The Graduate School is pleased to announce the 2023-2024 DDF Fellowship Recipients
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2023-2024 DDF Fellowship! The Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (DDF) gives the University's most accomplished Ph.D. candidates an opportunity to devote full-time effort to an outstanding research project by providing time to finalize and write a dissertation during the fellowship year.
Lauren Agnew
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Advisor(s): Emilie Snell-Rood
“Using Trait-Based Ecological Risk Assesment to Assess Bee Species' Vulnerability to Heavy Metal Pollutants”
Emily Althoff
Entomology
Advisor(s): Brian Aukema
“Chemical ecology of the eastern larch beetle and natural enemies"
Katherine Ashby
Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Advisor(s): Kristin Hogquist
“Investigating Immune Tolerance to Inflammation-Associated Self-Antigens"
shelby auger
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Mark Distefano
“Tracking dysregulation of prenylation in disease models using proteomic analysis elucidates mechanisms of disease development"
charul avachat
Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology
Advisor(s): Angela Birnbaum
“Pharmacokinetic characterization of antiseizure medications at different stages of life in patients with epilepsy"
Kyle baasch
Comparative Studies In Discourse and Society
Advisor(s): Keya Ganguly
“The Revolution of Scholarship in the Shadow of Fascism (1918-1945)"
aleisha barton
Art History
Advisor(s): Jennifer Marshall
"Your Eyes Are Limited": Psychedelic Aesthetics in the Post-War Age, 1966-1970"
adrianna bell
Nursing
Advisor(s): Melissa Horning
"The Impact of Social Media on Adolescents' Diets and The Moderating Role of Family Functioning and Eating Behaviors"
akash bhat
Civil Engineering
Advisor(s): Bill Arnold
"Photolysis of fluorinated compounds: tracking fluorine and degradation, use of novel UV-light emitting diodes (LEDs), and computational evaluations"
Emily briggs
Anthropology
Advisor(s): Katherine Hayes
"Advancing repatriation under NAGPRA using isotope methods - A case study of Minnesota"
liz calhoun
Geography
Advisor(s): Bruce Braun
"Mapping the Future: Inequitable Environments and the Algorithmic Forecasting of Crime"
romulus castelo
Child Psychology
Advisor(s): Stephanie Carlson, Kathleen Thomas
"Parent Autonomy Support: The Role of Choice in Children's Executive Function Skills"
Atharva Chikhalikar
Chemical Engineering
Advisor(s): David Poerschke
"Understanding modes of deposit-induced degradation in advanced alloys and metallic coatings utilized in high-temperature applications"
rashmi Choudhary
Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor(s): Bharat Jalan
"Novel molecular beam epitaxy method for atomically-precise synthesis of superconducting metal oxide films"
ryan Collanton
Chemical Engineering
Advisor(s): Kevin Dorfman
"Advancing polymer science through computational physics: From mimicking metallic alloys to useful recycled plastics"
tara conway
Applied Plant Sciences
Advisor(s): Nicholas Jordan
"Understanding agricultural change-making through intermediaries"
Angelique dahlberg
Conservation Sciences
Advisor(s): Nicholas Phelps
"Balancing control of zebra mussels against non-target impacts to native species using low-dose copper sulfate"
leslie day
Plant and Microbial Biology
Advisor(s): Kyle Costa
"Global Responses to Environmental Change in Methanogenic Archaea"
gunnar drossel
Neuroscience
Advisor(s): Anna Zilverstand
"Translational Research on Substance Use Disorders"
hina durrani
Integrated Biosciences
Advisor(s): Sara Zimmer
"Insight On the Evolutionary Impetus for Subcellular Compartmentalization"
mary jane espina
Applied Plant Sciences
Advisor(s): Aaron Lorenz, Robert Stupar
"Dissecting the molecular and physiological mechanism of the candidate gene underlying iron deficiency chlorosis resistance in soybean"
zi gao
Psychology
Advisor(s): Andrew Oxenham
"Adaptation effects along a voice/non-voice continuum: Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence"
Katerina gribbin
Economics
Advisor(s): Jeremy Lise
"It’s Always Sunny in Ontario: The Effects of Wage Disclosure on Wages"
