Nate Bennett

Biochemistry
Nate Bennett
Biochemistry

As a graduate student in David Baker’s lab at the Institute for Protein Design, Nate developed deep learning models for the design of protein binders. Specifically, Nate developed a pipeline for the design of protein binders which uses RF Diffusion, ProteinMPNN, and AlphaFold2 to design protein binders and is easier to use, faster, and more accurate than the previous pipeline. Nate plans to wrap up a few projects as a postdoc in the Baker Lab but eventually plans to cofound a startup working on the computational design of drugs.

Nick Cardozo

Computer Science and Engineering
Nick Cardozo
Computer Science and Engineering

As a graduate student in the Molecular Information Systems Laboratory led by Luis Ceze, Nicolas developed new methods to advance single-molecule proteomics using Nanopore sequencing technology. This research will help enable the sequencing of synthetic and native proteins/peptides in a high-throughput manner. Nick is now a scientist at Insitro, a biotech company based in San Francisco.

Nathan Chan

Bioengineering
Nathan Chan
Bioengineering

As a graduate student in the lab of bioengineering professor James Bryers, and in collaboration with the Mulligan/Hwang lab in the Department of Surgery, Nathan is investigating the role of monocytes and macrophages in porous scaffolds to understand wound healing and the factors that regulate the outcome of implanted biomaterials. Nathan previously worked in industry at Stemcell Technologies on nanoparticle development and researched at the Michael Smith Laboratories on cellular therapies and aptamer selection. He holds a BASc in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Will Chen

Genome Sciences
Will Chen
Genome Sciences

As a graduate student in the lab of genomics professor Jay Shendure, Will developed tools to better understand development and gene regulation. Using CRISPR/Cas9, he engineered tools that can record biological events in cells, providing researchers a window into molecular events that occurred while the cells were going through development and differentiation. He also developed a computational tool, known as Lindel, to accurately predict the genome editing outcomes of CRISPR/Cas9. He holds a B.S in Biological Science from Shandong University, China and a M.S in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University.

Shin Ya (Emerson) Chen

Chemical Engineering
Shin Ya (Emerson) Chen
Chemical Engineering

Under the guidance of Chemistry Professor David Ginger and Materials Science & Engineering Professor Christine Luscombe, Emerson is studying interactions between solvated conjugated polymers, ions, and electrons in order to effectively engineer a polymer with better ion and electron transport. These polymers, known as Organic Mixed Ionic Electronic Conductors (OMIECs), have potential applications in energy storage, biosensors, and neuromorphic computing. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University.

Rene Cheng

Seattle Children's Research Institute
Rene Cheng
Seattle Children's Research Institute

As a graduate student in Richard James’s lab at the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at Seattle Children's Research Institute, Rene studies how to experimentally reprogram human B cells to long-lived antibody secretion cells by developing a mathematical model of cell differentiation. This research will help design new protein deficiency therapies as a life-long treatment and antibody vaccine. Rene holds a B.S. in Clinical Laboratory Science and Medical Biotechnology from National Taiwan University.

Theodore Cohen

ChemistryMaterials Science and Engineering
Theodore Cohen
ChemistryMaterials Science and Engineering

Ted worked under Professors Daniel Gamelin, Christine Luscombe, and Devin MacKenzie. He leveraged the expertise of his three advisers to produce a broad array of research investigating perovskite nanocrystals for luminescent solar concentrators, polymer composites, and additive manufacturing. While there, he earned a UW Clean Energy Institute Fellowship and participated in the Torrance Technology Due Diligence Fellowship Program, where he provided technical assessments of early stage companies for clean energy investors at E8 Angels. Ted is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the MacKenzie lab, where he is developing methods of scalable quantum optical device manufacturing.

Brian Coventry

Biochemistry
Brian Coventry
Biochemistry

As a graduate student in the lab of biochemistry professor David Baker at the Institute for Protein Design, Brian studied the forces underlying protein folding and protein interface formation. More specifically, he designed mini-protein binders to natural targets and tested more than 100,000 proteins at the same time. After completing his Ph.D. in 2021, Brian is continuing to work in the Baker Lab as a research scientist.

Fatima Davila

Biochemistry
Fatima Davila
Biochemistry

As a graduate student in David Baker's lab at the Institute for Protein Design, Fatima is working on designing scaffolds and protein interfaces to interact with iron oxide surfaces. She hopes to engineer new ways of directing inorganic synthesis of materials by understanding these molecular recognition problems. She is also interested in engineering biomaterials with properties spanning to the meso scale. She holds a B.S. in Biotechnology Engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico.

