New Leadership at SEAS: David Parkes Named Dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences. [Read more]

2008

 

Adenike Adewuyi is originally from Nigeria and is a rising senior at Harvard concentrating in biomedical engineering. Because of her desire to impact the medical field, learn about God's most prized creation-the human body and serve others while doing it, she plans to pursue an MD and Ph.D. in the biomedical engineering field after graduating and become a physician-scientist.

Project: Motor skill learning

Mentors: Prof. Maurice Smith, Gary Sing 

Funding: HCRP, Materials for BRIDGE

 

Paul Aliotta currently attends Eastern Nazarene College where he is a physics major with minors in math and philosophy. He enjoys performing music and is a part-time radio DJ. 

Project: Superconducting-insulator transition in aluminum nanowires

Mentors: Prof. John Free, Prof. Robert Westervelt 

Funding: NSEC

  Monica Allen is a rising senior concentrating in physics and will be working with Prof. Amir Yacoby this summer. 

Project: The Raman Spectroscopy of Monolayer and Multilayer Graphene

Mentors: Prof. Amir Yacoby 

Funding: NSEC, Physics Department

 

Abraham Alvarez is a rising Senior at Harvard University majoring in Biomedical Engineering and minoring in Neurobiology. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, long walks on the beach, stargazing and salsa dancing. 

Project: Nanoenabler microfabrication studies

Mentors: Prof. Don Ingber, Dr. Kaustabh Ghosh, Dan Huh 

Funding: SEAS, Faculty Aide

 

Jennifer Caldwell is a rising sophomore at The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She is a southern girl who loves to learn new things and have lots of fun. She is very optimistic, personable, and easy-going, and can't wait to meet all the REU students!

Project: Dscam binding capabilities and structural interactions

Mentors: Prof. Vinothan Manoharan, Jesse Collins

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Alex Capecelatro is a Materials Science & Engineering student at UCLA. Interested in various disciplines of advanced materials research, he has worked at numerous labs on applications including biosensors, fuel cells, structural materials, filtration devices, catalysts, etc. He is interested in entrepreneurial activities and is looking forward to his 2008 summer REU at Harvard. 

Project: Fabrication of simple devices by nanoskiving

Mentors: Prof. George Whitesides, Dr. Benjamin Wiley

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE, Faculty grant

 

Yosune Casana is a rising senior majoring in chemical engineering and a biology student. She grew up in Mexico and moved to New Mexico to attend college. 

Project: Microfluidic virtual array platform for full genome sequencing

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Dr. Adam Abate, Dr. Jeremy Agresti

Funding: PREM

 

Adrian Delancy is a rising junior at Purdue University majoring in Applied Physics with a concentration in Electrical Engineering. He was born and raised in Nassau, Bahamas and enjoys running, swimming, playing basketball and the saxophone. 

Project: Liquid Sheets and Bells Produced by Fluid Flows over Micro-decorated Surfaces

Mentor: Prof. Howard Stone 

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Erin Derbins is a rising senior at Louisiana State University, where she is pursuing a chemical engineering degree. Last year she participated in the REU program at the University of New Mexico working with Droplet-Based Microfluidics. In her spare time, Erin enjoys spending time with friends and family, riding horses, and biking.

Project: Design and fabrication of a microfluidic device to increase the aqueous volume fraction of water-in-oil emulsions for optimization of on-chip biological assays

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Don Aubrecht

Funding: SEAS

 

Garland Deshazer is a rising senior at Emory University majoring in chemistry, with a minor in mathematics. His research interests are up in the air right now, but he may go into pharmaceutical drug research. 

Project: Blood vessels: how to quantify using biomolecular markers

Mentors: Prof. David Mooney, Eduardo Silva 

Funding: MRSEC

 

Christina Elias is a rising sophomore majoring in engineering at The Ohio State University. She enjoys running, intramural sports, reading and exploring new places. 

Project: STM of aldehyde coupling reactions on TIO2

Mentors: Prof. Cynthia Friend, Dr. Lauren Benz, Dr. Jan Haubrich 

Funding: NNIN

 

Jonathan Evans is a rising sophomore at South Carolina State University who is originally from Arkansas. He is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Nuclear Engineering. He likes to play sports, hang out, and chill out with friends. 

Project: Morphology of double emulsions consisting of two immiscible oils and water

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Anderson Shum, Rhutesh Shah, Dr. Daeyeon Lee 

Funding: BASF, BRIDGE

 

Pauline Gassman just finished her sophomore year at the University of Iowa where she majors in biomedical engineering with a pre-medicine focus. She hopes to attend medical school upon graduation in pursuit of a degree in Ophthalmology. She is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and will serve her second term as vice president next fall. She enjoys riding her bike, playing frisbee golf, photography, and spending time with her friends and family. 

