Alexa Gormley, Animal Science, “The use of pre-, pro-, and postbiotics to improve intestinal health and growth of nursery pigs through positive influences on the mucosal microbiota and mucosal immune responses,” July 23, 2026, 9:00 a.m., Polk 125. Major Professor: Dr. Sung Woo Kim.

Jessie Maier, Microbiology, “Exploring the Transductome – Methods, Tools, and Analyses to Investigate the Bacterial DNA Carried by Virus Like Particles,” July 23, 2026, 10:00 a.m., Thomas Hall 3503. Major Professor: Dr. Manuel Kleiner.

Priyanka Pandit, Nuclear Engineering, “A Technology-Inclusive, Risk-Informed, and Performance-Based Approach for Modeling Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems in Nuclear Power Plant Probabilistic Risk Assessment,” July 23, 2026, 3:00 p.m., Duke Energy Conference Room. Major Professor: Dr. Mihai A. Diaconeasa.

Seth Eisenberg, Chemistry, “Development of IR-MALDESI Instrumentation for Enhanced Signal, Analyte Detection, and Data Analysis,” July 24, 2026, 11 a.m., Broughton Hall, Rm. 4231. Major Professor: Dr. David Muddiman.

Rajan Paudel, Plant Pathology, “Genome Assembly and Comparative Genomics of Alternaria Linariae and Septoria Lycopersici and Genome Wide Association Mapping of Southern Stem Blight Resistance: Advancing Disease Management in Organic Tomato Production,” July 24, 2026, 3:00 p.m., VRB Conference Rm. Major Professors: Dr. Tika Adhikari and Dr. Frank Louws.

Leonardo Villalobos-Arias, Computer Science, “Bad Apple: Risk-Aware Reinforcement Learning,” July 27, 2026, 11:30 a.m. Major Professor: Dr. Arnav Jhala.

Tonya Greene, Community College Leadership, “From Industry Expertise to Teaching Practice: A Qualitative Case Study of CTE Facultly Professional Learning in a North Carolina Community College”, July 27, 2026, 1:00 p.m., Remote, Major Professor: Dr. Makena Stewart.

Ece Ari Akdemir, Civil Engineering, “Planning for Disruption: Exploring the Vulnerability of Liquid Biofuel Supply Chains and Power Grids to Drought,” July 27, 2026, 1:00 p.m., Virtual. Major Professor: Dr. Jordan Kern.

Margot Ruffieux, Genetics and Genomics, “Diversity and Domestication of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Sourdough,” July 27, 2026, 2 p.m., David Clark Labs, Rm. 123. Major Professor: Dr. Caiti Smukowski Heil.

Saifur Rahman, Agricultural Education and Human Sciences, “The Adoption and Diffusion of Generative Artificial Intelligence among North Carolina Extension Agents,” July 29, 2026, 9:00 a.m., 220 Ricks Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Joseph Donaldson.

Kimberly Charron, Comparative Biomedical Science, “Neurodevelopmental Roles of Cyfip2 in Zebrafish Sensorimotor Circuit Assembly,” July 29, 2026, 10:00 a.m., 3503 Stephens Room/Thomas Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Kurt Marsden.

Nirwan Tandukar, Genetics and Genomics, “Genomic and Metabolic Signatures of Environmental Adaptation and Nutrient Utilization in Grass Crops”, July 29, 2026, 10:30 a.m., Plant Science Building Room 4152, Major Professor: Dr. Rubén Rellán Álvarez.

Anil Gurses, Electrical Engineering, “Wireless Digital Twins for UAV Communications and Networking,” July 30, 2026, 9:30 a.m., EBII-3110. Major Professor: Dr. Mihail L. Sichitiu.

Yesid Ricardo Garavito Duarte, Animal Science, “Nutritional strategies to support intestinal health in nursery pigs: roles of functional feed additives and amino acid nutrition,” July 31, 2026, 9:00 a.m., 125 Polk Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Sung Woo Kim.

Kira Lindelof, Plant Biology, “Ecology, genetics, and taxonomy of Houstonia: an integrated approach to conservation,” July 31, 2026, 1:00 p.m., 2321 Gardner Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Alexander Krings.