Justin Davis portrait

Justin Davis

Mechanical Engineering
Justin Davis
Mechanical Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of mechanical engineering professor Igor Novosselov, Justin analyzed the formation and evolution of particulate nanostructures generated by combustion. These particulates are a major component of air pollution with known health risks and adverse environmental impacts. He found that young, amorphous particles show more of an increased toxicological response than structured, mature particles. Further understanding of this complex process will help build a cleaner and healthier society. While at UW, Justin participated in the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge, which invites entrepreneurial students to showcase their problem-solving ideas. His team Apollo was selected as one of the 2019 finalists for their project to develop a low-cost electrode optimized for next-generation solar cells. Since completing his Ph.D. in 2019, Justin began working in the private sector as a junior data engineer.

man holds camera

Jason Fontana

Chemical EngineeringChemistry
Jason Fontana
Chemical EngineeringChemistry

As a graduate student in the labs of James Carothers and Jesse Zalatan, Jason developed CRISPR-Cas tools that facilitate genetic engineering in bacteria to optimize biosynthesis of valuable products. He also served as a general board member of the Student and Post-Doc Association (SPA) of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium, a public-private partnership that focuses on advancing engineering biology to address national and global needs. After completing his Ph.D. in 2020, Jason stayed on as a postdoc in the Carothers lab, focusing on advancing technologies developed during his graduate work. Recently, Jason co-founded a startup company with MolE graduate and fellow Carothers lab member David Sparkman-Yager.

Julian Freedland

Physiology and Biophysics
Julian Freedland
Physiology and Biophysics

Julian is a graduate student in the lab of physiology and biophysics professor Fred Rieke investigating how natural scenes are encoded by the retina. His work has applications in prosthetics, computer vision, and cortical neuroscience. He holds a B.S in Nanoscale Science and Mathematics from SUNY Albany. Post graduation Julian will be starting a postdoc position at a pharmaceutical company, Novartis.

Jiajie Guo

Chemistry
Jiajie Guo
Chemistry
Yanjiao Han portrait

Yanjiao Han

Chemical Engineering
Yanjiao Han
Chemical Engineering

As a graduate student in Shaoyi Jiang's lab in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Yanjiao studied the application of zwitterionic polymers in cell culture and regulation of synthetic biology. Since graduating in 2020, she moved to Boston to pursue employment in the private sector.

Steven Hsu

Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition
Steven Hsu
Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition

Steven is interested in understanding why people with diabetes have a higher risk of having heart attacks than those without. Under the mentorship of Dr. Karin Bornfeldt in the Department of Medicine, he is studying the role of inflammatory macrophage cell death on the development of advanced plaques (atherosclerosis lesion) concomitant with diabetes. This research will provide novel mechanistic insights into the culprit for accelerating the buildup of plaques under diabetic conditions and provide new ways to prevent heart attacks in people with diabetes in the future. Steven holds a B.S. in Bioengineering: Nanoscience & Molecular Engineering from the University of Washington.

Hang Hu

Chemistry
Hang Hu
Chemistry

As a graduate student in the lab of Prof Xiaosong Li at Chemistry department,  Hang worked on developing novel relativistic multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) methods and the corresponding high-performance distributed softwares. The code he developed is able to handle MRCI problems with billions of determinants on a few workstations. He also applies those methods to solve problems such as resolving X-Ray absorption spectra of transition metal complexes and studying non-radiative decay pathways of highly energized matter.  In addition, Hang was a trainee of the Clean Energy Institute DIRECT data science program during the 2018 ~ 2019 academic year and he completed the MolES Data Science Option. After graduating in 2023, Hang began his career as a software engineer at Google and works on developing performant networking solutions for high-performance computing and machine learning workloads.

Dion Hubble portrait

Dion Hubble

Materials Science and Engineering
Dion Hubble
Materials Science and Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of materials science and engineering professor Alex Jen, Dion worked on designing and testing new types of electrolyte materials for lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. This type of battery could potentially be made twice as light as a lithium-ion cell, using cheap, earth-abundant materials; however, Li-S batteries are not currently commercially viable because they tend to die after only a few recharge cycles. This work could lead to better batteries for electric vehicles, as well as other applications where low weight is critical. While at UW, Dion was a graduate fellow at the Clean Energy Institute. After completing his Ph.D. in 2019, Dion joined Gao Liu's Applied Energy Materials group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a postdoctoral scholar. The group focuses on synthesis and processing of energy materials, including energy storage materials, solar energy materials, high performance materials and prototype development based on modern computational, synthesis and processing methods.

