Personnel
Left To Right: Aliya Fathima, Yizhou Fang (co-advised with Antonios Armaou), Aubry Hands, Cindy Chan, David Samson, Alex Beam, Marena Trauger, Wayne Curtis, Eva Mei Shouse, David Krum, Sarah Jean Johnson, Michael Ream, Noah Willis, Samwel Kariuki, Declan Dean
For Historic Lab Photos, see Google Photos Album
Principle Investigator
Postdoctoral Scholars
Current:
Past:
Vijay Sheri (2021)
Transgenic plants for virus acquisition
Aliya Fathima (2020; Saveetha University, India)
Molecular biology / Metabolic engineering
Rekha Kandaswamy (2020)
DARPA insect Allies
(Rimnoma) Serge Ouedraogo (2019)
DARPA Insect Allies
Sam(wel) Kariuki (2020)
DARPA Insect Allies Plant Transformation
Mustafa Erbakan (Turkey - Professor)
Eric Nybo (Professor, Ferris State Univ.)
John Pisciotta (Professor, Westminster College)
Xiangling Shen (PSU plant path postdoc)
Technicians
Walter McVey
DARPA Project Integrator
Roland Leach
Sp20; Lab manager
Elliot
DARPA Project Integrator
Su '18; (PSU M.S. ChE, '18)
Sp/Su '18; (UMass B.S. ChE '16)
Su/Fa '17; (B.S., BMB '15)
Erica Lennox
'14-'17; NSF BREAD, DARPA Insect Allies
Ben Geveke (B.S., '12; Heinz)
Alginator
ARPA-E 2011-2013; PSU B.S. ChE 2011
Visiting Scholars
Chenchen Yuan (Fa19/Sp20)
Algae Biofuels; PhD candidate @ __ China)
Algal Bioremediation
SRM University, Sp/Su 2016
Su/Fa 2014, Brazil
Metagenomics & Biofuels
Winter 2011, from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand
2011-12, from Barcelona, Spain
REU Alumni (non-PSU)
NCSU, Protein Purification Summer 2016
LSU, Summer 2015
Clarkson, Summer 2014
UMBC, Summer 2012
Miami University of Ohio, Summer 2011
Rose-Hulman, Summer 2010
Penn State, Mech E, Summer 2011
IIT Bombay, Summer 2009?
Emily Voigt
Kansas State
Cornell
Brazilian Scientific Mobility Program Students
ASU, summer 2015
UNM, summer 2015
ASU/AIU, summer 2015
FUA, NCSU, summer 2015
UFS/ASU, summer 2015
FURG/ADU, summer 2015
NAU, summer 2015
Graduate Students
Insecticidal Plants
Plant virus reporter genes / luciferin biosynthesis.
Virus movement in plants / Whitefly transmitted viral disease
Recent Graduate Alumni
Crop Protection - Lab Rotation 19/20
Sarah Jean Johnson (M.S. ChE, '18)
Brielle Hohne (M.S. ChE, 18)
Tina Lai (M.S. Plant Biology '16)
Jun Wang (Ph.D. '15, CEO, Algae Startup)
Sergio Florez (Ph.D. '15, Gingko Bioworks)
Nymul Khan (Ph.D. '15, PNNL)
Mustafa Erbakan (Ph.D. '14, Bozok University, Turkey)
Trevor Zuroff (Ph.D. '14, Shell Oil)
Manuel Escotet (MS '13, Rutgers)
Megerle Scherholz (MS 2'12; Merck & Co.)
Amalie Tuerk (MS '11; PhD, U Delaware)
Jeff Larsen (PhD '11; Engineer, Dow AgroSciences)
Lisa Grady (MS '10; Med School, University of New England)
Waqas Khatri (MS '10; Engineer Ittehad Chemicals, Pakistan)
Kristin O'Neill (MS '05; Merck & Co.)
Honors Student Alumni
Hinkal Patel
Botryococcus hydrocarbon productivity analysis
David Krum
Kit for HIV Transmission prevention based on cyanbacterial lectin
Algae Biotechnology Fuels and Pharma
Algae Biofuels
Bioreactors
Plant Propagation
Marena Trauger ('19, Merck)
Ryan Jones ('18, BP, Exxon Mobil)
Eva Mei Shouse ('18)
Haonan Xu ('18, JHU M.S.)
