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

Isaac Alvarez

• Contact: ijalvarez@ucdavis.edu

Nathan Arumugham

• 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

• Contact: tfbak@ucdavis.edu

Varshaa Balasubramaniam

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Contact: mjwfu@ucdavis.edu

Jorge Lenin Gonzalez

(he/him/his)

• Contact: jlgonz@ucdavis.edu 

Madeline Rose Hoffmann

• Contact: mrhoffmann@ucdavis.edu 
• Hometown: Louisville, CO
• College: Colorado State University
• Hobbies: Running, backpacking, and hiking
• Research Focus Area: biomechanics and biomaterials

Hyejeong Jang

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

Weifeng Jiang

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

Foram Kamdar

• Contact: fkamdar@ucdavis.edu 

Sarah Kim

• 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 

• 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

• Contact: karku@ucdavis.edu 

Michael Kyzar

• Contact: mkkyzar@ucdavis.edu 

Yen-Her Lai

• Contact: yhllai@ucdavis.edu 

Hayley Law

• 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

• Contact: ycnlin@ucdavis.edu 

Meiyu Liu

• 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

• Contact: rbdliu@ucdavis.edu 

Shufei Luo

• 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

• Contact: jdmcginnis@ucdavis.edu 

Jonathan Mo

• 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

• Contact: nmohapatra@ucdavis.edu 

Nhan Nguyen

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

Eri Ogata

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

Victoria Chisom Okafor

• Contact: vcokafor@ucdavis.edu 

Xiangping Ouyang

• Contact: xiouyang@ucdavis.edu 

Mandar Manjunath Patil

• Contact: mmpatil@ucdavis.edu 

Natalie Kavya Rajasekaran

• 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

• Contact: creller@ucdavis.edu 

Alec Kanwased Roadarmel

• 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

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

Mohammadhossein Sharifnia

• 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

• 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

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

Sophia Waxman

• Contact: swaxman@ucdavis.edu
• Research Focus Area: Bioastronautics

Andrew Willey

• Contact: ajwilley@ucdavis.edu 

Shiyu Zhang

• Contact: ssuzhang@ucdavis.edu

Jinhao (Stephen) Zhang

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