Yeon Mi Hwang

Institute for Systems Biology
Yeon Mi Hwang
Institute for Systems Biology

Yeon is a graduate student in the lab of Drs. Jennifer Hadlock and Lee Hood at the Institute for Systems Biology. She is investigating adverse maternal outcomes by integrating multi-omics and electronic health record (EHR) data. More specifically she is characterizing the association between the continuation of antidepressant use during pregnancy and the risk of preterm birth using Providence EHR data. She was awarded the 2018 College of Engineering Dean’s Fellowship. She has a B.S. in Genetics and Plant Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ty Jorgenson in the lab pipetting

Tyler Jorgenson

Chemical EngineeringMaterials Science and Engineering
Tyler Jorgenson
Chemical EngineeringMaterials Science and Engineering

As a graduate student in the labs of Professors Rene Overney and Mehmet Sarikaya, Tyler studied the fundamental molecular interactions between protein-like molecules and atomically thin inorganic materials to enable future technologies such as medical diagnostics. More specifically, he utilized scanning probe microscopy techniques to understand the self-assembly process and energetics of genetically engineered solid-binding peptides on single layer atomic materials. Since completing his Ph.D. in 2020, Tyler joined Professor Stuart Rowan’s lab at the University of Chicago’s Molecular Engineering department as a postdoctoral scholar. Tyler is working on developing peptide/polymer materials with mechanoresponsive properties.

Cholpisit (Ice) Kiattisewee

Chemical EngineeringChemistry
Cholpisit (Ice) Kiattisewee
Chemical EngineeringChemistry

As a graduate student in the labs of chemical engineering professor James Carothers and chemistry professor Jesse Zalatan, Ice is developing CRISPR-based transcriptional activation methods in multiple bacteria to apply in industrial biotechnological applications. He previously worked as a researcher at Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC) in Thailand developing biocatalytic systems for chemical synthesis from food/agricultural wastes. Ice holds a B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from Mahidol University, Thailand.

Daniel Lachance

Gastroenterology
Daniel Lachance
Gastroenterology

Daniel is a graduate student in the lab of Neelendu Dey, a professor in the division of gastroenterology in the School of Medicine. He is interested in relationships between the gut microbiome and colorectal cancer. His research focuses on how interspecific interactions influence the production of carcinogenic bacterial metabolites. He holds a B.S. in Biochemistry/Biophysics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY).

Kacper Lachowski

Chemical Engineering
Kacper Lachowski
Chemical Engineering

Kacper carried out research in Professor Lilo Pozzo’s lab in which he applied experiment automation and small-angle scattering techniques to study the self-assembly of a variety of colloidal systems. He is interested in continuing to learn about statistical design of experiments and applying his experiences in process engineering or formulation science positions in the Seattle area.

Dan Lee portrait

Daniel Lee

Bioengineering
Daniel Lee
Bioengineering

As a graduate student in bioengineering professor Suzie Pun’s lab, and previously chemistry professor AJ Boydston's lab (before his lab moved to the University of Wisconsin), Dan developed easily synthesized, biocompatible hydrogels that can conduct electricity. These hydrogels could be used to engineer cardiac or neural tissues among other applications. Dan was selected to present his research at the American Chemical Society's Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Symposium in 2020 and was awarded the 2020 Distinguished Dissertation Award in mathematics, physical sciences and engineering from the UW Graduate School. After graduating in 2020, Dan became a postdoc in Professor Yan Xia’s lab at Stanford.

Phil Leung

Biochemistry
Phil Leung
Biochemistry

As a graduate student in David Baker's lab at the Institute for Protein Design, Phil is trying to make proteins that have two defined structural states. His current approach uses helical bundles. He hopes to use these proteins as bistable switches for the applications of information storage, biological programming, and nanomachinery. He was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2018. Phil holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and Genetics from the University of Minnesota.

