The Graduate School is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 DDF Fellowship Recipients
Congratulations to the recipients of the 2024-2025 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.
Hamidreza Alai
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor(s): Rajesh Rajamani
"Vehicle Tracking Based on Low-Cost Sensors: Applications to Micromobility Devices and Autonomous Vehicles"
Joshua Althoff
History
Advisor(s): David Chang, Jean O'Brien
"Vincennes in Myaamionki: Constructing and Contesting Indiana's Past in Miami Homelands"
Harsha Anantharaman
Geography
Advisor(s): Vinay Gidwani
"Exclusionary Inclusion: How Caste and Capital Logics Shape the Politics of Recognition, Formalization, and Infrastructural Reform in Contemporary Urban India"
Elizabeth Ancel
Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
Advisor(s): Benjamin Munson
"Say exactly what I say: Social considerations for children’s performance in sentence repetition tasks"
Taiwo Aremu
Social and Administrative Pharmacy
Advisor(s): Jon Schommer
"Key Components for Planning and Developing New Pharmaceutical Enterprise that Produces the COVID-19 Vaccine in Nigeria for Local Uptake"
Amber Armstrong
Education, Curriculum and Instruction
Advisor(s): Erin Baldinger
"Learning the Nonlinear Dynamics of Climate Change through Mathematics Instruction"
Athanasios Bacharis
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos
"Efficient Robotic Automation Leveraging Optimal Visual and Language Information"
Kaylee Barr
Chemical Engineering
Advisor(s): Theresa Reineke, Frank Bates
"Design and synthesis of bottlebrush polymers for improved oral drug delivery"
Jessica Barry
Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology
Advisor(s): Angela Birnbaum
"Prediction of fetal exposure of anti-seizure medication dosing during pregnancy through the development of physiologically-based models for prediction of lamotrigine exposure"
Anu Bompelli
Social and Administrative Pharmacy
Advisor(s): Angeline Carlson
"Postpartum Depression: Racial and Geographical Disparities, Social Determinants, and Healthcare Utilization Patterns in the United States"
Michael burns
Applied Plant Sciences
Advisor(s): Candice Hirsch
"Quantifying maize kernel attributes affecting quality in masa-based products"
rui cao
Biostatistics
Advisor(s): Weihua Guan, Tianzhong Yang
"Statistical Models for Understanding Genetic and Genomic Foundations of Childhood Cancers: A Focus on Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia"
sydney Carpentier
Rehabilitation Science
Advisor(s): Ann Van de Winckel
"Development of a Novel Evaluation Scale for Mental Body Representations (MBR) in Adults with Spinal Cord Injury
jinhee cha
Epidemiology
Advisor(s): Erin Marcotte
"The effects of policy and neighborhood-level social determinants of health on childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia survival disparities"
Seohyeon choi
Educational Psychology
Advisor(s): Kristen McMaster
"Toward the Fair and Valid Use of Curriculum-Based Measurement in Writing with Struggling Writers From Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds"
husrev Cilasun
Electrical Engineering
Advisor(s): Ulya Karpuzcu
"Computing with Spins: The Good, the Bad, and the Odd"
Houda cohen
Integrative Biology and Physiology
Advisor(s): Joseph Metzger, Xavier Revelo
"Mechanism of Innate Immunity Activation and Inflammation Onset in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy"
Leah Costik
Political Science
Advisor(s): Tanisha Fazal
"Taking Care of Fighters: Rebel Groups and their Provision of Medical Care to Fighters"
korbyn Dahlquist
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
Advisor(s): Christina Camell
"Cytotoxicity, exhaustion, and immunosenescence in CD8+ T cells during aging"
karin de Langis
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Dongyeop Kang
"Cognitively Informed Natural Language Generation"
Lang DeLancey
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Advisor(s): Sarah Hobbie, Peter Kennedy
"Fungal controls on forest soil carbon storage under climate change"
Brylon Denman
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Courtney Roberts
"Inducing Regioselecitivty in Metal-Bound Arynes Reactions via Catalyst Control"
Sheetal Digari
Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development
Advisor(s): Joan DeJaeghere, Bhaskar Upadhyay
"Racialized and Sexualized Bodies: Northeastern Indian Students’ Experiences in Higher Educational Institutions"
Rashida Doctor
Earth Sciences
Advisor(s): Joshua Feinberg
"Approaches in rock magnetic analysis: Insights into remanence acquisition, sea-level reconstruction, and advancement of techniques"
Jolene duda
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
Advisor(s): Stefani Thomas
"Histone Deacetylase Proteins as Therapeutic Targets in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer"
Alexis Elfstrum
Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology
Advisor(s): Kaylee Schwertfeger
"LYVE-1+ macrophages modulate the extracellular matrix and contribute to mammary tumor growth"
Rae Fox-charles
Education, Curriculum and Instruction
Advisor(s): Betsy Maloney Leaf
"The Three Rs: An Intergenerational Exploration of Black Womanhood in Education & Dance"
Colin Freilich
Psychology
Advisor(s): Bob Krueger
"Associations between Loneliness, Epigenetic Age Acceleration, and Chronic Physical Health Conditions at Midlife"
chloe gansen
Mass Communication
Advisor(s): Rebekah Nagler
"Responses to Politicized News Media Coverage About Health and Science: What is the role of perceived controversy?"
