Graduate School

Open Graduate Education Alumni

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Open Graduate Education Alumni

Sean M. Dinces ’13 AM, ’14 PhD 

  • PhD: American Studies
  • Master's: Urban Education Policy
  • Dissertation - Bulls Markets: Power, Place, and Professional Sport in Late Twentieth-Century Chicago
  • Current Position: Associate Professor of History, Long Beach City College

Jie Ren ’15 AM, ’16 PhD

  • PhD: Cognitive Science
  • Master’s: Biostatistics
  • Dissertation - From Features to Words: A Study of Developmental Continuity
  • Current Position: Faculty Member, Voice Department, Bard College

Yao Zhang ’15 ScM, ’16 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: Computer Science
  • Dissertation - Coherent Structural Dynamics of Rydberg-Excited Molecules
  • Current Position: Google

Jing Feng ’17 ScM, ’17 PhD

  • PhD: Engineering (Electrical) 
  • Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship 
  • Dissertation - Plasmonic Interferometry: A New Approach toward Highly-Sensitive Multispectral Biochemical Detection
  • Current Position: Professor, Material Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology

Dennis Johannssen ’15 AM, ’17 PhD

  • PhD: German Studies
  • Master’s: Philosophy
  • Dissertation - Unclaimed Language: The Literary Criticism of Walter Benjamin and Theodore W. Adorno
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor of German, Lafayette College

Patrick McKelvey ’17 AM, ’17 PhD

  • PhD: Theatre and Performing Arts
  • Master’s: Anthropology
  • Dissertation - Performing Disemployment: Disability, Theatre, and Work in the United States Since the 1970s
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Pittsburgh

Ayalu Reda ’17 AM, ’17 PhD

  • PhD: Sociology
  • Master’s: Biostatistics
  • Dissertation - Wealth, Health, and Child Education in Developing Countries
  • Current Position: Director, Data Science, Enact Mortgage Insurance

Arielle N. Schilit Nitenson ’16 MAT, ’17 PhD

  • PhD: Neuroscience
  • Master’s: Science Education
  • Dissertation - Acetylcholine Supports Olfactory Perceptual Learning through Adult Neurogenesis
  • Current Position: Senior Research Data Manager, Office of Research Integrity, Brown University

Eboni Chambers ’18 MPA, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Pathobiology
  • Master’s: Public Affairs
  • Dissertation - The Role of Adenosine Signaling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Induced Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
  • Current Position: Regional Medical Director, Horizon Therapeutics

Diana Dukhanova ’16 AM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Slavic Studies
  • Master’s: Religious Studies
  • Dissertation - Jesus of Bethlehem: Vasily V. Rozanov and the Discourse of Matrimonial Sexuality in the Russian Orthodox Church
  • Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, College of the Holy Cross 

Susan Herringer ’18 AM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Engineering (Materials Science)
  • Master’s: Archaeology and the Ancient World
  • Dissertation - Archaeometallurgical Investigations of Copper Alloy Artifacts and Copper Smelting: Studies Utilizing Neutron Methods and Thermodynamic Modeling
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Switzerland

Mark Ho ’15 ScM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Cognitive Science
  • Master’s: Computer Science
  • Dissertation - Teaching and Learning in Situated Environments
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology

Brian House ’16 AM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Computer Music and Multimedia
  • Master’s: Modern Culture and Media
  • Dissertation - Rhythmanalysis of the Earth, the Animal, and the Machine
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor and Studio Head of Digital Media Fields Center, Department of Art, Lewis and Clark College

Ioana Bogdana Jucan ’15 AM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Theatre and Performing Arts
  • Master’s: Philosophy
  • Dissertation - Out of Concern: Performance Modes of Engaging with the World
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson College

Chang Liu ’17 ScM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship 
  • Dissertation - Solid State and Solution State Studies of Lithium Amide Enolates Homoaggregates and Mixed Aggregates
  • Current Position: Bioconjugation Scientist, Celnovte Biotech Inc.; Co-founder of STA Technology

Adam Nitenson ’17 ScM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Neuroscience
  • Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship 
  • Dissertation - Genetic Contributions to Heterogeneous Subjective and Neural Response to Psychostimulants
  • Current Position: Health Research Project Director, Rhode Island Department of Health

