2024 Cohort

BESA welcomes the UC Davis Biomedical Engineering incoming class of 2024!

 

Isaac Alvarez


Nathan Arumugham

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  • Contact: narumugham@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: San Jose, CA
  • College: Arizona State University
  • Hobbies: guitar, writing novels, playing puzzle games
  • Research Focus Area: Biomaterials and devices

Tymoteusz Franciszek Bak


Varshaa Balasubramaniam

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  • Contact: vabala@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Manteca, CA
  • College: Finished Bachelors at the University of San Francisco
  • Hobbies: Exploring new cafes
  • Research Focus Area: Tissue Regeneration

Zacky Balkhy

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  • Contact: zbalkhy@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Brookfield, WI
  • College: University of Chicago
  • Hobbies: Skateboarding, snowboarding/skiing, biking, hiking, camping, newbie vegetable grower
  • Research Focus Area: neuroengineering

Nathan Taylor Bribiesca

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  • Contact: bribiesca@ucdavis.edu 
  • Hometown: San Antonio, TX
  • College: Texas A&M University
  • Hobbies: Video games, skateboarding, bouldering, bass guitar
  • Research Focus Area: Regenerative Medicine

Mu-Fong (Clara) Chang

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  • Contact: cmfchang@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Taiwan
  • College: National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (BS in Computer Science) and National Taiwan University (MS in Genome and Systems Biology)
  • Hobbies: Programming and DIY devices are both my profession and hobby. I love watching movies and I enjoy skateboarding!
  • Research Focus Area: My research interests surround the interwoven relationship between machine and life; Designing machines to study life, and engineering the living as machines.

Pujan Kamlesh Desai

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  • Contact: pkdesai@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Houston, Texas
  • College: Johns Hopkins University (2014), UC Berkeley - UC San Francisco (2017)
  • Hobbies: Plant parenting, cat herding, Sci-Fi novels, DND, co-op and strategy gaming
  • Research Focus Area: TBD

Esha Dharia

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  • Contact: endharia@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Fremont, CA
  • College: University of San Francisco
  • Hobbies: Finding new cafes, going on walks with my friends, finding new places to eat, binge watching Netflix reality tv shows!
  • Research Focus Area: Biomedical Engineering - Computational and systems biology!

Samuel Jay Emerson

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  • Contact: sjemerson@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Fair Oaks, California
  • College: Cal Poly Humboldt for B.S. in Cellular/Molecular Biology. As an intern at the Center for Surgical Bioengineering through the CIRM Bridges program, I fostered a passion for biomedical engineering and translational research using stem cells and regenerative medicine.
  • Hobbies: In my free time, I like playing guitar, hiking, camping, play video games and dungeons & dragons. 
  • Research Focus Area: engineering stem-cell derived nanoparticles as treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. 

Barret Smith (Barrie) Feusi

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  • Contact: bsfeusi@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Sacramento, CA
  • College: UCLA
  • Hobbies: Playing Piano, Running, Programming, 3D Modeling and Printing, Piloting Small Aircraft, and Playing Video Games
  • Research Focus Area: Brain Computer Interfaces for Applications in Smart Prosthetics

Michelle Fu


Jorge Lenin Gonzalez

(he/him/his)

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Madeline Rose Hoffmann


Hyejeong Jang

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  • Contact: hjejang@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Daegu, South Korea
  • College: Chung-Ang University
  • Hobbies: Singing, Latin Dance
  • Research Focus Area: Biomaterials, Tissue engineering

Weifeng Jiang

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  • Contact: weijian@ucdavis.edu 
  • Hometown: San Francisco, CA
  • College: UC Riverside
  • Hobbies: photography, cooking, prop making
  • Research Area Focus: orthopedic, biomechanics

Foram Kamdar


Sarah Kim

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  • Contact: sbekim@ucdavis.edu 
  • Hometown: I grew up in Southern California and also lived in Seoul, Korea.
  • College:  I studied biology at the Johns Hopkins University and lived in Boston after graduating.
  • Hobbies: Cooking, reading, fitness, and spending time with family
  • Research Focus Area: TBD

Nikolia (Niki) Kruger 

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  • Contact: nkruger@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Noank, CT 
  • College: United States Coast Guard Academy 
  • Hobbies: Running, weightlifting, triathlon, skiing, and baking 
  • Research Focus Area: TBD

