M.Sc Laura Adarve
Laura Adarve Cardona was born in Medellin, Colombia. She obtained her B.Sc. in chemistry from the Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia in 2017. Laura’s undergraduate work involved investigations related to the synthesis of diarylheptanoids under the supervision of Professor Felipe Otálvaro Tamayo. In 2018, she moved to Bogota, Colombia, where she began her master's studies under the direction of Professor Diego Gamba Sánchez at the Universidad de los Andes. At the same time, she studied the application of the Oxa-Michael reaction on the synthesis of Bengazol A, an antifungal marine natural product. In 2020, Laura begins a Ph.D. in chemistry at the same university. Furthermore, she is working with Professor Diego Gamba Sánchez on an organocatalytic methodology for chiral amine synthesis. Her research interests lie in the development of new synthetic methods, target synthesis, and organocatalytic reactions.
M.Sc Monica Rey
Mónica was born in Bogota, Colombia. She obtained her degree from the Francisco José de Caldas District University, in 2016. Her work was related to the identification of molecules from the species Picramnia gracilis, responsible for the coloration of fibers. He obtained his Master's degree in Chemistry from the University of Jaén, in 2017. There he developed his work in the semi-synthesis of compounds of biological interest from abietic acid. She decided in 2023 to start her doctoral studies under the guidance of Professor Diego Gamba.
M.Sc Oscar Morales
Camilo Morales was born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1996. He obtained his B.Sc degree from Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas (Bogotá - Colombia) in 2020. His B.Sc work was a docking study to design non-peptidic antagonist blockers AT1 receptors with potential antihypertensive activity. Later, he did postgraduate studies at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia doing organocatalytic studies based on α,β-unsaturated aldehyde condensations in N-heterocyclic Carbene presence. He started his PhD in chemistry at the Universidad de Los Andes in january 2023. His reserach interests are organocatalytic and enantioselective reactions.
B.Sc Julia Urbiña
Julia Urbiña Alvarez was born in San Marcos (Sucre), Colombia in 1996. She moved to Bucaramanga where she obtained her B Sc in Chemistry from the Universidad Industrial de Santander in 2018. Working under the supervision of Dr. Arnold Romero in the Organic Compounds of Medical Interest (CODEIM) research group, Julia’s work focused primarily on the Synthesis of new thiazolidine-triazole molecular hybrids via condensation-cyclocondensation and 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions. After a short time workin in industry she joined the research group of professor Diego Gamba at Universidad de los Andes where she is pursuing her Master in Chemistry.
B.Sc Catalina Hoyos
B.Sc Andres Godoy
Andrés Felipe Godoy Barbosa was born in Bogotá, Colombia. He obtained his B.Sc in chemistry from the Universidad de los Andes in 2022. During his undergraduate, he worked under the supervision of Dr. Jaime Portilla at the Investigation Group of Bio-Organic Compounds (GICOBIORG) where his main focus were the synthesis functionalized pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines and literature revision about such compounds. In 2022 he decided to pursuit his M.Sc degree under the guidance of Dr. Diego Gamba at the LSOBOC where he is currently working on the synthesis of Bengazol A.
B.Sc Gustavo Marin
Gustavo was born in New York, USA in 1998. When he was 14, he moved to Armenia, Colombia, where he finished high school and was able to be closer to his extended family. He then moved to Los Angeles to complete his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), obtaining his BS in Chemistry in 2020. During his time at UCLA, Gustavo worked under the supervision of Dr. Alexander M. Spokoyny in the Spokoyny Research Group (Organomimetic@UCLA), where his research focused primarily on the synthesis and development of hybrid metal oxide materials using boron-rich clusters as molecular cross-linkers, and the synthesis and characterization of densely cross-linked polymeric materials to molecular boron-rich clusters. After graduating from UCLA, Gustavo decided that he wanted to be closer to his family while he continued his career as a chemist. For these reasons, after a hiatus from academics, Gustavo came back to Colombia and joined professor Diego Gamba’s research group at the University of the Andes to pursue his Master’s degree in Chemistry.