PIAIS Staff

Amir Aliyan

Senior Research Scientist

Amir Aliyan

Khatam University: 30 Hakim Azam St. 5th floor                                                                           +98 (990) 4390755

Tehran, Iran                                                                                                                           aliyan@rice.edu

 

 

Education and employment 

B.S. Applied Chemistry. Isfahan University of Technology,
Isfahan, Iran. GPA: Total (15.03/20) - Sept. 2003- Sept. 2007.

­M.S. in Analytical Chemistry. Sharif University of Technology,
Tehran, Iran. GPA: (16.39/20) - Sept. 2007- Dec. 2009.

­PhD in Chemistry. Department of Chemistry. Rice University,
Houston, TX. ­GPA (4.0/4.0) - Jan 2013 - August 2017.

Assistant Professor at Khatam University, Tehran, Iran. March 2018 - Present.

Research Faculty at Pasargad Institute for Advanced Innovative Solutions (PIAIS), Tehran, Iran. March 2018 - Present.

Teaching Experience 

Please see this sample of my teaching style at goo.gl/fpiHK9 (YouTube) or goo.gl/SSpwD6 (Aparat)

­Isfahan University of Technology:

  • ­Fall 2006           è Phys. Chem. I lab.

­Sharif University of Technology:

  • ­Fall 2008           è Gen. Chem. I lab.

­University of Arkansas:

  • ­Summer 2010    è Gen. Chem. I lab.

  • Fall 2010           èGel. Chem. I discussion.

  • Spring 2011       èOrg. Chem. lab.

  • Summer 2011    èGen. Chem. II discussion.

  • Fall 2011           èGen. Chem. II lab.

  • Spring 2012       èOrg. Chem. lab.

  • Summer 2012    èGen. Chem. II discussion, and development of the barcode project.*

  • Fall 2012           èCode developer for the scantron-bubbling project.**

­Rice University:

  • ­Spring 2013       èInorg. Chem. discussion.

  • Spring 2014       èInorg. Chem. discussion.

  • Spring 2015       èInorg. Chem. discussion.

  • Spring 2016       èInorg. Chem. discussion.

  • Fall 2016           èGen. Chem. Honors I discussion.

  • Spring 2017       èOrg. Chem. II discussion.

­* I developed a method that assigns a code to each students and barcodes were generated from the codes. Students then had a barcode on the top of their exams, quizzes, etc. Not only did the barcodes help to organize the grades much more efficiently, but they also allowed giving students unique quizzes based on their code. With this strategy, quizzes were given to classes with large number of students without any concern about cheating issues. Owing to the ability of Excel to calculate answers once the barcode was scanned, grading was not time consuming.

­** Hired as a code developer, I developed a program in VBA (Microsoft Excel) that bubbled scantrons for mega classes. In a class of 1700 students with several similarities in names and as many as 200 mis-bubbled scantrons, it used to take a full week to report grades. With the program I developed, there were no mismatched, and reports were available 5 minutes after receiving the scanning results.

Teaching subjects

General Chemistry

­Inorganic Chemistry

­Biochemistry

­Analytical Chemistry

­Organic Chemistry

­Physical Chemistry (not including Quantum Chemistry)

­Spectroscopy

­Supramolecular

Research Experience 

Have been involved in variety of chemistry projects such as: Biochemistry, Molecular biology and cell culturing; Quantum dot and nanoparticle synthesis and analysis; Inorganic chemistry, Peptide synthesis and self-assembly, Chromatography and spectroscopy.

­Have trained three undergraduate students in my research lab, who have contributed in my projects. My last undergraduate student is working on his own project.

Relevant Skills 

Gel electrophoresis and Western blotting.

­Protein overexpression and purification.

­PCR cloning and Site-directed mutagenesis.

­Cell culture assay.

­Quantum dot and nanoparticle synthesis and ligand exchange.

­Solid-phase peptide synthesis, peptide self-assembly and aggregation (extensive experience with Amyloid beta).