Project: Understanding the Neuronal Substrate of Form Vision Rodents

Mentors: Dr. David Cox

Funding: The Rowland Institute

 

Sergio Gonzalez is a rising senior majoring in mechanical engineering at the University of Texas-Pan American. During his spare time, he likes to hang out with friends and bbq. He likes to go fishing. When he needs to relax he'll read a book at a coffee shop.

Project: Building a Magnetic Scanning Gate Microscope Tip
 

Mentors: Prof. Robert Westervelt, Erin Boyd, Halvar Trodahl 

Funding: NNIN

 

Craig Gorin is a rising senior in the Chemistry Concentration at Harvard University. His academic interests lie in the areas of Green Chemistry and Catalysis. Outside of Chemistry, he is on the fencing team and enjoys the outside, good food, and music. 

Project: Oxidation selectivity across Cesium promoted silver surfaces
 

Mentors: Prof. Cynthia Friend, Ling Zhou 

Funding: HCRP, NSEC

 

Kathryn (Katie) Greenberg is a rising senior at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. She is a physics major and mathematics minor. In her free time, she enjoys biking and spending time with friends. After graduating from Mount Holyoke she plans to attend graduate school. 

Project: Stabilization of emulsions using the interfacial formation of gold nanoparticles

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Anderson Shum, Rhutesh Shah, Dr. Daeyeon Lee

Funding: BASF

 

Jonathan Gross is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and currently attends Penn State University as an undergraduate majoring in aerospace engineering. 

Project: Design optimization and body force modulation for a flying robotic insect
 

Mentors: Prof. Rob Wood, Michael Karpelson, Ben Finio, Peter Whitney 

Funding: SEAS

 

Josue (Josh) Guerra is from Miami, FL and resided there most of his life, but he also lived in the Boston area during middle school. He's a Harvard College sophomore majoring in Chemistry and Physics with a minor in political science. His favorite activities include hiking, skiing, diving, and occasionally video games. 

Project: An in vitro Model for Traumatic Brain Injury
 

Mentors: Prof. Kit Kevin Parker, Dr. Pat Alford

Funding: MRSEC, HCRP

 

Dan Harburg is a Middlebury and Dartmouth dual-degree student studying Physics and Mechanical Engineering. He is entering his 5th and final year of the program in the fall. After graduation, Dan plans to work for a start-up company in California developing sources of alternative energy. When he's not in the lab, Dan enjoys surfing, skateboarding, biking, and jazz music. 

Project: Aerogels for stabilizing and supporting fuel cells

Mentors: Prof. Shriram Ramanathan, Alex Johnson

Funding: NSEC

 

Ashley Howard is a rising sophomore at Florida A & M University majoring in Biology Pre-Med. After her undergraduate, she plans on going to Harvard or Howard University for Medical School to become a Cardio-Vascular Surgeon. In her spare time, she likes to shop, surf the internet, and hang out at the beach with friends and family. 

Project: Collective cell dynamics on micropatterned surfaces

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Dr. Tommy Angelini 

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Tristan Hunt is a rising Junior at the University of Notre Dame with a double major in Science Pre-Professional Studies and American Studies. In his free time, he enjoys playing music, playing basketball and wiffle ball, watching movies and doing anything else that involves being outside. 

Project: Role of Stretch-Induced Signaling in Periodontal Ligament Homeostasis

Mentors: Prof. David Mooney, Praveen Arany

Funding: SEAS

 

Jason Kaufman is a rising senior EE major at Yale with a strong interest in physics. He decided to join the dark side over the summer to the horror of his peers. 

Project: Laser Cooling of Atoms using Ultra-Fast Pulses

Mentors: Dr. Andrew Speck

Funding: The Rowland Institute

 

Moureen Kemei is a rising junior at Mount Holyoke College majoring in Physics. She enjoys being outdoors. 

Project: Quantum confinement effects in CdSe observed with scanning tunneling microscopy

Mentors: Prof. Venky Narayanamurti, Dr. Andrew Stollenwerk

Funding: The Rowland Institute

 

Kenneth Lyons, Jr. completed his freshman year at Morehouse College, where he is pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry. After Morehouse, he hopes to earn his Ph.D. When not doing research, studying, singing Bass in the (great) Morehouse College Glee Club, he loves reading science-fiction, taking walks, tinkering, and exploring the city. 

