Doctoral Exam Schedule
Nathaniel Curtis, MEAS, “Vitamin B1 Limitation, Uptake, and Metabolic Impacts Among Marine Bacterioplankton,” June 5, 2025, 9 a.m., JH 1132. Major Professor: Dr. Ryan Paerl.
Hyesim Seo, Textile Technology Management, “Green or Unique? How Design Typicality and Material Domain Distance Influence Purchase Intentions for Upcycled Clothing,” June 5, 2025, 10:00 a.m., Zoom. Major Professor: Dr. Byoungho Ellie Jin.
Jiaxing Wang, Operations Research, “Generative Modeling and Conformal Inference for Enhanced Prediction in Complex Stochastic Systems and Designed Simulation Experiments,” June 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Hong Wan.
Khalid Alwuhaib, Economics, “Assessing Consumer Welfare Impacts of Public Housing Policies, Residential District Cooling, and VRF in Kuwait”, June 6, 2025, 11:00 a.m., Nelson Hall Room 4302, Major Professors: Dr. Zachary Brown and Dr. Harrison Fell.
Mariam Elias, Technology Education, “Online Curriculum Development: Leveraging PCK in Digital Curriculum Design as Technology & Engineering Educators Transition to Online Teaching in Higher Education”, June 6, 2025, 10:00 a.m., Center for Technology and Innovation Room 317, Major Professor: Dr. Aaron Clark.
Monica Simmons, Community College Leadership, “Faculty Perceptions of Their Role in Workforce Readiness and Professional Development with Traditional Teaching Responsibilities”, June 6, 2025, 9:00 a.m., Remote, Major Professors: Dr. Audrey Jaeger and Dr. Bobbie Frye.
Junjian Wang, Animal Science and Poultry Science, “Statistical and Computational Methods for Genomic Prediction and Genetic Effect Identification in Livestock,” June 9, 2025, 9:00 a.m., 125 Polk Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Jicai Jiang.
Kai Yue, Electrical Engineering, “Toward Robust and Secure Federated Learning: Mitigating Heterogeneity and Adversarial Threats in Collaborative On-Device Optimization,” June 10, 2025, 9:00 a.m., Remote. Major Professors: Dr. Chau-Wai Wong/Dr. Huaiyu Dai.
Usman Amin, Food Science, “Food Structure Building Blocks Derived from Milk and Pluses: Soft Matter and Enzymatic Modification Aspects,” June 10, 2025, 10:00 a.m., G40 Schaub Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Haotian Zheng.
Magdelene Lee, Chemical Engineering, “New Technologies to Augment Biomolecular Data Assembly and Storage Capacities,” June 11, 2025, 3:00 p.m., Toxicology 2104. Major Professor: Dr. Albert Keung.
Michael Hughes, Aerospace Engineering, “On the Interaction Between Oscillating Aeroelastic Systems and Incoming Flow Disturbances” June 12, 2025, 11:00 a.m., EB III. Major Professor: Dr. Matthew Bryant.
Michael Norman, Physics, “Connectivity and Contraction in Cytoskeletal Networks,” June 12, 2025, 2 p.m., Riddick 106. Major Professor: Dr. Julio Monte Belmonte.
Zarife Begum Yagci, Chemical Engineering, “Human Models to Study Neurodevelopment with a Focus on UBE3A,” June 12, 2025, 2:30 p.m., Toxicology Building – 2104. Major Professor: Dr. Albert Keung.
Matthew Farrell, Toxicology, “Toxicity and Bioaccumulation of PFAS in Zebrafish,” June 13, 2025, 9 a.m., TOX 2104. Major Professor: Dr. Antonio Planchart.
Liannian Wang, Civil Engineering, “Advancing Construction Requirements Management through 4D BIM and Generative AI,” June 13, 2025, 10:00 a.m., FWH 3280. Major Professors: Dr. Kevin Han/Dr. Abhinav Gupta.
Karishma Rajeev Matange, Chemical Engineering, “Driving scalability of DNA based data storage systems through innovation in write and access functionalities,” June 13, 2025, 11:00 a.m., EBI-2018. Major Professor: Dr. Albert Keung.
Madhusudan Thirumalai, Mechanical Engineering, “Novel Gas Turbine Cooling Configurations under Stationary and Rotating Conditions,” June 13, 2025, 11:30 a.m., EBIII. Major Professor: Dr. Srinath Ekkad.