­Expert in chemical synthesis and purification.

­Expert in photoluminescence spectroscopy (Steady state, and time resolved).

­Characterization methods: NMR, Mass spec.; TEM, SEM, and AFM imaging; HPLC and GC-MS.

Honors And Awards 

Jun 2007 - present

­            Member of 'Iran's National Elites Foundation'

­Summer 2007

­            Gold medal (the only first grade) of the 12th National Chemistry Olympiad of Iran.

­Spring 2007

­Ranked 5th in Analytical Chemistry, 5th in Organic Chemistry, 8th in Polymer Chemistry, 9th in Physical Chemistry, 12th in Inorganic Chemistry and totally 9th out of about 11000 nationwide participates in the M.S entrance exam in Iran.

­Spring 2013 - fall 2014

­            Rice graduate school fellowship

­Fall 2014

­            Best TA award at Rice University.

Publications And Presentations 

1.         Aliyan, A.; Kirby, B.; Pennington, C.; Martí, A. A., Unprecedented Dual Light-Switching Response of a Metal Dipyridophenazine Complex toward Amyloid-β Aggregation. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138 (28), 8686-8689. (IF = 14.695, please see our interview at goo.gl/QEcnRa and goo.gl/iNry5U)

2.         Aliyan, A.; Paul, T. J.; Jiang, B.; Pennington, C.; Sharma, G.; Prabhakar, R.; Martí, A. A., Photochemical Identification of Molecular Binding Sites on the Surface of Amyloid-β Fibrillar Aggregates. Chem 2017, 3 (5), 898-912. (IF = 14.104, please read our interview at shorturl.at/pruFI)

3.         García-López, V.; Chen, F.; Nilewski, L. G.; Duret, G.; Aliyan, A.; Kolomeisky, A. B.; Robinson, J. T.; Wang, G.; Pal, R.; Tour, J. M., Molecular machines open cell membranes. Nature 2017, 548 (7669), 567-572. (IF = 41.577, please see our interview at https://goo.gl/fVGFKL)

4.         Ohata, J.; Vohidov, F.; Aliyan, A.; Huang, K.; Marti, A. A.; Ball, Z. T., Luminogenic iridium azide complexes. Chem. Commun. 2015, 51 (82), 15192-15195. (IF = 6.290)

5.         Abdolvahabi, A.; Shi, Y.; Rasouli, S.; Croom, C. M.; Aliyan, A.; Martí, A. A.; Shaw, B. F., Kaplan–Meier Meets Chemical Kinetics: Intrinsic Rate of SOD1 Amyloidogenesis Decreased by Subset of ALS Mutations and Cannot Fully Explain Age of Disease Onset. ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2017, 8 (6), 1378-1389. (IF = 4.362)

6.         Klockner, W.; Yadav, R. M.; Yao, J.; Lei, S.; Aliyan, A.; Wu, J.; Martí, A. A.; Vajtai, R.; Ajayan, P. M.; Denardin, J. C.; Serafini, D.; Melo, F.; Singh, D. P., Acetonitrile mediated facile synthesis and self-assembly of silver vanadate nanowires into 3D spongy-like structure as a cathode material for lithium ion battery. J. Nanopart. Res. 2017, 19 (8), 288. (IF = 3.573)

7.         Varma, S. J.; Kumar, J.; Liu, Y.; Layne, K.; Wu, J.; Liang, C.; Nakanishi, Y.; Aliyan, A.; Yang, W.; Ajayan, P. M.; Thomas, J., 2D TiS2 Layers: A Superior Nonlinear Optical Limiting Material. Advanced Optical Materials, 1700713-n/a. (IF = 4.279)

