but after a freshman year of remote classes, he is thrilled now to finally able to live in the Hilltop. He has been passionate about chemistry since freshman year in high school and loves doing research at the Tong Lab, as it allows him to see the applications of the knowledge he obtains in the classroom.

Chemistry Major/Pre-med, Col' 2024.

Siona joined TongLab in Fall 2021. She is originally from Montclair, NJ but is quite excited to experience on-campus college life in DC and begin in-person research. Outside of the lab, she enjoys spending time with her family, doing crossword puzzles, and going on walks with her dog, Yofi