Eighteenth Cohort

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.

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! 

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. 

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!

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!

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

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! 

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!

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.