Rushabh Gala, Physics, “A Projected Background Model for LEGEND-1000 Experiment,” June 16, 2025, 10 a.m., Riddick 202. Major Professor: Dr. Matthew Green.
Hannah Margavio, Chemical Engineering, “Reactions during Simultaneous Etching of Ti02 and Atomic Layer Deposition of W or Mo Thin Films,” June 16, 2025, 1:30 p.m., EBI – 1007. Major Professor: Dr. Gregory Parsons.
Zhikai Gao, Computer Science, “Modeling and Predicting CS Students’ Help-Seeking Activity in Office Hours,” June 17, 2025, 10:00 a.m., EBII-3211. Major Professor: Dr. Collin Lynch.
Yi Hu, Electrical Engineering, “Generative AI for Power Systems Data Analysis,” June 18, 2025, 10:00 a.m., Energy Board Room, FREEM Systems Center. Major Professor: Dr. Ning Lu.
Erin Crites, Physics, Impacts on Polymer Composites from the Photothermal Heating of Metallic, Organic, and Carbonaceous Nanoparticles,” June 17, 2025, 10 a.m., Riddick 106. Major Professors: Dr. Laura Clarke and Dr. Jason Bochinski.
Yuqi Su, Operations Research, “Statistical Machine Learning-Based Industrial Predictive Analytics,” July 17, 2025, 10:45 a.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Xiaolei Fang.
Leandra Caywood, Chemical Engineering, “Mapping and modeling the dynamic transfer functions of eukaryotic gene regulation,” June 17, 2025, 12:00 p.m., Toxicology 2104. Major Professor: Dr. Albert Keung.
Austin Hooe, Economics, “Studies on International Sanctions and Foreign Direct Investments”, June 18, 2025, 1:00 p.m., Nelson Hall Room 2210, Major Professors: Dr. Mark Walker and Dr. Ivan Kandilov.
Tianyu Li, Chemical Engineering, “Engineering Vibrio natriegens for degrading and assimilating Poly(ethylene terephthalate),” June 18, 2025, 10:00 a.m., EBI-2018. Major Professor: Dr. Nathan Cook.
Brendan Evert, Electrical Engineering, “Wearable Circuit Systems for Monitoring Neural Rehabilitation,” June 19, 2025, 9:00 a.m., EBII-3110. Major Professor: Dr. Alper Bozkurt.
Jacob D. Thompson, Biomedical Engineering, “Multi-scale impact of sex hormones on the anterior cruciate ligament,” June 19, 2025, 10:00 a.m., CVM Research Building – 101. Major Professor: Dr. Matthew B. Fisher.
Mustapha Abdulmojeed, Chemistry, “Advancing SABRE-SHEATH Hyperpolarization for pH Sensing and reaction monitoring,” June 19, 2025, 10 a.m., Partners III, Room 302. Major Professor: Dr. Thomas Theis.
Zachary T. Hilliard, Applied Mathematics, “Improving Nonlinear PDE-Based Forecasts: Leveraging Conserved Quantities, Observational Data, and Machine Learning,” June 20, 2025, 11 a.m., SAS 4201. Major Professor: Dr. Mohammad Farazmand.
Xiaojian Wang, Computer Science, “Towards a Secure, Reliable, and Efficient Ecosystem for Emerging Pervasive Computing and Communication Paradigms,” June 20, 2025, 1:00 p.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Ruozhou Yu.
Jennifer Campbell, Community College Leadership, “What’s Motivating Mom: The Lived Experiences of Single Mother Community College Students”, June 25, 2025, 10: a.m., Remote, Major Professor: Dr. Audrey Jaeger and Dr. Catherine Hartman.
Christine Lee, Fiber and Polymer Science, “Process-Structure-Property Relationships of PLA and PLA-Blends in Nonwovens,” June 25th, 2025, 3:00 p.m., The Nonwovens Institute. Major Professor: Dr. Behnam Pourdeyhimi.
Lauren Gonzalez, Forestry and Environmental Resources, “The Role of Gap-Based Silviculture in Hemlock Woolly Adelgid IPM: Impacts on Seedling Establishment, Biocontrol Agents, and Pest Physiology in the Southern Appalachians”, June 30, 2025, 9:00 a.m., Jordan Hall Addition Room 1214, Major Professors: Dr. Robert Jetton and Dr. Kelly Oten.
