Current Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs)
Jesus Tlaloc Maldonado (he/him)
Jesus earned a B.S. Chemistry at UTEP in 2019. He returned to UTEP for a M.A. in Political Science and defended his thesis in 2022 on resources curse, critical ethnic studies. Joining the lab in Spring 2024, he is a Ph.D. Student Chemistry Education, studying An Asset-Based Approach to Optimizing Conditions for Undergraduate Students’ Use of Productive Ideas in Electrochemistry.
Toni Ramirez (they/them)
Toni earned a B.S. Biological Sciences from UTEP in 2020. They returned in 2022 to UTEP and are currently a Biosciences Ph.D. Candidate Research. Their dissertation topic is on Elucidating the Role of First-Day Instructor Communications in Undergraduate Biology Research-Intensive Contexts). They also serve as an instructional assistant at El Paso Community College (EPCC).
Jared S. Goldman (he/him)
Jared Goldman earned his B.S. in Plant Science from Texas A&M University in 2016, followed by an M.S. in Molecular and Environmental Plant Science in 2019 and an M.Ed. in Science Curriculum and Instruction in 2020.While completing his graduate studies, he became certified to teach Science (Grades 7–12) and spent six years teaching high school Biology and Earth Science.
Jared joined the Ph.D. program in Chemistry in the fall of 2025, where he explores questions related to epistemology, assessment design, and systems thinking. He’s passionate about connecting how people learn science with how science itself operates as a system.
Aaron Heck (he/him)
Aaron earned a B.S. in chemistry from Western Kentucky University in 2023. He returns to academic chemistry after several years working in qPCR, and his research interest is in chemistry graduate education and workforce development.
Raymundo Aragonez (he/him)
Ray earned a B.S. in biochemistry from UTEP in 2023. He is completing a M.S. in chemistry education research in the Day Lab, looking at students’ use of driving forces.
Current Undergraduate Research Assistants (URAs)
Yvonne Moreno (she/her)
Yvonne is working on a B.S. in Biological Sciences and joined the Day Lab in Fall 2024. She is working on analysis of phenomenological interview data of organic chemistry students in a laboratory transformation to project-based labs.
Hafiz Arat (he/him)
Hafiz is working on a B.S. in Biological Sciences and joined the Day Lab in Fall 2024. He is contributing to the studies on student understanding of electrochemistry.
Julia Macedo (she/her)
Kwon Sung (Sunny) Jung (he/him)
Roxana Chavez (she/her)
Stone Smith (he/him)
Demian Vasquez (he/him)
Lab Friends and Affiliates
Dr. Mez Perez (she/any)
Lab Alumni
Dr. Steven Petritis (post-doc)
John Melby, BS UTEP
American Rodriguez
Andre Corral, BS UTEP
Anel Zaragoza
Maddie Olivas, BS UTEP
Angela Lopez
Henk van den Bogaard, MS UTEP
Abduljalal Adams, BS UTEP
Nesreen Alzamily, BS UTEP
Alexandra Martinez, BS UTEP
Adriana Ferreiro (SURE CHEM Summer Student from UACH)
Kevin Holguin, BS UTEP
Laisha Ramirez, BS UTEP
Available Positions
Positions are dependent on external funding and student office space. Graduate students are potentially eligible for teaching assistant (TA) support through the State of Texas.
Day Lab 