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Thesis Defenses

Graduate Student Cassie Zhang Defends Thesis

Cassie Zhang (Murphy group, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) defended her doctoral dissertation, entitled “Quantification of molecular-level events at nanoparticle-biological interfaces,” on April 8. Congratulations Dr. Zhang!

Graduate Student Meng Wu Defends Thesis

Meng Wu (Murphy lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) defended his doctoral dissertation, entitled “Hard and Soft Coatings on Gold Nanoparticles at the Nano-Bio Interface” on April 3. Congratulations, Dr. Wu!

Graduate Student Kelly Zhang Defends Thesis

Kelly Zhang (Hamers group, University of Wisconsin-Madison) defended her doctoral dissertation, entitled “Functionalization and characterization of carbon nanomaterials: Understanding mechanistic molecular interactions in biological systems,” on April 2. Kelly will be joining Merck as a Senior Scientist this summer. Congratulations Dr. Zhang!

Graduate Student Hyunho Kang Defends Thesis

Hyunho Kang (Haynes group, University of Minnesota) successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, entitled “Design of Silicon Dioxide Nanomaterials and Understanding their Colloidal Behaviors for Sensing and Biological Applications,” on December 19. He has accepted a position with Merck.

Graduate Student Emily Caudill Defends Thesis

Congratulations to Dr. Emily Caudill, who defended her doctoral dissertation, entitled “Interactions of Nanoparticles and Polymers with Bacterial and Eukaryotic Cell Surface Structures.” Emily is also currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Lake Superior State University.

Graduate Student Donald White Defends Thesis

Dr. Donald White (Curry group) successfully defended his thesis, titled “Synthesis, characterization, and application of cellulose nanofibrils for fabrication and biodegradable biobased materials.”  Donald will be moving to Houston for a position at Occidental Petroleum.  Congrats Donald!

Graduate Student Bo Zhi Defends Thesis

Congratulations to Dr. Bo Zhi (Haynes group) for successfully defending his PhD thesis, entitledGroup IV Element-based Luminescent Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Environmental Impact Evaluation, and Bio-imaging Applications” on August 16. Shortly, Bo will be departing for a position as a senior research scientist at Zeon in Japan.

Graduate Student Gene Chong Defends Thesis

Congratulations to Dr. Gene Chong (Hernandez group) for successfully defending his PhD thesis, entitled “Bottom-up simulations reveal mechanisms of nanoparticle surface layering and corona formation,” on June 12!  Gene will be joining Prof. Alex MacKerell’s group at the University of Maryland as a postdoc.