Project: Fluid Dynamics in Three Dimensional Porous Materials

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Dr. Amber Krummel 

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Joanna Ma is finishing her sophomore year at the New York Institute of Technology as a Biomedical Engineering major. She enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee, ballroom dancing, traveling, music, photography, and knitting. 

Project: Highly Mobile Mesoscale Platform for Bio-inspired Swarm Robotics
 

Mentors: Prof. Rob Wood, Michael Karpelson, Peter Whitney, Ben Finio 

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Aaron Magil is a rising Senior at Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Chemistry. In his free time, he enjoys playing ultimate and cello. 

Project: Palladium as a substrate for self-assembled monolayers

Mentors: Prof. Joanna Aizenberg, Dr. Boaz Pokroy

Funding: NSEC

 

Emily Margolis is a rising junior in the physics department at Princeton University. She is also minoring in Engineering Physics and German. Emily loves swing dancing, old musicals, and napping in hammocks.

Project: Study of grain boundaries in colloidal crystals by confocal microscopy

Mentors: Prof. Frans Spaepen, Prof. David Weitz, Kate Jensen

Funding: MRSEC

 

Will Martin just finished his freshman year at Middlebury College and plans to major in physics and computer science. He is an avid computer modder and enjoys collecting penguins, playing the oboe, and lengthy board games. He also loves ancient Greek philosophy and PC games. 

Project: Portable immunoassay based diagnostic tool with electrical readout

Mentors: Prof. Robert Westervelt, Keith Brown

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Kathleen (Katie) Martinick currently studies chemical engineering at the University of New Mexico.  In 2006-2007, she studied in Heidelberg, Germany as an exchange student.  In her free time, she enjoys staying active outdoors. 

Project: Fabrication & Characterization of Nanoscale Light Sources

Mentors: Prof. Marko Loncar, Dr. Murray McCutcheon

Funding: NNIN

 

Monica Mascarenas just completed her sophomore year in biology and chemistry at the University of New Mexico. She enjoys performing research and plans on attending graduate school with an emphasis on molecular biology. In her spare time, she loves to swim, check out local shows, watch movies, and longboard! 

Project: Paper-based microfluidic devices as an inexpensive platform for biological assays

Mentors: Prof. George Whitesides, Andres Martinez, Katherine Mirica 

Funding: PREM Abstract

 

Jelyn Moore will be a sophomore at Hampton University this fall. She is majoring in physics and will minor in mathematics. Her hobbies are playing volleyball, watching anime, reading and sleeping!! 

Project: Time-resolving the self-assembly of  the CCMV protein capsids using the spectroscopic of Au nanoparticles
 

Mentors: Prof. Vinothan Manoharan, Dina Aronzon

Funding: NIRT

 

Alexander (Peyton) Nesmith has just completed his sophomore year in chemical engineering at Auburn University. He is the ultimate sports fan but particularly a fan of Auburn athletics and the Atlanta Braves. He also enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, playing sports, and running. 

Project: Design and validation of a new method of engineering anisotropic cell monolayers

Mentors: Prof. Kit Kevin Parker, Dr. Crystal Ripplinger

Funding: MRSEC

 

Bryan O'Gorman is a rising junior at Harvard concentrating in Physics and Math. 

Project: Developing Algorithms for the Boolean Satisfiability Problem

Mentors: Prof. Alan Aspuru-Guzik, Alejandro Perdomo 

Funding: Harvard College
 

  Jorge Pozo just got out of the army and is an army veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan and conducted a special ops mission. He's now a senior at Northeastern University in Biochemistry. He loves playing all kinds of sports. He enjoys hanging out and meeting new people. 

Project: Traumatic Brain Injury

Mentors: Prof. Kit Kevin Parker, Dr. Pat Alford 

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Danielle Raad is a rising junior majoring in materials chemistry at Brown University. She is particularly interested in the biological applications of nanomaterials.

Project: Reversibly Adhesive Fluidic Devices

Mentors: Prof. Debra Auguste, Marjan Rafat

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Daniel Reeves is a rising junior majoring in physics at Colby College. His biography starts in Toronto Canada where he was born. He still visits Canada a lot because he has relatives in Montreal. He lives with his parents and brother near Princeton NJ and played sports most of his childhood. He loves music and played the piano when he was young, then moved on to trumpet, then guitar which he plays often, every day at least. At Colby, he's been taking math and physics classes, as well as sprinklings of philosophy, music, and some literature. He rock climbs and snowboards a lot and he just went to Las Vegas to climb in Red Rock Canyon over spring break. 