Kartik Kumar


Michael Kyzar


Yen-Her Lai


Hayley Law

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  • Contact: haglaw@ucdavis.edu 
  • Hometown: Lincoln, CA
  • College: UC Davis
  • Hobbies: Reading, drawing, collecting/taking care of my houseplants 
  • Research Focus Area: Biomechanics and Mechanobiology

Yang-Chen Lin

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Meiyu Liu

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  • Contact: mylliu@ucdavis.edu 
  • Hometown: Guizhou Province, China
  • College: University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Hobbies: Cooking, exercising,  cuddling with puppies, and doing nothing. 
  • Research Focus Area: Molecular medicine and genetics

Zexi Liu


Shufei Luo

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  • Contact: nsfluo@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: China
  • College: Georgia State University
  • Hobbies: I like singing, watching anime, and I also cosplay
  • Research Focus Area: molecular biology

Josh McGinnis


Jonathan Mo

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  • Contact: jomo@ucdavis.edu 
  • Hometown: San Jose, CA
  • College: Johns Hopkins & Peabody Conservatory
  • Hobbies: Live music, Dog-spotting
  • Research Focus Area: Intracranial electrophysiology, Cognition, Translational Medicine

Nikita Mohapatra


Nhan Nguyen

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  • Contact: arsnguyen@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Saigon, Vietnam
  • College: BS in Biomedical Engineering at Washington State University
  • Research Focus Area: Bioimaging

Eri Ogata

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  • Contact: eogata@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
  • College:  UC Davis
  • Hobbies: Video Games, Badminton, Music
  • Research Focus Area: TBD

Victoria Chisom Okafor


Xiangping Ouyang


Mandar Manjunath Patil


Natalie Kavya Rajasekaran

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  • Contact: nkrajasekaran@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Chennai, India 
  • College: SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai
    Hobbies: Reading, Listening to Music, Cooking
  • Research Focus Area: Tissue engineering

Cassidie Reller


Alec Kanwased Roadarmel

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  • Contact: akroadarmel@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Pleasanton CA
  • College: Arizona State University
  • Hobbies: Music production, Playing Instruments, game design, breaking, rock-climbing 
  • Research Focus Area: Cognitive Neuromodulation 

Shaina Royer-Weeden

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  • Contact: sproyerweeden@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Libertyville IL
    College: Michigan Technological University
  • Hobbies: cooking, baking, sewing
  • Research Focus Area: Mechanobiology, connective tissue disorders

Mohammadhossein Sharifnia

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  • Contact: msharifnia@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: I was born in the city of Shahroud/Shahrood in Semnan Province but my family members are originally from the city of Isfahan in Iran.
  • College: I studied for a Doctor of Pharmacy and Bachelor of Pure Chemistry simultaneously at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences & the University of Tehran respectively.
  • Hobbies: I am deeply interested in various historical subjects through analytical approaches (Analytical history), especially in the areas of political, social, military, diplomatic, and intellectual historiography. Moreover, I have basic knowledge and insights of several quantitative historiographic methods. Besides history, I am deeply enthused with music and I have professional experience in composing songs and playing the keyboard and piano.
  • Research Focus Area: Smart Drug-delivery, Diagnostics and Molecular & biomolecular engineering 

Christian Manuel Soto

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  • Contact: cmsoto@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: West Sacramento
  • College: Boston University (MS), UC Santa Cruz (BS)
  • Hobbies: I enjoy spending time with my wife and two daughters, baking, cooking, and wine tasting.
  • Research Focus Area: Fetal magnetic resonance imaging

Jay Ming Tong

  • Contact: jaytong@ucdavis.edu

Ting-Yuan Wang

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  • Contact: krswang@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Taipei, Taiwan
  • College: National Yang-Ming University
  • Hobbies: Hiking, Photography, Traveling
  • Research Focus Area: Machine Learning

Sophia Waxman

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Andrew Willey


Shiyu Zhang

  • Contact: ssuzhang@ucdavis.edu

Jinhao (Stephen) Zhang

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  • Contact: sjhzhang@ucdavis.edu
  • Hometown: Shanghai, China, Earth, Sol System
  • College: UC Davis
  • Hobbies: Climbing, photography, and traveling
  • Research Focus Area: Synthetic biology