ting gao
Physics
Advisor(s): Maxim Pospelov
"CP-violating observables within and beyond the Standard Model"
Megan Goeke
Educational Psychology
Advisor(s): David DeLiema
"Tree Climbing: Attunement to material contribution during playful climbing"
anna Graefe
Nursing
Advisor(s): Carolyn Porta
"Are We Preparing Nursing Students to Address Health Equity? A Mixed Methods Study of Baccalaureate Nursing Programs"
bria gresham
Child Psychology
Advisor(s): Canan Karatekin, Megan Gunnar
"How neighborhoods shape health from adolescence to adulthood: An examination of age-varying effects and change over time"
Abby Guthmann
Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior
Advisor(s): Craig Packer
"Understanding human-wildlife interactions in a shared savanna landscape: impacts of cattle on wild herbivores spatiotemporal dynamics"
abigail hall
Anthropology
Advisor(s): Kieran McNulty
"The Ecological Context of Early Ape Evolution"
Arshia Zernab Hassan
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Chad Myers
"Computational methods for chemical genetic networks to discover precision cancer drugs"
stephanie Heidorn
Design
Advisor(s): Brad Hokanson
"The Effect of Creative Problem Solving Training on Students’ Creative and Critical Thinking Skills and Dispositions"
martin Herrera Perez
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor(s): James Van de Ven
"Flow and Torque Ripple Reduction in Positive Displacement Pumps and Motors"
hopewell hodges
Child Psychology
Advisor(s): Ann Masten, Bonnie Klimes-Dougan
"Resilience Processes in Twin Cities Immigrant and Refugee Children"
madeline honig
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Phillipe Buhlmann
"Expanding the Working Ranges and Applications of Ion Selective Electrodes"
Xinyue Hu
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Zhi-Li Zhang
"Domain-Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning for Networked Systems"
Kazi Ranjibul islam
Physics
Advisor(s): Andrey Chubukov
"Interplay between nematicity and superconductivity in iron-based high temperature superconductors, application to doped FeSe"
insil jeon
Education, Curriculum and Instruction
Advisor(s): Vichet Chhuon
"The Problematics of Becoming Asian American: Karen Students in U.S. Schools"
mariel jones
Water Resources Science
Advisor(s): Xue Feng
"Towards Understanding Coupled Snow and Soil Frost Behavior in Peatland Landscapes"
brooke Kern
Plant and Microbial Biology
Advisor(s): Dave Moeller
"The role of mating system transitions in flowering plant speciation"
Alireza Khataei
Electrical Engineering
Advisor(s): Kia Bazargan
"Self-Similarity-Based Computing"
Daehyun kim
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor(s): Jeff Tithof
"Novel Strategies to Address Neurological Disorders through Numerical Simulation of Cerebrospinal Fluid Drainage"
Hannah jo King
Natural Resources Science and Management
Advisor(s): Mae Davenport
"Homesteaders to Harvesters: Case Studies in Black and Indigenous Reparative Environmental Justice"
lucas kramer
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Eric Van Wyk
"Enabling Practical Modular Language Specifications"
sachin kumar
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor(s): Uwe Kortshagen
"Carbon-Free Iron Ore Reduction using Hydrogen Plasma: Towards Green Steel"
Yeon Joo lee
Business Administration
Advisor(s): Karen Donohue
"Improving the Sustainability of E-Commerce Logistics through Change in Consumer Behavior"
zongbo li
Health Services Research, Policy, and Administration
Advisor(s): Eva Enns, Xiao Zang
"Optimizing harm reduction services to prevent drug overdose deaths and improve racial/ethnic health equity among people at risk for drug overdose in Minnesota"
yijun lin
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Yao-Yi Chiang
"Spatiotemporal Prediction and Forecasting with Multimodal and Multiscale Data"
Anna Mahony
Civil Engineering
Advisor(s): Bill Arnold
"Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) in wastewater and the environment: Quantification and Removal"
Sushmita Majumder
Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor(s): Nathan Mara, Calvin Sun
"Fundamental understanding of mechanical behavior in pharmaceutical crystals for accelerated drug manufacturing"
Doneila McIntosh
Family Social Science
Advisor(s): Chalandra Bryant
"African American Bereavement: How Do Youth and Families Navigate Loss?"
