Eighteenth Cohort
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Talia Baddour
Undergrad: Lafayette College, Mechanical Engineering
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of Interest: Vincent Wang, Raffaella De Vita, and Jennifer Wayne
Research Interests: Biomechanics, Biomedical Engineering
Current Status: Bioengineering PhD student at UCSD
Fun Fact: The summer before my first year of college I memorized the entire script of Star Wars: A New Hope.
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Endia Fletcher
Undergrad: North Carolina A&T, Biological Engineering
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of Interest: X.J. Meng, Irving Coy Allen, and Fernando Biase
Research Interests: Dev. of Drugs and Disease Treatments, Immunology
Current Status: PhD Student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Fun Fact: I have picked up a hobby in sewing and I love plants!
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Gema Garcia
Undergrad: California State University - Monterey Bay, Marine Science
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of Interest: Frank Aylward, Biswarup Mukhopadhyay, and Kylie Allen
Research Interests: Microbial Sciences, Biochemistry, Molecular and Cellular Biology
Fun Fact: I went on a solo trip to Africa to teach English to students and working professionals in Madagascar.
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Martha Gizaw
Undergrad: The College of William & Mary, Biomedical Engineering
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of Interest: Miguel Perez, Michael Madigan, and Zachary Doerzaph
Research Interests: Biomechanics, Dynamics & Control, Data Analytics, Engineering Mathematics
Fun Fact: I wore my pajamas and slippers to William & Mary's virtual graduation. Don't worry; nobody was there to see me afar!
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Timothy Lipuma
Undergrad: University of California - Davis, Clinical Nutrition
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of Interest: Martha Ann Bell, Georgia Hodes, and Pearl Chiu
Research Interests: Neuroscince, Biopsychology, Behavioral Psychology
Fun Fact: I studied abroad in Ireland at University College Dublin during undergrad, so I went from one UCD to another UCD!
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Morgan Patrick
Undergrad: Emory University, Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology with a Minor in Music
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of interest: Stephen LaConte, Sujith Vijayan, and Joanna Culligan
Research Interests: Music Therapy, Neural Dynamics and Neural Engineering, Neurorehabilitation, Nutrition and Physical Performance, and Cognitive Neuroscience
Fun Fact: I am an avid traveller and I love partaking in humanitarian aid whenever I can. Currently, I have been to a multitude of countries and 5 of the seven continents
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Jason Putnam
Undergrad:Christopher Newport University, Neuroscience
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of interest: Susan Campbell, Mark Cline, Russell Jones
Research Interests: Neuroscience, Development of Drugs and Disease Treatments, Behavioral Sciences/Psychology
Fun Fact: I'm a runner and can run a 4:27 mile!
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Guillermo Raimundi
Undergrad: University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez, Industrial Microbiology
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of interest: Nisha Duggal, X.J. Meng, and Lijuan Yuan
Research Interests: Immunology, Behavioral Sciences/Pscyhology, Computational Biology
Fun Fact: I love musicals and politics as much as I love science, and I believe running is the best therapy for anything!
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Olivia Turk
Undergrad: The University of Chicago, Molecular Engineering
Year in PREP: 2020
Faculty of interest: Jennifer Munson, Abby Whittington, and Rong Tong
Research Interest: Biomedical Engineering, Dev. of Drugs and Disease Treatments, NanoScience
Current Status: Ph.D. Student at Yale University
Fun Fact: I like to do paintball.