Jinrong Ma portrait

Jinrong Ma

Chemical Engineering
Jinrong Ma
Chemical Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Baneyx in the department of chemical engineering, Jinrong developed hierarchical hybrid architectures comprising peptoids, proteins, and inorganics. Using sequence-defined peptoids as scaffolding blocks and solid-binding proteins as functional blocks, Jinrong we synthesized a variety of hybrid hierarchical nanostructures that take advantage of the excellent programmability of peptoids, and of the ability of structurally organized solid-binding proteins to control the binding, nucleation, and growth of various inorganic components. Jinrong graduated in 2022 and he is now a senior associate scientist in 23andMe working on the development of novel therapeutic antibodies. In addition to a PhD in MolES, Jinrong holds a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong University and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington.

Sanaa Mansoor

Biochemistry
Sanaa Mansoor
Biochemistry

As a graduate student in David Baker's lab at the Institute for Protein Design, Sanaa is using deep learning (specifically generative models) for protein structure refinement and design. She holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Computer Science from Mount Holyoke College.

Sinduja Marx

Sinduja Marx

BiochemistryPhysics
Sinduja Marx
BiochemistryPhysics

As a doctoral student in the laboratories of David Baker in Biochemistry and Jens Gundlach in Physics, Sinduja studied synthetic biological channels for nanopore DNA sequencing and molecular diagnostics. Using de novo protein design principles, she generated diverse channel geometries and studied their ability to form pores within membranes. She also investigated the use of nanopores to study the SARS Cov-2 helicase. Sinduja is currently wrapping up projects and papers for her two labs.

Adam Moyer

Biochemistry
Adam Moyer
Biochemistry

As a graduate student in David Baker's lab at the Institute for Protein Design, Adam expanded the residue repertoire for computational molecular design beyond the canonical 20 amino acids found in biology. Specifically, he designed new secondary structures composed of non-canonical residues with the hope that they will be broadly useful for diverse and robust molecular design. Adam completed his Ph.D. in 2021 and for now remains at IPD as a post doc.

Phuc (Sam) Nguyen

Bioengineering
Phuc (Sam) Nguyen
Bioengineering

Sam was a graduate student in the lab of bioengineering professor Hao Yuan Kueh where he studied the control processes underlying T-cell development. These fundamental mechanisms could be used in the future to engineer immune cells to fight against various types of cancer. He also built artificial intelligent systems that extract insights from movies of live cell interaction to advance the field of image analysis. Sam is currently pursuing a postdoc in California.

Ian Nova portrait

Ian Nova

Physics
Ian Nova
Physics

As a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Jens Gundlach, Ian developed a technology, based on the principal of nanopore DNA sequencing, to watch individual proteins process DNA in real-time. These proteins, essentially molecular-scale machines, move along DNA and replicate or repair it, but their movements are too small and fast to observe with imaging technologies. The technique Ian developed can detect individual protein steps (nanometer scale) on millisecond time-scales, allowing visualization of never observed behavior. Since graduating in 2020, Ian is wrapping up projects in the Gundlach lab while pursuing a career in the world of academic editing/science writing.

Tatum Prosswimmer

Bioengineering
Tatum Prosswimmer
Bioengineering

As a graduate student in bioengineering professor Valerie Daggett’s lab, Tatum is studying self-aggregating proteins known as amyloids. Amyloid proteins are a hallmark of disease in mammalian systems, but are also used by bacteria as part of an extracellular scaffold known as a biofilm. She is targeting functional bacterial amyloid in biofilms by engineering peptides that interfere with amyloid aggregation. By preventing continued aggregation of alpha sheet oligomers through specific binding to alpha sheet peptides, bacterial biofilms cannot form efficiently, effectively increasing their susceptibility to common antibiotics. Tatum received the 2018 College of Engineering Dean’s Fellowship. She holds a B.S. in Bioengineering and a minor in Chemistry from Santa Clara University.

Jiaxu Qin

Materials Science and Engineering
Jiaxu Qin
Materials Science and Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of materials science and engineering professor Alex Jen, Jiaxu worked on designing multi-functional binders for lithium-sulfur batteries based on molecular interactions. Different strategies are proposed to solve the cracks issue and lithium polysulfide dissolution issue in sulfur cathode to achieve high-loading, long-cycle-life sulfur cathode. Jiaxu was a 2017 Clean Energy Institute DIRECT data science trainee. In addition, Jiaxu completed the MolE Data Science Option. Since completing his Ph.D. in 2022, Jiaxu began working in the private sector as a software engineer to design data platforms.