Matthew Gullickson
Applied Plant Sciences
Advisor(s): Mary Rogers
"Chemical ecology of spotted-wing drosophila: behavioral responses to olfactory stimuli and implications for pest management"
thomas Hasenzagl
Economics
Advisor(s): Ellen McGrattan
"Essays in Macroeconomics with a Focus on Market Power"
matthew Hausladen
Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor(s): Chris Ellison, Lorrain Francis
"Additive manufacturing of soft materials through photopolymerization: From 3D printing to growing soft robots"
anh hoang
Mathematics
Advisor(s): Craig Westerland
"Fox-Neuwirth cells, quantum shuffle algebras, and applications in arithmetic statistics"
Mariann howloand
Child Psychology
Advisor(s): Megan Gunnar, Bob Krueger
"A Dimensional Approach to Perinatal Mania and Psychosis"
yu-chia hsu
Social and Administrative Pharmacy
Advisor(s): Wendy St. Peter
"Target Trial Framework to Evaluate Post-surgical Discharge Opioid Dosing Strategies on Opioid Use Disorder and Changes in Kidney Function"
jacqueline James
Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication
Advisor(s): Molly Kessler
"Post-Polio Syndrome in the Shadows: Epidemic Disease and Embodied History"
qiao jin
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Lana Yorosh
"Towards an Immersive and Social Learning Experience: Building the Future of Educational AR/VR"
emily kahnert
Rehabilitation Science
Advisor(s): Paula Ludewig, Donald Nixdorf
"Telerehabilitation Effectiveness for Individuals with Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD): A Non-Inferiority Study"
wen-han kao
Physics
Advisor(s): Natalia Perkins
"Disorder Effects in the Quantum Spin Liquid"
caitlyn keo
Applied Economics
Advisor(s): Elizabeth Davis, Aaron Sojourner
"Essays on the Economics of Child Welfare"
dongmin kim
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Advisor(s): Allison Shaw, John Fiebur
"Why move differently: the role of environments, traits, interactions, and memories in animal movement"
Yeh Jin (Jasmine) kim
Educational Psychology
Advisor(s): Panayiota Kendeou
"Towards a Systematic Program of Online Reading Comprehension Research"
mary kosuth
Environmental Health
Advisor(s): Matt Simcik
"Mighty Methods: Advancing the Quality of Microplastics Pollution Research Through Improved Methods for Quantification and Characterization"
Abhishek Kulkarni
Medicinal Chemistry
Advisor(s): Carston Wagner
"Tumor-Specific Redirection of Immune Cells Using Protease-Activatable Chemically Self-Assembled Nanorings (Pro-CSANs)"
jillian labranche
Sociology
Advisor(s): Joachim Savelsberg, Alejandro Baer
"Violence in the Classroom: Negotiating National Narratives in Rwanda and Sierra Leone"
tian lan
Medicinal Chemistry
Advisor(s): Courtney Aldrich, David Ferguson
"Structural Re-engineering of Rifamycin Antibiotics against Drug-Resistant Mycobacteria"
haeree lang
Comparative and Molecular Biosciences
Advisor(s): Steven Friedenberg, Marc Jenkins
"Investigation of Canine Antigen-Specific T Cells with Novel Immunological Tools"
yoonkyu lee
Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology
Advisor(s): Zohar Sachs, Chad Myers
"Advanced gene expression analysis reveals novel biology in acute myeloid leukemia"
jiaqi li
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor(s): Jiarong Hong
"Uncovering the Physics of Snow Settling Using Novel Large-scale Field Imaging Approach"
jinghan li
Pharmaceutics
Advisor(s): Raj Suryanarayanan
"Understanding the Role of Surfactants in the Stabilization of Protein Formulations"
Xinyue (Shirelle) liu
Psychology
Advisor(s): Jonathan Gewirtz, Phu Tran
"Searching for novel molecular markers of vulnerability to opioid use disorder"
alexander magnolia
History
Advisor(s): Andrea Sterk
"Byzantium and Beyond: The Medieval Roman World through the Letters of Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos, 901-925 CE"
andrew mann
Plant Pathology
Advisor(s): Robert Blanchette, Katherine Bushley
"The role of microbes in the invasion process of red turpentine beetle and emerald ash borer"
Konstantinos Mavromatis
Computer Science
Advisor(s): George Karypis
"AI Reasoning with Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs"
