Current Members
Samantha (Sam) I. Johnson
Principal Investigator | she/her
​Prof. Samantha Johnson is an assistant professor in the department of Chemistry at Colorado School of Mines. She completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2007. After this, she received her Ph.D. in Materials Science from the California Institute of Technology and did her postdoctoral research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Before joining CSM, she worked as a staff scientist for five years at PNNL. During her career, Samantha mentored 13 postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students. She was recently the recipient of the 2024 Division of Inorganic Chemistry (DIC) Award for Undergraduate Research for her mentorship of an undergraduate student working in the field of computational chemistry. In addition, Samantha has also received the Department of Energy Team Science Award (2019) and multiple Outstanding Performance Awards at PNNL (2018-2023). Her work focuses on computational modeling of reactivity in complex environments, particularly for microdroplets, battery electrolytes, and catalytic materials. When not in the lab, Sam plays ultimate frisbee, cycles, sews, and enjoys spending time with her friends, family, and two cats.
Swarup Banerjee
Postdoctoral Researcher | he/him
Swarup grew up in Asansol, a small city in West Bengal, India. He earned his Master’s degree (2014–2017) and Ph.D. (2017–2022) in Computational Chemistry from IISER Kolkata. His doctoral thesis was titled " Heterogeneity in Ionic Liquids and Deep Eutectic Solvents: A Molecular Dynamics Simulation Approach."
After completing his Ph.D., Swarup joined the University of Utah as a postdoctoral researcher under Prof. Aurora Clark (2022–2024). During this time, he applied graph theory in reverse micelles for elucidating the separation chemistry of lanthanide elements. In 2024, he joined Dr. Samantha Johnson’s group at the Colorado School of Mines, where he is currently working on microdroplet chemistry.
When he’s not immersed in research, you’ll probably find him watching movies—he’s a huge cinephile—or sharpening his skills as a professional quizzer.
Makenzie Denman
Graduate Student | she/her
Makenzie grew up in the small town of Etna in the far north of California. She attended Pacific University Oregon where she received her B.S. in chemistry with a minor in dance, graduating summa cum laude. At Pacific she conducted research in organic synthesis. She is pursuing a PhD with the hopes of becoming a professor. Her interests outside of chemistry include fashion, coffee, reading, dancing, and learning how to figure skate.
Gizmo and Merlin
Lab Cats | Menace and Good Boy, respectively
Gizmo and Merlin are Sam's two cats. They are both adorable, but have wildly different personalities. Merlin always uses the scratching post and Gizmo will steal your dairy products.
