Get to know a little bit about our students. Check our Instagram at uwmoles, for more photos and fun.

Reagan Beers is a member of the 2022 cohort, Aquatic Innovation in Materials Science (AIMS) lab under Jessica Ray, the Robert O. and Irene V. Sylvester Family Endowed Professorship in Water Resources. Her research focuses on creating an electrochemical water treatment system for per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as The Forever Chemicals. Electrochemical water treatment systems are particularly attractive because of their scalability and remote operation capabilities. However, they tend to be very energy intensive and ineffective at degrading PFAS. By working with a novel nanomaterial called MXenes, she intends to reduce the energy input necessary to fully degrade PFAS in a scalable electrochemical system. Beers has done some outreach through the Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium and helped organize UW lab tours for five Kent School District middle school science teachers and teach them how to use basic Python programming, Arduino, and Lego Spike kits to enrich their science curriculum. She is a 2024 UW Clean Energy Institute (CEI) Graduate Fellow, which will enable her to engage in professional development opportunities and continue my outreach efforts. For her CEI outreach project, she plans to educate local community college students on what it means to be a graduate student. As a former community college student, she lacked a lot of knowledge about graduate school because she didn’t have access to academic research labs and graduate student teaching assistants like four year university students did. With the education resources she’ll create through this project, she hopes to empower community college students and encourage more of them to apply for research and graduate school programs. Her favorite restaurant is Korean Tofu House on the Ave. It’s one of her favorite places she likes to take friends, family, and seminar speakers.

Nick Quinn-Bohmann, who is defending his thesis on May 1, is in the Gibbons Lab, at the Institute for Systems Biology. His research focuses on using community-scale metabolic modeling to build predictive models of the gut microbiome. This can help elucidate the mechanisms by which these microbes affect human health and disease, and design personalized, precision-crafted interventions aimed at modulating the microbiome and improving trajectories of health. In his free time he hikes — slowly working his way through all the national parks in the country, playis basketball, practices photography and travels as much as possible. He is originally from Germany and grew up on the east coast before moving west for grad school. After graduation, Quinn-Bohmann will be moving to Amsterdam. He is in the process of finding a role there where he can continue his work in precision nutrition.

Gokce Altin Yavuzarslan very recently completed her MolE Ph.D. program. As a graduate student in Professor Alshakim Nelson’s lab in the Department of Chemistry, Gocke developed a class of materials known as engineered living materials (ELMs), which combine living cells with polymeric matrices to yield novel materials with programmable functions. She designed 3D printable ELMs and utilized microbial-polymer interactions to program material properties, demonstrating how 3D printed ELM objects can be utilized in biomedical, sustainable environment, and bioengineering fields. Upon graduation, she joined Northeastern University as an Assistant Professor in the College of Science within the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. An avid reader, Yavuzarslan’s got a few favorite books that she recommends: “Human Landscapes from My Country,” by Nazim Hikmet Ran, “Blindness,” by Jose Saramago, and “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. When she’s not working or reading she might be watercolor painting — especially creating floral patterns, experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen or going for walks in parks like Ravenna Park or Green Lake. She also loves hiking — Mt. Rainier Paradise is her favorite spot.

Phuong Nguyen is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate working chemical engineering’s Nance Lab. She is investigating brain-derived exosomes as therapeutic vehicles and molecular probes in the neonatal brain. As a founding member of the MolES Graduate Student Association (formerly the DEI committee) she is helping to connecting student to resources both on and off campus, and building a community that promotes inclusivity and outreach. She is a first-generation student giving back communities that supported her while building bridges for others in their STEM careers. In terms of candy, Nguyen prefers fruity and gummy to chocolate and hard candies. Her favorite is Sour Patch Kids, particularly the red ones.

Mattias Tolhurst is a second year Ph.D. student working in Jeff Nivala’s lab, which is part of the wider Molecular Information Systems Lab (MISL). His work focuses on using proteins to record information and at the moment, they are building a protein clock. Mattias enjoys running and skateboarding to burn off steam but says he’s running more often these days. He loves making his favorite dessert, tiramisu, but said pavlova gets an honorable mention as a classic New Zealand favorite.

Paul Kim is a second year Ph.D student, working in the Baker Lab. He works on development of diffusion models for generating novel DNA binding proteins. When he’s not in the lab or studying you might find him eating olive oil ice cream from Salt and Straw or hiking in the Cascades – he says there are a lot of great day hikes within 60 to 90 minutes of the city.