Omar Othman, Civil Engineering, “Enhancing Balanced Mix Design Procedures using Fundamental Asphalt Mixture Characterization,” July 31, 2026, 1:00 p.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Shane Underwood.

Felipe Sanchez, Geospatial Analytics, “Geospatial distribution and dynamics of swine disease in the United States”, July 31, 2026, 1:30 a.m., Jordan Hall 5103, Major Professors: Dr. Gustavo Machado and Dr. Chris Jones.

Gianni Absillis, Mechanical Engineering, “Development and Implementation of Moving Discontinuous Galerkin Methods with Interface Condition Enforcement for Compressible and Viscous Flows,” August 3, 2026, 2:00 p.m., EBIII-3115. Major Professor: Dr. Hong Luo.

Anindya Samya Saha, Civil Engineering, “Assessment of the Shear Response and Residual Capacity of Bridge Elements Using Detailed Displacement Field Measurements,” August 4, 2026, 12:00 p.m., FWH 3301. Major Professor: Dr. Giorgio Proestos.

Mesbah Ahmad, Chemical Engineering, “Novel biodegradable and stretchable biopolymer films for soft electronics “ August 5, 2026, 10:00 a.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Orlin D. Velev.

Nicholas Mecham, Nuclear Engineering, “Developing Foundational Modeling Capabilities for Industry-Relevant, Interface-Resolved Boiling Simulations,” August 5, 2026, 10:00 a.m., BU 1121. Major Professor: Dr. Igor Bolotnov.

Lisa Metzger, Microbiology, “Investigating the Role of Upstream Stimulatory Factor as a Stress-Dependent Transcriptional Regulatory in B Lymphocytes,” August 6, 2026, 10:00 a.m., Thomas 3503. Major Professor: Dr. Michael Sikes.

Rylan Paye, Nuclear Engineering, “Space-Time Discretization Schemes with Reconstruction for the Boltzmann Transport Equation,” August 6, 2026, 10:00 a.m., BU-1121. Major Professor: Dr. Dmitriy Anistratov.

Gavin Gaynor, Forest Biomaterials, “Development of butanol/water-based biorefinery for the valorization of miscanthus: Process optimization, solvent recovery, and modeling”, August 7, 2026, 9:00 a.m., Jordan Hall Room 1214, Major Professor: Dr. Lucian Lucia.

Rachel Hammer, Microbiology, “From Assembly to Function: Plant-Microbiome Interactions and Fungal-Mediated Nutrient Acquisition,” August 7, 2026, 9:30 a.m., TH3503. Major Professor: Dr. Christine Hawkes.

Yaqin Si, Bioinformatics, “Statistical and Computational Methods for Structural Variant Association Analysis in Whole-Genome Sequencing Studies,” August 7, 2026, 10 a.m., Ricks 336. Major Professors: Dr. Jung-Ying Tzeng and Dr. Wenbin Lu.

Victoria Yarmey, Biomedical Engineering, “Stop and Smell the RO’s: Investigating the Neuronal Role in the C. elegans Oxidative Stress Response,” August 7, 2026, 10:00 a.m., EBIII, 4142. Major Professors: Dr. Adriana San Miguel/Dr. Michael Gamcsik.

Ermek Belekov, Electrical Engineering, “Application of Multifrequency CMUT and Hybrid Piezoelectric-CMUT Arrays in Acoustic Angiography and Photoacoustic Imaging,” August 7, 2026, 11:00 a.m., EBII-3110. Major Professor: Dr. Omer Oralkan.

Taylor Grubbs, Nuclear Engineering, “A Novel Bubble Coalescenece Control Methodology for Multiphase Flows Using Interface Capturing Simulation,” August 10, 2026, 9:30 a.m., BU-1121. Major Professor: Dr. Igor Bolotnov.

Adara Bacon, Chemistry, “Small-Molecule Aptamer Isolation and Sensor Development,” August 10, 2026, 10 a.m., D.H. Hill Library, 2312N. Major Professor: Dr. Yi Xiao.

Katherine Hochenberger, Adult & Community College Education, “A Phenomenological Study Exploring Student Veterans Academic Advising Lived Experiences at the Community College”, August 11, 2026, 10:00 a.m., Remote, Major Professor: Dr. Diane Chapman.

