Emerging Scholars in Engineering Lecture

The intent of the Emerging Scholars in Engineering lecture series is to showcase early career academics from underrepresented groups in engineering, who are nearing completion or who have completed a doctoral degree or postdoc. Visits are organized to simulate the experience of a faculty job interview and culminates with structured feedback. This lectureship serves a crucial professional development role by providing an insider perspective on the faculty hiring process.

Complete this form to nominate speakers for this series. Interested postdocs and others can self-nominate, as well. We will contact nominees for their CV, if not provided, to complete the nomination process.

2022

March 4  - Dr. Neha Patankar, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University 

"Evaluating Technology & Resource Tradeoffs in Decarbonizing the American West"

2021

September 15 - Maria Lopez Cavestany, Ph.D. Candidate, Biomedical Engineering department, Vanderbilt University

"ZnO Nanostructured Surfaces for the Enhanced Formation of Colorectal Cancer Spheroids"

 

September 3 - Brooke E. Mason, Ph.D. Candidate, Civil and Environmental Engineering department, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 

"Autonomous Control of Stormwater Quality"

 

April 19 - Sanaz Habibi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Chemical Engineering department, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 

"Two-Wavelength Volumetric 3D Printing for Rapid Prototyping of Microfluidic Systems"

 

March 31 - Dan Abebayehu, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia

"Inflammatory Thy-1 Negative Fibroblasts are Critical for Pulmonary and Biomaterial-mediated Fibrosis"

 

March 5 - Gabriel Perez, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt University 
"Resonance in Hydrologic Systems: Detecting critical conditions that can exacerbate extreme floods during current and future climate"

2020

November 30 - Kyoko Yoshida, Senior Scientist, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia
"The mechanics behind the miracle of life: Maternal soft tissue growth & remodeling"

November 16 - Nerymar Ortiz Otero, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
"Analysis and Therapeutic Targeting of Circulating Cells in Metastatic Cancer"

October 13 - Shaimaa Azzam, Elings Prize Postdoctoral Fellow, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara
"Bound states in the continuum in photonics: Insights and Applications"

October 9 - Paramita Nath, Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt University
"Additive Manufacturing: "Uncertainty Quantification and Optimization"

September 28 - Bobby Haney, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Boston, MA
“Water and Oil Emulsion Stabilization Using Amphiphilic Janus Micro-Particles"

2019

December 17 - Adrian Ildefonso, Graduate Research Assistant, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
"Single-event Effects in RF Circuits: How Tiny Lightning Strikes Can Wreak Havoc in Space Communications Systems:

April 1 - Caroline Winters, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Appointee, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
“Interrogation of Plasma Discharges in Reacting Molecular and Supersonic Environments via Advanced Spectroscopic and Imaging Diagnostics "

2016

December 6 - Rachel Jackson, Ph.D. candidate, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
“Developing ankle exoskeleton assistance strategies by leveraging knowledge of the mechanisms involved in human locomotion"

November 14 - Sossena Wood, Ph.D. candidate, Biomedical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
“RF Developments to Identify Human Diseases in 7T Human MRI”

October 11 - Marjan Rafat, Ph.D., postdoctoral scholar, Bioengineering, Stanford University
"CD8+ T Cells Inhibit Tumor Cell Migration to Irradiated Normal Cells"

September 6 - Jorge Vazquez-Anderson, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
"Insights into RNA design from novel molecular tools"

April 19 - Renita Horton, Ph.D., assistant research professor in the Department of Agriculture and Biological Engineering at Mississippi State University
"Engineering Approaches to Cardiovascular Diseases: Matters of the Heart"

February 29 - Catherine Whittington, Ph.D., a postdoctoral scientist in oncology research at Eli Lilly and Company
“3D In Vitro Models of Tissue Morphogenesis and Disease”