Jose Ayala

Jose Ayala was raised in South Houston, Texas. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with Honors from the University of Houston in Fall 2024, where he also completed his NSM Capstone senior research project. He joined the Daugulis group in Fall 2022 and worked on the design and synthesis of novel ligand systems inspired by α-diimine sandwich complexes, aimed at applications in carbene insertion and polymerization catalysis. Known in the lab for always keeping an impeccably clean and organized fume hood, Jose brought both precision and flair to his bench work. He is now off to ExxonMobil, where he will be doing organometallic synthesis for catalyst development