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
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