8.         Liu, Y.; Liang, C.; Wu, J.; Sharifi, T.; Xu, H.; Nakanishi, Y.; Yang, Y.; Woellne, C. F.; Aliyan, A.; Martí, A. A.; Xie, B.; Vajtai, R.; Yang, W.; Ajayan, P. M., Atomic Layered Titanium Sulfide Quantum Dots as Electrocatalysts for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. Advanced Materials Interfaces, 1700895-n/a. (IF = 4.279)

9.         Liu, Y.; Liang, C.; Wu, J.; Varma, S. J.; Nakanishi, Y.; Aliyan, A.; Martí, A. A.; Wang, Y.; Xie, B.; Kumar, J.; Layne, K.; Chopra, N.; Odeh, I.; Vajtai, R.; Thomas, J.; Peng, X.; Yang, W.; Ajayan, P. M., Reflux pretreatment-mediated sonication: A new universal route to obtain 2D quantum dots. Materials Today 2018. (IF = 21.695)

10.       Meiyazhagan, A.; Aliyan, A.; Ayyappan, A.; Moreno-Gonzalez, I.; Susarla, S.; Yazdi, S.; Cuanalo-Contreras, K.; Khabashesku, V. N.; Vajtai, R.; Marti, A. A.; Ajayan, P. M., Soft Lithographic Patterning of Luminescent Carbon Nanodots Derived from Collagen Waste. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2018. (IF = 8.097)

11.       Hosseinzadeh, S.; Rezayat, S. M.; Giaseddin, A.; Aliyan, A.; Soleimani, M., Microfluidic system for synthesis of nanofibrous conductive hydrogel and muscle differentiation. J. Biomater. Appl. 2017, 0 (0), 0885328217744377. (IF = 2.764)

12.       Zomorrod, M. S.; Kouhkan, F.; Soleimani, M.; Aliyan, A.; Tasharrofi, N., Overexpression of miR-133 decrease primary endothelial cells proliferation and migration via FGFR1 targeting. Experimental Cell Research 2018, 369 (1), 11-16. (IF = 3.246)

13.       Aliyan, A.; Cook, Nathan; Martí, A. A., Photoluminescnet Amyloid probes. Peer Review paper submitted at Chem. Rev. upon being invited (IF = 52.6)

14.       Dongdong Liu, Víctor García-López, Richard S. Gunasekera,          Lizanne Greer Nilewski, Lawrence B. Alemany, Amir Aliyan, Tao JinGufeng Wang, James M. Tour, and Robert Pal, Near Infrared Light Activates Molecular Nanomachines to Drill Into and Kill Cells, S ACS Nano 2019, 13 (6), 6813. (IF = 13.7)

15.       Aliyan, A.; Martí, A. A.; et. al., Real time detection of Amyloid Beta oligomers and protofibrils using a Ru complex. Manuscript in preparation to submit at J. Am. Chem. Soc. (IF= 14.695)

16.       Yadav, Ram; Kumar, Rajesh; Aliyan, Amir ; Dobal, Pramod; Biradar, Santhosh; Vajtai, Robert; Singh, Dinesh; Marti, Angel; Ajayan, Pulickel. Facile synthesis of highly fluorescent free-standing films comprising of graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanolayers. Submitted at ACS Nano (IF = 13.7)

­17.       Poster presentation at the Inter-American Photophysical Society Congress, January 2017. 
 

Computer Skills 

  • Java and C# Programming Languages.
  • ­Microsoft Word, Power-point, and Excel with VBA (Coding in Visual Basic for Applications under Microsoft excel)
  • ­Design and create databases for analyzing large set of data (sql)
  • ­Extensive knowledge in variety of programs (Origin, Chemdraw, etc.)

Languages 

English: Fluent

­Farsi: Native Speaker

References 

Dr. Angel Martí (amarti@rice.edu). Associate Professor of Chemistry, Bioengineering, and Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University.

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hartgerink (jdh@rice.edu). Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Bioengineering, Rice University.

Dr. Ines Moreno-Gonzalez (ines.m.gonzalez@uth.tmc.edu). Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, The University of Texas Health Sciences at Houston.