Jaedoh Han, Civil Engineering, “Durability Assessment of Concrete Materials in Chloride or Acidic Environments and Prestressed Concrete Design Solutions,” June 30, 2025, 10:00 a.m., FWH 3301. Major Professors: Dr. Moe Pourghaz/Dr. Giorgio Proestos.
Munmun Basak, Forest Biomaterials, “Functional Agro-residue and Nonrecycled Waste Derived Nanocellulose for Packaging and Agricultural Applications”, July 1, 2025, 9:00 a.m., Biltmore Hall Room 2221, Major Professors: Dr. Lokendra Pal and Dr. Lucian Lucia.
Mohamad Javad Haghighat Manesh, Chemical Engineering, “Harnessing thermoacidophilic archaea for recovery and separation of critical metals and elements,” July 2, 2025, 10:00 a.m., O’Dell Room. Major Professor: Dr. Robert Kelly.
Tiancheng Xue, Operations Research, “ROM and Anderson Acceleration For Iterative Schemes on Least Squares Problems and Applications to Neural Network and PDEs,” July 3, 2025, 2:30 p.m., SAS 3282. Major Professor: Dr. Kazufumi Ito.
Yang Xu, Statistics, “Causal Decision Making: From Offline Evaluation to Online Learning,” July 8, 2025, 1 p.m., Remote. Major Professors: Dr. Rui Song and Dr. Wenbin Lu.
Cassie Gann-Phillips, Civil Engineering, “Advanced seismic velocity models for regional ground motion characterization,” July 11, 2025, 11:00 a.m.., FWH 3301. Major Professor: Dr. Ashly Cabas.
Smitom Swapna Borah, Civil Engineering, “Characterizing Phosphorus Fluxes Through Aquatic Systems Using Data-driven Modeling,” July 14, 2025, 10:00 a.m., FWH 3280. Major Professor: Dr. Daniel Obenour.
Ivan Sanin Sprague, Chemistry, “Rapid One-pot Synthesis of Quinolizinium Scaffolds via Formal Cycloaddition between Stabilized Azinium Ylides and Cyclopropanones,” July 16, 2025, 1 p.m., COX 400. Major Professor: Dr. Vincent Lindsay.
Chinazam Emmanuel Chukwuma, Chemistry, “The Fate of Siderophores: Biotic Degradation of Siderophores,” July 18, 2025, 1 p.m., Williams Building, Room 2223. Major Professors: Dr. Reza Ghiladi and Dr. Owen Duckworth.
Vishnu Punithavel, Civil Engineering, “Crack Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Deep Beams Designed Using Strut-and-Tie Models,” July 23, 2025, 10:00 a.m., FWH 3280. Major Professor: Dr. Giorgio T. Proestos.
Shannon Connard, Comparative Biomedical Sciences, “Advancing Treatment Strategies for Tendonitis and Tenosynovitis: A Translational Approach Using Equine Models,” July 24, 2025, 1:00 p.m., D239. Major Professor: Dr. Lauren Schnabel.
Juliana Pin, Operations Research, “Optimizing a Nationwide Supply Chain for Oilseeds in Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production: Pennycress, Camelina, and Carinata,” August 8, 2025, 11:45 a.m., PSB 4152. Major Professor: Dr. Daniela Jones.
Mariela Perez Sepulveda, Soil Science, “The Impact of Salinity on Soil Nitrogen Transformations and Microbial Symbiosis on Soybean Cultivars,” August 8, 2025, 2:00 p.m., WMS 2223. Major Professors: Dr. Mike Mullen and Dr. Kevin Garcia.
Julia Harrison, Civil Engineering, “Monitoring and Modeling Fecal Contamination in Coastal Systems and Assessing Microbial Health Risks from Flooding,” August 11, 2025, 9:00 a.m., FWH 3280. Major Professors: Dr. Angela Harris/Dr. Natalie Nelson.
Alexander Fullmer, Physics, “Phonon Modes in Liquids and Disordered States,” August 15, 2025, 10 a.m., Riddick 106. Major Professor: Dr. Jacob Eapen.
Allie Guerra, Chemistry, “Progress Towards the Total Synthesis of Abyssomicin C,” October 13, 2025, 10 a.m., DAB 210. Major Professor: Dr. Joshua Pierce.