Erik Curtis ('16, Merck)
Nate Hamaker ('16, U. Delaware)
Katie Legenski ('16, Glaxo-Smith-Kline)
Olga Vinogradova ('16, CMU)
Rachel Erwin ('15, Regeneron)
Justin Yoo ('14, grad, UCSB; NSF Fellow)
Reed Taylor ('14, Regeneron, Harvard MBA)
Taylor Maher ('14, )
Patrick Hillery ('14, )
Matt Curtis ('13, PhD, Cal Tech)
Sydney Shaw ('12, grad, Genzyme)
John Myers ('12, oil big bucks)
Christine Taylor ('12, oil big bucks)
Brandon Curtis ('11; grad, Berkeley)
Ben Woolston ('11; grad, MIT)
Adam Nebzydoski ('10, ABEC Inc)
Christopher J. Justin, 2009
Amalie L. Tuerk, 2005; grad, UDelaware
Brian C. Werner, 2005; M.D. Wake Forest 2009; Orthopedic surgery
Benjamin Wong, 2005
Greg M. Thurber, 2003; PhD MIT/Harvard; Professor Michigan)
Laura J. Sailer, 2003; Merck & Co.
Amy M. Seeman, 2003
Hallie Brink (BS 2002; PhD Penn)
Karen E. Jerardi, 2002; M.D. Pitt, Instructor, UC Pediatrics
Christopher J. Wigoda, 2002
Sara E. Leister, 2000
Abdulehameed Aziz, 2000; M.D. Wash-U
Casy A. Carlos, 1999
Amy Hsiao, 1999
Kristina R. Mann, 1999
Tracy Y. Hsiao, 1998; PhD Berkeley
Heather Young, 1998
Ross Brindle, 1997
David Henninger, 1997
Jonathan P. Miller, 1997
Albert Shung, 1997
Michelle Brincat, 1996
Arther Bergman, 1995
Keith Welp, 1995
Beth Pearsall (Powell), 1994
Melissa S. Baron, 1993
Sean Holihan, 1993; Merck & Co.
Leah Sullivan, 1993
James Corry, 1992; Merck & Co.
Scott McKelvey, 1992
Sharon Warmbrodt, 1991
David Dunlop, 1990
Current Undergraduates
Transient expression in Duckweed
Algae Biofuels
Algae Biofuels
Apoplastic proten transport to whitefly eggs
Algae & Cellulosic Biofuels
Algae Hydrocarbon productivity
Shivangi Pradhan
Bioinformatics
Mick Price
Lab Maintenance / Improvement
African food security - GATES
Tomasz Szymanik
Luciferin biosynthesis in plants
Plant virus transmission in vitro
Agrobacterium improvements
Whitefly egg recovery/ Transgene screening in plants.
Insect colony maintenance / general lab support
Undergraduate Alumni (PSU)
Brett Rosoff-Verbit
Whitefly Biocontainment for virus transmission
Morgan Shires Cacao somatic embryogenesis ('18, Merck)
Calean Allen
Infrastructure fabrication support
Photosynthetic biomedicinal production platforms
Emily Pifer
Wastewater Treatment
Moez Essajee (on co-op)
Plant Propagation & Lab Automation
PSU (MC REU)
Algae Biofuels
Wastewater Treatment Project
Michael Aksu
Andrew Barmasse (Regeneron)
Jessica Bigham (Chevron)
Lan Dang (Campbell's)
Ben Geveke (B.S., '12; Heinz)
Matt Glasgow (Goodyear)
Jackie Guo (P&G)
Josh Harrison (BAE Systems)
Robert Hendrix (CRB Consulting)
Tucker Langseth (Eurofins Lancaster Lab)
Billy Muzika (Chromatan)
Ryan Muthard (PhD, U Penn)
Dennis Peterson (ABEC)
Stephen Rossi (Bristol-Myers-Squibb)
Serena Xu (PSU - modeling - dark side)
300+ former lab members out there in the real world ...