Andy Nguy
Enzymes are highly efficient biological catalysts. Understanding how enzymes catalyze chemical reactions into physiological relevant rates is of great interest. Moreover, electron and proton transfers are ubiquitous in biological processes, yet it has now become clear that such electron and proton transfers may have quantum mechanical effects. Andy will be studying soybean lipoxygenase, a model enzyme that accomplishes it’s catalysis through a proton and electron transfer known as hydrogen tunneling, a purely quantum mechanical phenomenon. In an effort to better understand how catalysis is achieved through hydrogen tunneling, he will […]
Nicholas Rapidis
While the Standard Model of Particle Physics has been a nearly perfect model for explaining particle interactions, it has two major flaws: its inability to fix the Strong CP Problem and its failure to explain the existence of Dark Matter. To address these issues simultaneously, a new particle, the axion, has been theorized. Experimental efforts to detect this particle have already begun but since the axions mass is unknown, experimentalists are forced to search for it over several orders of magnitude in mass. Nicholas will utilize new theoretical results to […]
Jay Kumar Gupta
Humans display an intrinsic capability for prosocial behaviors: behaviors undertaken to benefit others. Stress disrupts this capability but also induces neurogenesis in the hippocampus, a brain region that functions in social memory. Understanding the relationship between stress and prosociality allows better treatment of diseases such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and depression, as the asocial nature of these disorders puts affected individuals at increased risk for anxiety. The neural and hormonal basis of this relationship is explored through a behavioral paradigm involving rats. Given that the hippocampus directly projects to components […]
Andre Lai
Characterizing the relationship between every cell type is necessary for understanding the human body and advancing human medicine. One major technological hurdle involves the ability to isolate, manipulate, and analyze individual cells in a high-throughput fashion. Existing methods are plagued by low cell capture efficiency and limited user control. For his project, Andre aims to design, fabricate, and test a novel microfluidic device that will address these limitations. He will achieve this by incorporating a multiplex design with layered architecture and integrated elastomeric valves to enable complete isolation, imaging, and […]
Kristophe Green
Researchers have found that, in general, positive emotions lead to greater creativity (operationalized as increased cognitive fluency, flexibility, and divergent thinking) than do negative emotions. Increasingly, innovations and gamechanging insights are the product of not one creative person, but teams of people working together to produce results. It is essential to understand how creativity functions within groups, and how/which emotions play a role in increasing the creativity of these groups. Kristophes proposed research project addresses the question of how different positive emotions influence group creativity. Specifically, he will test whether […]
Caolan John
Since last decades discovery of graphene, scientists have searched for its magnetic cousin: a magnetic material that can be cleaved down to a single monolayer thickness. One relatively little-studied family of suitable materials is the transition metal selenophosphates, a class of layered, van der Waals-bonded semiconductor materials. Caolan aims to synthesize single crystals of two members of this family, FePSe3 and NiPSe3, in order to perform magnetization measurements in an effort to understand the role of selenium in determining the direction of magnetic ordering. These materials are exciting candidates for […]
Sophia Sage Elia
Sophia is studying regular embeddings of complete graphs on powers of two vertices. A complete graph is one in which each vertex is connected to each other vertex. Loosely, if one starts with a prime power number of vertices, it is possible to symmetrically connect the vertices in such a way that none of the connecting lines cross on the surface of a torus (think doughnut) with a certain number of holes. There isn’t a constructive way to create a visual representation of the embedding of the graph. Sophia’s project […]
Jasmine Jan
Current Bio: Jasmine is a first year MS/PhD at Berkeley in EECS. Haas Scholars Project: One focus of point-of-care devices is to improve accessibility of essential diagnostic tools by utilizing miniaturized, accurate and low-cost optical systems. Printed organic optoelectronics are one such technology that have the potential to improve the optical sensing schemes of these systems. Because organic optoelectronics are processed in solution, they can be easily scaled for large-area manufacturing and roll-to-roll processing, leading to low-production costs. Jasmine aims to design a point-of-care device utilizing printed optoelectronics for fluorescent […]
Celia Cheung
Current Bio: After graduation, Celia spent a year researching abroad at Imperial College London, funded by the Whitaker Fellowship in biomedical engineering. In August 2016, she started medical school at UC Irvine, and is expected to graduate in June 2021. Currently, she is taking a year off to do more bioengineering research, but eventually plans to enter medical residency for pediatrics. Her passion is both for clinical practice as well as finding engineering solutions to unmet clinical needs. Haas Scholars Project: Alzheimers disease is the 6th leading cause of death […]
Dan Ferenc Segedin
In many materials, the application of an electric field leads to a separation of positive and negative charges, inducing a polarization in the material. In ferroelectrics, such a polarization exists in the material without the application of an external field. Analogously, the alignment of electron spins in ferromagnetic materials results in a magnetic polarization in the absence of an external magnetic field. Bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3) is a rare material in which both of these states exist at room temperature and are coupled: applying an external electric field can switch the […]