People — The Pribram-Jones Group

PI: Aurora Pribram-Jones

Current Position Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Affiliate Associate Professor of Physics at UC Merced.

Education After completing their PhD in Chemistry from UC Irvine, where they studied with Kieron Burke as a DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellow, Dr. Pribram-Jones completed Lawrence and UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowships at LLNL and UC Berkeley. She received her BS in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College, and her AS degrees in Biology, Chemistry, and Mathematics from Foothill College.

Research Dr. Pribram-Jones develops finite-temperature and ensemble electronic structure methods for use in materials science, quantum chemistry, and warm dense matter theory. Dr. Pribram-Jones also collaborates with researchers at Harvey Mudd College and University of New South Wales, using high-performance computing to simulate ordered and disordered complex alloys.

Community APJ’s activities within the community have included coordinating the Computational Chemistry and Materials Science Summer Institute at LLNL, co-organizing fellowship writing workshops at UC Irvine, mentoring students across a variety of communities, and visiting elementary schools to discuss the many ways to be a chemist and how superheroes rely on metallurgy in the Marvel Universe.

Current Members

Dr. Lei Chen

Postdoctoral Scholar | March 2024 - Present

Dr. Lei Chen joined the University of California, Merced, in March 2024 as a Postdoctoral Scholar. He is working with Profs. David Strubbe, Aurora Pribram-Jones, and Venkattraman Ayyaswamy for the MRPI program: California Initiative for Solid-to-Plasma Dynamics for Fusion Energy. His research will involve the study of early-time stages of the formation of plasma from a solid under intense laser irradiation, using electronic structure, molecular dynamics, and kinetic plasma simulations. Lei obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2023. He studied the characteristics of intense laser-produced fast electrons and hard x-ray radiation by modeling angularly resolved bremsstrahlung signals with 3D hybrid Particle-in-cell simulations. Lei is also a hiker, a pin & diecast car collector, a bibliophile, etc.

Brittany Harding

Graduate Student, CCB | August 2018 - Present

Brittany Harding is a doctoral student in the Chemistry and Biochemistry graduate program. Her research falls under the discipline of physical chemistry with a focus on density functional theory. Brittany earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her undergraduate research with Dr. Martin Moskovits focused on the physics and chemistry that arises for nanosystems. Before undertaking doctoral studies in 2018, Brittany worked as a laboratory technician at an industrial oil analysis lab. Her current research interests include studying finite-temperature density functional theory and warm dense matter systems. Her hobbies include playing the viola, hiking, and giving back to the community through volunteer programs that work for underprivileged children and their families.

Vincent Martinetto

Graduate Student, CCB | August 2018 - Present

Vincent Martinetto is a doctoral student in the Chemistry and Biochemistry program at the University of California, Merced. He obtained his B.S. in chemistry from Santa Clara University where he worked in an organic chemistry lab. He is interested in the development and exploration of Ensemble Density Functional Theory methods.

Brianna Aguilar-Solis

Graduate Student, CCB | June 2022 - Present

Brianna is a doctoral student joint with the Hratchian group, in the Chemistry and Biochemistry program at the University of California, Merced. She obtained her A.S. in Chemistry from Bakersfield College and her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. While at Berkeley, she conducted research with Dr. Eric Neuscamman and at LBNL with Dr. Sinéad Griffin. Her current research interests lie in investigating excitation methods.

Anthony Osborne

Graduate Student, CCB | June 2023 - Present

Anthony is a PhD student in the Chemistry and Biochemistry program at the University of California, Merced. He obtained his B.S. in Chemistry with a concentration in computational chemistry from the University of Tennessee at Martin in 2023. His current research interests lie in inversion methods in density functional theory and their application to thermal systems. His hobbies include reading, hiking, running, cooking, and going to concerts.

Sage Gorney

Graduate Student, CCB | June 2023 - Present

Sage graduated with a B.S. in chemistry from Cal Poly Pomona in 2023, and is now pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of California, Merced. While an undergraduate student, their research with Dr. S. Chantal E. Stieber involved computational analysis of copper nitrosyls. Their current research interests lie in method development for the investigation of thermal excitations, particularly using thermal DFT and Maximum Overlap Methods. In their free time, Sage enjoys cooking, playing the guitar, and both board and video games.

Bridget Sprecher

Graduate Student, CCB | June 2024 - Present

Bridget is a doctoral student in the Chemistry and Biochemistry program at the University of California, Merced. She received her AS in Chemistry from San Joaquin Delta College and her BS in Chemistry from University of the Pacific. At Pacific, she studied with Dr. Anthony Dutoi, focusing her research on simulated photoelectron spectroscopy. She is currently working on Ensemble Density Functional Theory via density-to-potential inversions and corresponding data in the development of physics-informed neural operators.

Audrey Thiessen

Undergraduate Student | May 2025 - Present

Audrey Thiessen is a chemistry major at Harvey Mudd College who is passionate about climate science. As a 2025 summer researcher with the PJ Group, she is continuing her work on the lead-free brass project, investigating how to predict casting shrinkage of compositionally complex alloys. She enjoys kayaking and recently met her first cuttlefish.