Lakshmi Padmanabhan ’18 AM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Modern Culture and Media
  • Master’s: History
  • Dissertation - The Untimely Image: On Feminist Inactivism and Postcolonial Ethics
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, School Communication, Northwestern University

 Seth Thorn ’15 AM, ’18 PhD 

  • PhD: Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments
  • Master’s: German Studies
  • Dissertation - Alto.Glove: Instrument and Augmentation
  • Current Position: Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Media, and Engineering, Arizona State University

Yun Xu ’18 ScM, ’18 PhD

  • PhD: Pathobiology
  • Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship 
  • Dissertation - Modeling Innate Immune Triage: The Early Responses to Concurrent Dermal Wounds and Pulmonary Infections
  • Current Position: Business Performance Senior Manager, Amgen

Michael Bedard ’16 ScM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Economics
  • Master’s: Applied Mathematics
  • Dissertation - Efficient Estimation with Latent Variables
  • Current Position: Economist, Amazon

Jessica Emerson ’19 ScM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Behavioral and Social Health Sciences
  • Master’s: Cognitive Sciences
  • Dissertation - When Outcomes Matter: A Temporal Analysis of Beliefs in the Exercise and Smoking Domains
  • Current Position: Scientific Advisor, Clario

Valeria Federici ’19 AM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Italian Studies
  • Master’s: History of Art and Architecture
  • Dissertation - Network Culture in Italy in the 1990s and the Making of a Place for Art and Activism
  • Current Position: Lecturer, Italian, University of Maryland

Anna Santucci ’16 AM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Italian Studies
  • Master’s: Theatre and Performance Studies 
  • Dissertation - Performing Language and Culture: Teaching and Learning Italian through Critical Embodied Encounters
  • Current Position: Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning Enhancement, University College Cork

Asha Tamirisa ’19 AM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Computer Music
  • Master’s: Modern Culture and Media
  • Dissertation - Lossy Recollections
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor of Music, Bates College

Vikram Saraph ’19 ScM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Computer Science
  • Master’s: Mathematics
  • Dissertation - Fault-Tolerant Distributed Computability
  • Current Position: Senior Professional Staff, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Scientist, Facebook

Mohak Patel ’19 ScM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Engineering
  • Master’s: Computer Science
  • Dissertation - High-Resolution, Kinematics-based Measurements for Characterizing 3-D Cellular Deformation Fields
  • Current Position: Software Engineer, Machine Learning, Google

William Jordan ’19 ScM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry
  • Master’s: Data Science
  • Dissertation - Drosophila Dosage Compensation as a Model for Combinatorial Transcriptional Regulation
  • Current Position: Scientific Investigator, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

Apollonya Porcelli ’16 ScM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Sociology
  • Master’s: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Dissertation - An upwelling of expertise: The collapse of the Peruvian Anchoveta Fishery and the Rise of Grassroots Science, 1973-2000
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Bucknell University

Prannath Moolchand, ’17 ScM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Neuroscience
  • Master’s: Applied Mathematics
  • Dissertation - Biophysical and Architectural Mechanisms of Subthalamic Theta under Response Conflict
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Neurosurgery, Stanford University

Rachel Deraney, ’19 MPH, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Biomedical Engineering
  • Master’s: Public Health
  • Dissertation - Sample Preparation and Nucleic Acid Extraction for Molecular Diagnostics: Innovations for Resource Limited Setting
  • Current Position: Engineer, Mammoth Biosciences

Gabriela Manzano Nieves ’19 MPA, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Neuroscience
  • Master’s: Public Affairs
  • Dissertation - Developmental Effects of Early Life Adversity on Somatic Growth and Auditory Fear Conditioning
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Weill Cornell

Keith Spangler ’18 ScM, ’19 PhD

  • PhD: Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
  • Master’s: Epidemiology 
  • Dissertation - Spatial Heterogeneity of Climatic Health Risks: Evidence to Inform Adaptation
  • Current Position: Research Scientist, School of Public Health, Boston University

David Abel ’19 AM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Computer Science
  • Master’s: Philosophy
  • Dissertation - A Theory of Abstraction in Reinforcement Learning
  • Current Position: Senior Research Scientist, DeepMind, London, UK

