Team
Riccardo Alessandri
Principal Investigator
María Ley-Flores
(Visiting) PhD student
Besa Mulaj Krasniqi
Master student
L. Gonzalo Espinoza A.
(Visiting) PhD student
Riccardo Alessandri
Principal Investigator
Riccardo was born in Perugia, Italy. After his BSc at the University of Perugia, he earned his MSc in Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modeling at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. He received his PhD from the University of Groningen in 2019, then moved to the U.S. for a postdoctoral position at the University of Chicago. In January 2025, he started his own research group as an assistant professor at KU Leuven. Riccardo was awarded an NWO Rubicon Fellowship, an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the Maria Lastra Excellence in Mentoring Award.
María Ley-Flores
(Visiting) PhD student
María completed a B.Sc. in Materials Engineering at Universidad de Sonora. After becoming a Fulbright fellow, she joined the Molecular Engineering PhD program at the University of Chicago, specializing in Materials for Health and Sustainability. She joined the Alessandri Group as a visiting PhD scholar in January 2025. María’s work focuses on the modeling of polymeric materials for applications in circular plastics and all-organic batteries.
Representative publication:
Ley-Flores, Chabbi, Alessandri, et al., arXiv 2024 [link]
Besa Mulaj Krasniqi
Master student
Besa is a TCCM M.Sc. student at Sorbonne University with a background in chemical engineering and physical chemistry. She is currently conducting her M.Sc. research intership in the Group on multiscale modeling of organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors. She has experience in quantum chemistry calculations, molecular dynamics simulations, and machine learning and previously worked on Conceptual DFT during an internship at the Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory (LCT) at Sorbonne University.
L. Gonzalo Espinoza A.
(Visiting) PhD student
Originally from Talca, Chile, Gonzalo completed his undergraduate degree in Bioinformatics Engineering with a specialization in molecular dynamics. As a PhD candidate, he conducts coarse-grained molecular simulations to investigate interactions between lipid membranes, nanoparticles, and membrane proteins. Gonzalo is developing specialized algorithms to efficiently analyze and visualize complex molecular simulation data.