Kevin Joy, Mathematics, “Computations of Mixed Segre Zeta Functions,” August 11, 2026, 11 a.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Yairon Cid Ruiz.

Yujing Gao, Statistics, “Semiparametric Methods for Clinical Trial Design and Inference with External Controls and Irregular Assessments,” August 11, 2026, 12 p.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Shu Yang.

Jimmy Nguyen, Chemical Engineering, “Engineering the For Factor of UIO-66-NH2 for Chemical Protection: From Nanocrysteis to Macrosystem,” August 11, 2026, 2:30 p.m., FWH 2331. Major Professor: Dr. Gregory N. Parsons.

Zhansen Akhmetov, Electrical Engineering, “Comprehensive Modeling and Analysis of a Split Litz Wire-Based Open Bifilar Coil,” August 12, 2026, 10:30 a.m., Energy Board Room/Keystone Science Center. Major Professor: Dr. Pantic.

William Hurley Martin, Civil Engineering, “Structural Behavior and Self-healing of Fiber-reinforced Polymer Composites via Inductive Heating,” August 12, 2026, 1:00 p.m., FWH 3301. Major Professor: Dr. Jason F. Patrick.

Sergei Rigin, Material Science & Engineering, “Tailoring Advanced Surfaces for Sustainable Material Solutions,” August 13, 2026, 9:00 a.m., EBI – Room 3018. Major Professor: Dr. Yaroslava Yingling.

Jack Turicek, Mechanical Engineering, “Multifunctional Fiber reinforced Polymer Composites with Bioinspired Damage sensing, Self healing, and Thermal regulation,” August 19. 2026, FWH 3301. Major Professor: Dr. Jason F. Patrick.

Ayesha Awan, Comparative Biomedical Science, “Metaproteomic Investigations of Dietary Protein Sources and their Interactions with the Host and Gut Microbioma,” August 25, 2026, 9:30 a.m., 3503 Thomas Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Manuel Kleiner.

Vincenzo Musico, Material Science & Engineering, August 25, 2026, 11:00 a.m., EBI – 3018. Major Professor: Dr. Veronica Augustyn.

Nicholas Sengstaken, ELPHD, “Financial Resilience and Institutional Adaption in U.S. Higher Education”, September 2, 2026, 2:00 p.m., Remote, Major Professor: Dr. Paul Umbach.

Patrick Haughey, Mathematics, “Data-Adaptive, Robustness-Preserving, and Efficiency-Improving Methodology for Causal Effect Estimation,” September 8, 2026, 9:30 a.m., SAS 3282. Major Professor: Dr. Semyon Tsynkov.

Swarna Chowdhury, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, “Improved Understanding of Hydro-Morphodynamics in Rapidly Changing Coastal Environments with Application to Habitat Vulnerability,” September 21, 2026, 9:00 a.m., DSW-101-BAE. Major Professor: Dr. Celso Castro-Bolinaga.

Yi Liu, Statistics, “Data-Adaptive, Robustness-Preserving, and Efficiency-Improving Methodology for Causal Effect Estimation,” September 21, 2026, 11 a.m., SAS 5202. Major Professor: Dr. Shu Yang.

Mahe Rukh, Chemical Engineering, “Perovskite Oxides as Redox-Activated CO2 Sorbents for Sorption-Enhanced Oxidative Gasification/Reforming Reactions,” October 1, 2026, 3:00 p.m., EBI-1005. Major Professor: Dr. Fanxing Li.

Leticia Santos, Biological & Agricultural Engineering, “Advancing crop residue cover mapping through machine learning and satellite imagery,” October 16, 2026, 1:00 p.m., PSB 3158. Major Professors: Dr. Daniela Jones and Dr. Chris Reberg-Horton.

Gene Deese, Adult & Lifelong Education, “Examining Baccalaureate Completion Outcomes for AAS Transfer Students at Minority-Serving Institutions Using Propensity Score Matching”, October 20, 2026, 1:00 p.m., Remote, Major Professors: Dr. Audrey Jaeger and Dr. Bobbie Frye.