Xi Chen ’19 ScM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: Computer Science 
  • Dissertation - The Application of Variational Transition State Theory in Combustion Related Reactions
  • Current Position: Software Engineer, Amazon

Amy Teller ’16 ScM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Sociology
  • Master’s: Ecology, Evolutionary Biology
  • Dissertation - Chocolate Futures: How Eco-Civic Engagement is Remaking Past Monoculture on Brazil's Cocoa Coast
  • Current Position: Researcher, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Doria Charlson ’18 AM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
  • Master’s: History
  • Dissertation - Consuming Crises: Migrant Labor, Spectacle, and Precarity in the Twentieth-Century
  • Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of California Davis

Margaret Geoga ’18 AM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Egyptology and Assyriology
  • Master’s: Comparative Literature
  • Dissertation - Receptions of a Middle Egyptian Poem: A Textual and Material Study of the Teaching of Amenemhat in the New Kingdom
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Chicago

Yuan Liu ’18 ScM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: Engineering
  • Dissertation - Finite Temperature Physics of Molecules and Solids via Auxiliary Field Quantum Monte Carlo and Observation of p-Type Dipole-Bound States Near the Molecular Threshold
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Associate, Center for Ultracold Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lu Lu ’19 ScM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Applied Mathematics
  • Master’s: Computer Science
  • Dissertation - Theory, Algorithms, and Software for Physics-Informed Deep Learning
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Yale University

Diego Ramos Toro ’19 AM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Economics
  • Master’s: History
  • Dissertation - History, Social Preferences, and Development Outcomes
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College

Malay Firoz Arora ’19 AM, ’20 PhD

  • PhD: Anthropology
  • Master’s: Modern Culture and Media
  • Dissertation - The Resilience Paradox: Ethical Quandaries of Humanitarian Aid in Jordan and Lebanon
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Arizona State University

Qingyu Ye ’20 ScM, ’21 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: Data Science
  • Dissertation - D-FW Analysis with Corrections on Diffusion Coefficients by a Molecular Shape Representation Learned by Triplet Deep Clustering Algorithm
  • Current Position: Applied Scientist, Amazon

Min Chen ’21 ScM, ’21 PhD

  • PhD: Engineering
  • Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship 
  • Dissertation - The Exploration of Lead-Free Halide Perovskite Materials for Solar Cells
  • Current Position: Photovoltaics Researcher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Miriam Rothenberg ’21 ScM, ’21 PhD

  • PhD: Archaeology and the Ancient World
  • Master’s: Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
  • Dissertation - Community and Corrosion: A Contemporary Archaeology of Montserrat's Volcanic Crisis in Long-Term Comparative Perspective
  • Current Position: Junior Research Fellow, Christ Church College

Watufani Poe ’18 AM, ’21 PhD

  • PhD: Africana Studies
  • Master’s: History
  • Dissertation - Resisting Fragmentation: The Radical Possibilities of Black LGBTQ+ Activism in Brazil and the United States
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh

Jordan Jones ’21 AM, ’21 PhD

  • PhD: Portuguese and Brazilian Studies 
  • Master’s: Hispanic Studies
  • Dissertation - Affective Crossings: Mapping Empathy and Human Rights in Literature of the Americas
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University 

Warren Harding ’19 AM, ’21 PhD

  • PhD: Africana Studies
  • Master’s: Comparative Literature
  • Dissertation - Migratorial Reading: Black Caribbean Women in Migration and the Work of Literary Cultures
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Binghamton University State University of New York

Yixiang Deng ’19 ScM, ‘22 PhD

  • PhD: Engineering
  • Master’s: Applied Mathematics
  • Dissertation - Biomechanistic and Bioinformatic Modeling for Diabetes
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard

Amanda Khoo ’21 MPH, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Biomedical Engineering
  • Master’s: Data Science
  • Dissertation - Profiling Cancer Cell Invasion and Plasticity in Biomimetic Materials
  • Current Position: Data Science for All Fellow, Correlation One

Anni Pullagura  ’22 AM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: American Studies 
  • Master’s: History of Art and Architecture
  • Dissertation - Seeing Feeling: The Work of Empathy in Exhibition Spaces
  • Current Position: Curatorial Assistant, Institute of Contemporary Art