Dylan Shea portrait

Dylan Shea

Bioengineering
Dylan Shea
Bioengineering

As a graduate student in Valerie Daggett’s lab, Dylan studied the molecular events that occur in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease. He focused on the structural transitions of proteins associated with the Alzheimer’s brain to inform the development of diagnostic tests and therapeutics. After graduating in 2020, Dylan began working as a Principal Scientist at AltPep, a Daggett lab spinout that is developing early diagnostics, modifying therapeutics and anti-biofilm treatments for amyloid diseases.

Hao Shen portrait

Hao Shen

Biochemistry
Hao Shen
Biochemistry

In 2019, Hao became the first student to graduate from our program. As a graduate student in the Baker lab, Hao designed protein-based building blocks that can self-assemble into protein filaments. His work was published in the journal Science and will potentially allow researchers to create entirely new materials not found in nature. He continues to study the emerging field of designed, self-assembling materials in the Baker lab as a postdoc.

David Sparkman-Yager

Chemical Engineering
David Sparkman-Yager
Chemical Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of chemical engineering professor James Carothers, David developed a new class of engineered RNA biosensors with increased activation ratios and tunable ligand sensitivities, both of which are essential for applying biosensors to real-world problems. David recently co-founded a startup company with MolE graduate and fellow Carothers lab alum Jason Fontana.

Huiyun Sun

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Huiyun Sun
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

As a graduate student in the lab of Dr. John K. Lee at the Fred Hutch Research Institute, Huiyun is developing pipelines to deconvolute diverse population of cells marked by combinations of lentiviral barcodes using next-generation sequencing technologies. She is interested in using computational methods to solve biological problems. Her Master’s research focused on analyzing gene expression downstream of TP53 under different genetic contexts in malignant melanoma cells. Huiyun graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Nanjing University and a M.S. in Biology with a concentration in Microbial and Cellular Biology from Emporia State University.

Runbang Tang

Bioengineering
Runbang Tang
Bioengineering

As a graduate student in the lab of bioengineering professor Buddy Ratner, Runbang developed molecularly imprinted polymers and membranes that are able to specifically remove uremic toxins with enough capacities for portable kidney dialysate devices. He holds a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology (China) and an M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell.

Hao Tang

Materials Science and Engineering
Hao Tang
Materials Science and Engineering

Hao is a Ph.D. student in the lab of materials science & engineering professor Bruce Hinds, where he is developing photocatalytic materials that facilitate more efficient chemical reactions for use in solar cells and other photovoltaic devices as well as biomedical devices. He is part of a collaboration with UW Medicine’s Center for Dialysis Innovation (CDI), which seeks to improve the health and well-being of people with advanced kidney disease initiating and receiving dialysis treatment. Hao holds a M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) from the University of Washington and a B.S. in MSE from Georgia Tech.

Ben Tickman

BioengineeringChemical Engineering
Ben Tickman
BioengineeringChemical Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of chemical engineering professor James Carothers, Ben dissected the rules governing development of CRISPRai gene regulatory networks in cellular and cell free systems to enable scalable transcriptional control in a prokaryotic setting. Ben is now the Lead Applications Engineer at Wayfinder Biosciences, a startup co-founded by fellow molecular engineering alumni.

Ivan Vulvonic portrait

Ivan Vulovic

Biochemistry
Ivan Vulovic
Biochemistry

As a graduate student in David Baker’s lab at the Institute for Protein Design, Ivan Vulovic developed new computational methods and strategies to design protein assemblies that address modern challenges. This work has already been applied successfully to develop several new types of protein nanocages. One of the leading use cases involves integration of viral antigens into these designed protein nanoparticles, a concept which may soon yield a general-purpose and modular vaccine platform. Unlike existing vaccine technologies, designed nanoparticle platforms may be rapidly re-engineered to confront novel biological threats through modular replacement of their surface proteins. The high thermal stability of de-novo proteins also reduces cold-chain requirements – a significant burden in developing nations. Ivan graduated in 2020 and is now an independent software developer in the protein design field.

Ruihong Wang

BioengineeringGenome Sciences
Ruihong Wang
BioengineeringGenome Sciences

Ruihong “Redd” Wang was co-advised by bioengineering professor Michael Jensen and genome sciences professor John Stamatoyannopoulos. Redd developed a new platform for high-throughput functional genotyping of regulatory elements at the single cell level. He is currently a research scientist at the Altius Institute for Biomedical Sciences.