Judith "Annie" Melton
Anthropology
Advisor(s): Gilbert Tostevin
"Cracking the Core: Assessing Cultural Variability Within and Among Prehistoric Populations"
Chuanhui Meng
Asian Literatures, Cultures, and Media
Advisor(s): Jason McGrath
"Translating Film Genres in the Cold War: Transnational Travels of Film and a Post-Colonial Investigation of Early Socialist Chinese Cinema (1949-1966)"
dawn Michaelson
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Eric Van Wyk, Gopalan Nadathur
"Modular Metatheory for Extensible Languages"
eric mitten
Neuroscience
Advisor(s): Kevin Wickman
"Plasticity of ventral tegmental area (VTA) gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA) neurons following chronic ethanol exposure and stress"
keeley morris
Epidemiology
Advisor(s): Gillian Tarr, Ryan Demmer
"COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness and Impact in a Landscape of Evolving Immune Histories, Recurring Disease Surges, and Persistent Racial Inequities"
Jacob myers
Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Advisor(s): Jeffrey Miller, Martin Felices
"Identifying the causal mechanisms driving human natural killer cell exhaustion"
jennifer nicklay
Land and Atmospheric Science
Advisor(s): Nic Jelinski, Jessica Gutknecht
"Exploring the socio-ecological impacts of urban food cultivation in Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN through participatory science and learning"
Madeline Nyblade
Earth Sciences
Advisor(s): Crystal Ng, Mike Dockry
"Hydrologic Impacts of Climate and Land Use Change on Manoomin/Psiη (Wild Rice) Ecosystems: Outcomes from a Tribal-University Research Partnership"
scott hunter oppler
Comparative and Molecular Biosciences
Advisor(s): Melanie Graham, Mark Rutherford
"Stress dependent perturbations of the primate immune system as a marker of welfare and influence on rigor, reproducibility and clinical translation"
haiping ouyang
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
Advisor(s): Yue Chen
"Identify novel oxygen sensing pathways and their regulatory mechanisms in DNA damage response under hypoxia"
suhyun park
Nursing
Advisor(s): Connie Delaney, Jenna Marquard
"Exploring nurses' visual navigation on a simulated EHR patinet dashboard for clinical decision-making"
eduardo perez-pazos
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Advisor(s): Peter Kennedy
"Understanding how species interactions during microbial necromass decomposition impact carbon fluxes for better climate change predictions"
robert pettys-baker
Human Factors & Ergonomics
Advisor(s): Brad Holschuh
"Characterizing the Perception of Artificial Skin Strain in Relationship with the Body"
sara Pillatzki-Warzeha
Theatre Arts
Advisor(s): Margaret Werry
"Trauma and Possibility in Performance: Indigenizing the Practice of Intercultural Theatre Collaboration through Relationality"
erin plasek
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Courtney Roberts
"Transforming Pharmaceutical Synthesis Through Aryne Chemistry"
Nick Rajtar
Plant Pathology
Advisor(s): Robert Blanchette
"Biosurveillance of Invasive Forest Pathogens in Minnesota"
James ramsburg
Hispanic and Luso Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics
Advisor(s): Francisco Ocampo, Carol Klee
"Negotiating language change at the periphery: Language contact and the maintenance of the Majorcan Catalan lexicon"
rachel Rapagnani
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Ian Tonks
"Synthesis of Recyclable and Biodegradable Polyesters from Carbon Dioxide and Butadiene"
Eran Moore rea
History of Science, Technology and Medicine
Advisor(s): Michel Janssen
"How Experiments Begin: Pivots in 20th-Century Experimental Neutrino Physics"
benjamin robertson
Chemical Engineering
Advisor(s): Michelle Calabrese
"Selective porous materials for environmental water remediation"
ryu suryeon
Kinesiology
Advisor(s): Zan Gao
"The Effect of Health Wearables in Physical Education to Improve Physical Activity and Psychosocial Beliefs among Underserved Adolescents: A Quasi-Experimental Study"
samuel safran
Conservation Scieinces
Advisor(s): Robert Blair
"Predicting bird responses to ecosystem change in cities: using historical data to build better urban futures"