Project: Annealing silicon nanoparticles to increase T1 for use in medical resonance imaging

Mentors: Prof. Charles Marcus, Maja Cassidy

Funding: NNIN

 

Victoria Reeves was born in Fort Walton Beach, Florida in August 1989. She has lived in Japan, Texas, Korea, and just finished her freshman year at Benedict College in Columbia, SC, majoring in Chemistry, with a concentration in Radiochemistry. Her hobbies include Air Force ROTC, basketball, drawing, exercising, eating with friends, hours of Law and Order and CSI, and course SCIENCE!!! 

Project: Probing the microscopic origins of strain stiffening in biopolymer gels

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Louise Jawerth

Funding: NNIN

 

Lori Sandberg will be a junior at the University of Wyoming. She is majoring in Mechanical Engineering. She enjoys reading, running, crocheting, and hanging out with friends. 

Project: Local microwave heating in microfluidic devices

Mentors: Prof. Robert Westervelt, David Issadore

Funding: NSEC

 

Yah Laetitia Sangne is a rising junior majoring in biomedical engineering at Western New England College. She is originally from the Ivory Coast. She enjoys learning about new things (cultures, places). 

Project: Imbibition in customized systems of packed beads
 

Mentors: Prof. Howard Stone, Dr. Mathilde Reyssat

Funding: NSEC

 

Maya Sen is a rising senior at Columbia University, where she is majoring in Applied Mathematics. 

Project: Double emulsions generated by microcapillary devices form liposomes of unique morphology and permeability

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Anderson Shum, Rhutesh Shah, Dr. Daeyeon Lee

Funding: Faculty grant

 

Anna Shneidman is a rising senior at Harvard University, where she studies chemistry and physics. She enjoys traveling, dancing, reading, hiking, and being with friends. This summer, she will be gaining insights into the relationship between particle kinetics and bulk behavior of glass-forming materials. 

Project: Probing colloidal glasses with confocal microscopy

Mentors: Prof. David Weitz, Dr. Mike Massa

Funding: Herschel Smith Fellowship, MRSEC

 

Laura Sofen is a rising junior chemistry major at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. She runs cross country and track, as well as enjoying other outdoor activities, reading, and playing the French horn.

Project: Synthesis and photophysical evaluation of a novel fluorescent reporter dye

Dr. Jim Foley

Funding: The Rowland Institute

 

Patrick Stollenwerk is a rising sophomore at Ohio State University majoring in Math and Physics. He is interested in space travel and the physics of the small. He also likes hanging out with friends and playing or watching any sport. 

Project: Scanning Tunneling Luminescence on CdSe Quantum dots
 

Prof. Venky Narayanamurti
Marissa Olson Hummon

Funding: NSEC

 

Terence Verla is a junior at Duke University, reading Biomedical Engineering with a strong passion for human mechanistic actions. The functioning of the human body triggers a sense of curiosity in him. He loves soccer, basketball, and tennis. He enjoys watching movies and taking a walk. He loves conversations because it gives him a chance to get to know and learn from others. 

Project: Modeling the evolution of genetic networks as Boolean networks

Prof. Don Ingber
Dr. Amy Brock 

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Anthony Vicari is a Chemistry and Physics major at Harvard University. He comes from Huntington, NY. He enjoys aikido, Kempo, fencing, and cooking. 

Project: Fabrication of Bragg gratings using subwavelength-diameter silica nanowires on a silica aerogel substrate

Prof. Eric Mazur
Jason Dowd

Funding: HCRP, NSEC

 

Cavanaugh Welch is finishing his freshman year at Morehouse College as an Applied Physics and Aerospace Engineering major with a Mathematics minor. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia where he enjoys rap music, sports of all kind, and exploring new things and places. 

Project: Deconvolution of 3-D fluorescence microscopy images

Prof. Eric Mazur
Chris Evans

Funding: Materials for BRIDGE

 

Theo Wilson is a rising sophomore at Harvard University concentrating in Neurobiology 

Project: Cell-cell inhibition of sprouts in angiogenesis
 

Prof. David Mooney
Will Yuen

Funding: HCRP, SEAS

 

Yunlai (Jerry) Zha is a rising junior biophysics major at Brandeis University. He cooks real Chinese food, loves sports and enjoys talking about economics and politics. 

Project: New techniques in single-molecule force studies

Dr. Wesley Wong

Funding: The Rowland Institute