Grant Williamson portrait

Grant Williamson

Chemical Engineering
Grant Williamson
Chemical Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of chemical engineering professor Vince Holmberg, Grant worked on developing new materials for high-capacity lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries that can charge faster and last longer. His research focused on characterizing battery materials made of antimony, which can charge from empty to full in three minutes and store roughly double the energy of current battery materials. While at UW, Grant received an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, was named to the Husky 100 and served in the Graduate & Professional Student Senate. Grant graduated in 2019 and is now a product engineer at ABV Technology, a small startup in St Paul, Minnesota that has developed a way to transform alcoholic beverages into non-alcoholic beverages without altering their intended flavor and taste.

Steven Wu

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Steven Wu
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

As a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Steven Henikoff at the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, Steven developed high throughput methods to profile DNA-binding proteins in single-cells and identify various cellular subtypes. His work was part of a large-scale effort, known as the Human Cell Atlas, to build a comprehensive map of all the cell types in the human body to better understand human health and improve disease diagnosis and treatment. Steven joined the San Francisco based biotechnology company Freenome as a Research and Development Computational Biologist where he will be working on epigenetic modeling.

Xiaojing Xia portrait

Xiaojing Xia

Materials Science and Engineering
Xiaojing Xia
Materials Science and Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of Materials Science and Engineering professor Peter Pauzauskie, Xiaojing studied lanthanide-doped fluoride and semiconductor materials for solid-state laser cooling. More specifically, she developed new laser cooling nanoparticles and designed a self-cooling high-power fiber laser using these materials. After completing her Ph.D. in 2022, Xiaojing joined Dr. Emory Chan’s team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a postdoc scholar. Xiaojing’s current research interest is experiment automation. She is working on AI-accelerated high-throughput synthesis and characterization of upconverting nanoparticles.

Michael Xie portrait

Michael Xie

Pacific Northwest Research Institute
Michael Xie
Pacific Northwest Research Institute

In Dr. Aimee Dudley's research group at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute, Michael uses yeast as a model organism to develop new technologies and high throughput methods to study complex genotype-phenotype relationships. Previously, Michael worked on drug discovery for Cryptococcus neoformans infections in the Farnoud research group at Ohio University, thermoplastic processing as a material science co-op at ContiTech's research and development department (Akron, Ohio), and protein engineering for enzyme immobilization in the Blenner research group at Clemson University as part of an NSF-REU. Michael holds a B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Liwen Xing

Materials Science and Engineering
Liwen Xing
Materials Science and Engineering

As a graduate student in the lab of materials science & engineering professor Christine Luscombe, Liwen developed a new and greener method to synthesize materials for organic photovoltaics (OPVs). OPVs have drawn lots of attention due to their flexibility, light weight, high charge mobility, and solvent processability. She developed a synthetic method called cross dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) polymerization, which can eliminate the pre-functionalization steps of monomers, thus lowering the cost of the resultant OPV materials and minimizing the generation of hazardous chemical wastes. She was named a 2020 Clean Energy Institute Graduate Fellow. She holds a B.S. in Polymer Materials and Engineering from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (China) and a M.S. in Polymer Science from the University of Akron.

Yao Yan

Sage Bionetworks
Yao Yan
Sage Bionetworks

As a graduate student in the lab of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education professor Sean Mooney, Yao studied clinical data sharing, synthetic data generation, and machine learning model evaluation. After completing her Ph.D. in 2022, Yao joined Amazon as an Applied Scientist.

Eric Yang

Biology
Eric Yang
Biology

As a graduate student in the lab of Jennifer Nemhauser in the UW Biology department, Eric characterized new constitutive promoters in plants and converted them into repressible logic NOR gates. Eric also studied relationships between promoter expression pattern and core promoter architecture through bioinformatics analysis. These works contributed to the growing field of plant synthetic biology. Eric holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. 

Mangying Zhang portrait

Mengying Zhang

Chemical Engineering
Mengying Zhang
Chemical Engineering

As a graduate student in Elizabeth Nance's lab in the department of chemical engineering, Mengying studied how quantum dots – fluorescent nanoparticles capable of capturing the movement of cells – behave in the brain. By characterizing the stability and toxicity of quantum dots in a biological setting, Mengying supported the development of quantum dots as brain-imaging tools and drug delivery carriers that they may be used to detect and treat brain diseases. She served in a variety of roles in Engage, a program at the University of Washington designed to help graduate students build their science communication skills. Mengying graduated in 2020 and is currently a Postdoc with Dr. Viviana Gradinaru at Caltech.