Parsa Bastani ’22 MPH, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Anthropology
  • Master’s: Public Health
  • Dissertation - Continuing the War on Drugs: Carceral Public Health During the U.S. Opioid Crisis
  • Current Position: Epidemic Intelligence Officer, Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Tong Cai ’22 ScM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: Program in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship
  • Dissertation - Metal Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals: Colloidal Synthesis, Doping Chemistry, Transformation and Optoelectronic Applications
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University

Cheng Zeng ’22 ScM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Engineering
  • Master’s: Data Science
  • Dissertation - Molecular Simulations by Exploiting Atomic Forces
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Northeastern University

Yichen Chai ’21 ScM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: Computer Science
  • Dissertation - New Algorithms and Insights for Geodesic Paths through Potential Energy Landscapes for Liquid State Systems

Marie Schenk ’21 ScM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Political Science
  • Master’s: Data Science
  • Dissertation - America Online: Everyday Talk and Conflict in Online Communities
  • Current Position: Assistant Professor, Lehigh University

Tong Cai ’22 ScM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: PRIME
  • Dissertation - Metal Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals: Colloidal Synthesis, Doping Chemistry, Transformation and Optoelectronic Applications
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University

Parsa Bastani ’21 MPH, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Anthropology
  • Master’s: Public Health
  • Dissertation - Rural U.S. Residency Demonstrates Higher Likelihood of Amphetamine-Related Emergency Department Utilization
  • Current Position: Epidemic Intelligence Officer, Centers for Disease Control

Anni Pullagura ’22 AM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: American Studies
  • Master’s: History of Art and Architecture
  • Dissertation - Seeing Feeling: The Work of Empathy in Exhibition Spaces
  • Current Position: Curatorial Assistant, Institute of Contemporary Art

Amanda Khoo ’21 ScM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: BioMedical Engineering
  • Master’s: Data Science
  • Dissertation - Profiling Cancer Cell Invasion and Plasticity in Biomimetic Materials
  • Current Position: Senior Data Scientist, Media Therapeutics

Yixiang Deng ’19 AM, ’22 PhD

  • PhD: Engineering
  • Master’s: Applied Math
  • Dissertation - Biomechanistic and Bioinformatic Modeling for Diabetes
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Ragon Institute, MIT and Harvard

Tong Shen ’21 ScM, ’23 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: Applied Math

Selahaddin Gumus ’23 ScM, ’23 PhD

  • PhD: Chemistry
  • Master’s: PRIME
  • Current Position: Co-Founder, AtomICs

Brian Markovitz ’23 AM, ’23 PhD

  • PhD: TAPS
  • Master’s: Anthropology
  • Dissertation - Mark Rothko's Harvard Murals: A Fugitive History of Art and Science
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Northwestern University

Albert Webson ’23 AM,  ’23 PhD

  • PhD: Computer Science
  • Master’s: Philosophy
  • Current Position: Senior Research Scientist, Google DeepMind

Mariz Kelada ’23 AM, ’23 PhD

  • PhD: Anthropology
  • Master’s: Modern Culture and Media
  • Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Europe in the Middle East (EUME)

Brooke Grasberger ’23 AM, ’23 PhD

  • PhD: History
  • Master’s: Religious Studies
  • Dissertation - Spirits of the Sea: the Faith of Sailors through the Death of the Age of Sail
  • Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Boston College

Joe Colleyshaw ’23 AM, ’23 PhD

  • PhD: Slavic Studies
  • Master’s: Political Science
  • Dissertation - Melding Gold to Steel: The Rehabilitation of the Russian Empire’s Belle Epoque in Putin’s Russia
  • Current Position: Deans’ Faculty Fellow, Brown University

Yifeng Cai ’23 MPH, ’23 PhD

  • PhD: Anthropology
  • Master’s: Public Health
  • Dissertation - How China's Male Sex Workers Mix Business with Pleasure

Kiara Lee ’22 MPH, ’23 PhD

  • PhD: BioMedical Engineering
  • Master’s: Public Health
  • Dissertation - Leveraging Biotransport Mechanisms in the Design of Technologies to Improve Access to Blood-Based Diagnostics
  • Current Position: NIH Fogarty LAUNCH Postdoctoral Fellow, Fogarty International Center at NIH