PhD Program

As a graduate student in Professor Alshakim Nelson’s lab in the department of chemistry, Gocke is working on in situ production and continuous delivery of therapeutics by 3D-printed engineered living materials. She received the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey Scholarship in support of her graduate work and holds a B.Eng. and M.S. in Food Engineering from Istanbul Technical University.

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.

As a graduate student in Dr. E. Virginia Armbrust’s lab in the School of Oceanography, Stephen is developing computational tools for the discovery and characterization of novel molecular mechanisms in ocean microbial communities. Previously, he worked as a research associate on high throughput cell-based assays assessing the efficacy of HIV vaccine candidates in the lab of Dr. Victoria Polonis, and on the development of novel bacterial genome engineering tools at the SF bay area based biotech company Zymergen. Stephen holds a B.S. in Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology and Neuroscience from the University of Colorado Boulder.

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.

Alex is co-advised by Drs. Sean Gibbons and Nitin Baliga at the Institute for Systems Biology. He is interested in how interspecies interactions and environmental factors facilitate the formation and functions of microbial communities as well as the ways by which these communities adapt to changes in their environment, and the roles they play in both the environment and human health. He hopes to develop a deeper understanding of the complex interspecies and evolutionary dynamics of soil and human gut microbial communities through the characterization of individual species and synthetic consortia. Alex holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, San Diego.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

David Juergens is a doctoral student in the David Baker lab in Biochemistry. His work focuses on using deep learning and data science to solve problems in computational protein design. These problems include the prediction of protein structure, prediction of amino acid sequences that fold into a desired state, and the design of functional proteins. David holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington.

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 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 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.

Under the mentorship of Professor Andre Berndt in the department of bioengineering, Justin is developing molecular tools and methods for optical phenotyping of hiPSC-based disease models. Before joining the Berndt lab, his work encompassed mechanobiology and stem cell-derived tissue engineering for disease modeling. Outside of academia, Justin has extensive experience in biomedical entrepreneurship, and he cofounded UW spin-off startup Curi Bio. In 2022, Justin was awarded a prestigious F31 Fellowship from the NIH. Justin received a B.S. in Physiology and M.S. in Applied Bioengineering from the University of Washington.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As a graduate student in Hugh Hillhouse’s research group, Yuhuan is investigating bismuth rudorffites, a promising new material for the top cell in solution-processed tandem perovskites. These lead-free wide bandgap semiconductors could potentially serve as a high-performance alternative to the lead-based materials in hybrid perovskite solar cells currently used to increase the power conversion efficiency of solar cells while lowering their overall cost. A deeper understanding of bismuth rudorffites could enable the development of low-cost tandem solar cells from non-toxic elements. Yuhuan holds a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Tianjin University and a M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Washington.

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.

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.

Phuong is a Ph.D. student performing her graduate research in the lab of Elizabeth Nance in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Her research focuses on characterizing and investigating the role of brain-derived extracellular vesicles in injury response in neonatal ischemia models. Extracellular vesicles are membrane-bound vesicles that have emerged as a new pathway of cellular communication and a valuable source for injury stage-specific information and as fingerprints of injury progression. They have become an exciting new research thrust in therapeutics due to their intrinsic capability to carry active biomolecules, endogenous bioavailability, and biocompatibility. The long-term goal of her research is to develop targeted therapies for neonatal ischemic injury, which is an underserved population in translational research. Phuong obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Materials Science & Engineering at Stanford University and the University of Washington, respectively.

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.

Ayumi is a grad student in Patrick Stayton’s lab within the department of Bioengineering. The Stayton lab explores novel polymer architectures to create prodrug platforms that target specific tissues while reducing peripheral effects. Ayumi is interested in infectious disease treatments, and currently studies polymeric treatments for the radical cure of Plasmodium vivax malaria. Her previous work focused on sub-anesthetic ketamine treatments for levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease. She received her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona.

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.

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.

Nick graduated in Spring 2024 having worked in the Gibbons lab at the Institute for System Biology. Since graduation, Nick has continued on as a postdoc in the Gibbons lab, working on projects that build on his PhD research in precision microbiome nutrition, now with a more industry-focused direction. Nick hopes to use the methods they developed to help transition the team work toward practical applications, with the goal of enabling personalized, microbiome-centered interventions. He was selected as a College of Engineering Dean’s fellow in 2019. Nick holds a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech.

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.

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.

As a graduate student in the laboratory of David Ginger in Chemistry, Yangwei  is interested photovoltaics, energy storage, synthesis and characterization of functional nanomaterials. He is currently working on a project that focuses on developing new methods to alleviate the impact of defects in perovskite solar cells. This research will help improve the efficiency of perovskite solar cells. He holds B.E. and M.E. in chemical engineering from Dalian University of Technology.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 “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.

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.

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.

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.

Photovoltaic devices are important for the renewable clean energy system. Today, silicon-based solar modules keep dominating the market, but various emerging techniques based on thin-film inorganic semiconductors are rapidly developing. Among thin-film technologies, chalcopyrite Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS) shows excellent light conversion efficiency. As a graduate student in Dr. Scott Dunham’s lab in the department of electrical & computer engineering, Xiaofeng is developing predictive models for the design and optimization of CIGS solar cell fabrication and device operation processes. These predictive models will help engineers and scientists design the material structure of solar cells to optimize performance. Xiaofeng was selected to be a 2021 Clean Energy Institute Graduate Fellow. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Nankai University, China.

As a graduate student in the lab of Dr. Aimée Dudley at the Pacific Northwest Research Institute, Michael applied synthetic biology techniques to develop high-throughput yeast assays. These assays measured and analyzed the functional impact of human protein variants. This research generated large-scale functional datasets for enzymes related to metabolic disorders, which can be used to aid in clinical diagnostics. Michael is currently a research scientist at Amazon in Seattle.

As a graduate student in Dr. James Heath’s lab at the Institute for Systems Biology, Jingyi is developing new methods to analyze antigen-specific T-cell populations by incorporating multiple biomolecular technologies. These technologies were applied to improve personalized cancer immunotherapy and understand the host immune response against SARS-CoV-19. She holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Southeast University (Nanjing, China) and an M.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington.

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.

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.

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. 

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.