Hailey sauer
Plant and Microbial Biology
Advisor(s): Trinity Hamilton
"Small Scale, Big Impacts: How Sediment Microbial Communities In uence the Aquatic Environment"
mahrud syrafi
Mathematics
Advisor(s): Christine Berkesch
"Computational measures for complexity of vector bundles on toric varieties"
nancy scott
Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology
Advisor(s): Anna Selmecki
"Novel mechanisms of antifungal drug resistance in Candida clinical isolates"
jacquelyn sertic
Kinesiology
Advisor(s): Juergen Konczak
"The Link Between Ankle Proprioception and Muscle Rigidity and Balance in Older Adults and People with Parkinson’s Disease"
sara Seweid-DeAngelis
Feminist Studies
Advisor(s): Jigna Desai, Shaden Tageldin
"Beauty, Race, and Belonging in the Shadow of Enslavement: Visual Culture and Egyptian Nation-Building (1910-1965)"
mingfeng shang
Civil Engineering
Advisor(s): Raphael Stern
"Modeling and control mixed autonomy traffic"
somya sharma
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Vipin Kumar, Snigdhansu Chatterjee
"Towards Explainable Physics-Guided Machine Learning"
taaresh sanjeev taneja
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor(s): Suo Yang
"Computational Modeling of Non-equilibrium Plasma Assisted Turbulent Combustion for Renewable Energy and Propulsion"
mayank tanwar
Chemical Engineering
Advisor(s): Matthew Neurock
"First-Principles Investigation of Mediated Electrochemical Carbon-Halogen and Carbon-Hydrogen Activations for Accessing Pharmaceutical Intermediates"
jenny tilsen
Education, Curriculum, and Instruction
Advisor(s): Bhaskar Upadhyay, Stefanie Marshall
"STEMtelling: A pedagogical tool for storytelling in science education towards epistemic justice"
Yi ni toh
Psychology
Advisor(s): Vanessa Lee
"Effects of target detection and response on temporal attention"
sultan Toprak Oker
History
Advisor(s): Giancarlo Casale
"The Alcohol Networks of Ottoman Istanbul in the Seventeenth Century"
beza tuga
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Christy Haynes
"Silica Nanoparticles for Sustainable Agriculture"
dana urbanski
Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
Advisor(s): Peggy Nelson
"Examining the Usefulness of Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids for Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Cognitive Impairment"
joseph vallin
Chemical Engineering
Advisor(s): Samira Azarin
"Elucidating the Role of Dendritic Cells in a Focally Ablated Tumor Microenvironment Towards the Design of Innovative Biomaterial Cancer Vaccines"
Thong vang
Education, Curriculum, and Instruction
Advisor(s): Bic Ngo, Vichet Chhuon
"An exploratory study of HMoob teaching and learning opportunities"
daniel Vásquez Vega
Juridical Sciences SJD
Advisor(s): Carol Chomsky, Barbara Welkee
"When statutes come to life. The judicial transformation of Colombian law (1897-1948)."
Sarah volz
Psychology
Advisor(s): Alex Rothman, Traci Mann
"Identification and Test of Health Behavior Change Theories' Assumptions: An Investigation of Affective Reflective Theory with Longitudinal Physical Activity Data"
zengtao wang
Pharmaceutics
Advisor(s): Karunya Kandimalla
"Anomalous amyloid-beta exposure and insulin resistance induce blood-brain barrier dysfunction (BBB) in Alzheimer’s disease"
solvejg wastvedt
Biostatistics
Advisor(s): Julian Wolfson, Jared Huling
"Fairness in clinical risk prediction: Intersectional, counterfactual metrics"
chi xu
Mechanical Engineeering
Advisor(s): Uwe Kortshagen
"Synthesis of size-tunable nanoparticles driven by low-pressure plasma-liquid interactions"
Anna Yang
Natural Resources Science and Management
Advisor(s): Rebecca Montgomery
"Management, pathogen survival, and forest gap dynamics in oak wilt infection centers"
Weijie zhang
Biomedical Informatics and Computational Biology
Advisor(s): R. Stephanie Huang
"Computational Drug Discovery for Advanced Prostate Cancers"
wenjuan zhang
Pharmaceutics
Advisor(s): William Elmquist
"Optimizing Drug Exposure, Potency and Efficacy for the Treatment of Brain Tumors"
wen Zhou
Electrical Engineering
Advisor(s): Yahya Tousi
"Distributed mmWave Radar System for Localization and Imaging"