greta McKeever
Theatre Arts
Advisor(s): Margaret Werry, Sonali Pahwa
"Housewives, Writers, and Communists: Staging Domesticity in Imperial Germany to Make Labor Visible"
Kevin McKiernan
Asian Literatures, Cultures, and Media
Advisor(s): Christine Marran
"The Stakes of Tricontinental Cinema: Radical Politics and Aesthetics in the Global 1960s"
Hannah Murphy
Comparative and Molecular Biosciences
Advisor(s): Yuying Liang, Hinh Ly
"New Insights into the Biology and Composition of Medically Important Viruses"
Sreejith Thampan nair
Chemical Engineering
Advisor(s): Bharat Jalan
"Engineering thin film synthesis and electronic properties of iridium-based oxides"
Noah Nathan Kochen
Biomedical Engineering
Advisor(s): Jonathan Sachs
"Investigation of fibril cavity amino acids and small molecules as modulators of selfassembly and toxicity of neurodegeneration-related proteins"
kayla nelson
Child Psychology
Advisor(s): Sylia Wilson, Ann Masten
"A Causally- and Genetically-Informed Approach to Depression and Substance Use Comorbidity During Adolescence and the Role of the Parent-Child Relationship"
huy Nguyen
Chemical Engineering
Advisor(s): Matthew Neurock
"First-principles Insights into The Catalytic Conversions of CO2 to Value-added Chemicals and Fuels"
mary O'Brien McAdaragh
Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development
Advisor(s): Stuart Yeh
"Public Narrative and Its Relationship to Traumatic Stress: Applying Evaluative Thinking and Problem Definition to a Critical Social Issue"
Moyosore Orimoloye
Medicinal Chemistry
Advisor(s): Courtney Aldrich
"Chemical Probes for the Identification and Validation of Targets in Mycobacterial Metabolism"
matthew pAwlak
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics
Advisor(s): Wendy Gordon
"The Development and Utilization of High Throughput Methods of Mechanotypying"
Taylor Price
Plant and Microbial Biology
Advisor(s): Trinity Hamilton
"Microbial diversity across spatial and temporal scales in high mountain watersheds of the Teton Range, USA"
jack rabe
Conservation Sciences
Advisor(s): Joseph Bump
"Unraveling the Ecological Complexity of Yellowstone's Large Mammal Predator-Prey Dynamics"
Viktor Radermacher
Earth Sciences
Advisor(s): Pete Makovicky
"The Macroevolution of the Ornithischian Dental Battery"
Mskwaankwad Rice
Linguistics
Advisor(s): Claire Halpert
"Ge-gikendamang Enwewaad Netaa-anishnaabemojig: linguistic analysis of clause type in of Ojibwe language reclamation"
angela Ricono
Plant and Microbial Biology
Advisor(s): Kathleen Greenham
"Integrating time of day dynamics into transcriptomic and metabolic networks to improve crop performance"
christopher Robertson
Sociology
Advisor(s): Michelle Phelps
"Covenanted-Policing: Policing, Spatial Racism, and Health (In)Equity in Minneapolis, MN"
chris seong
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Courtney Roberts
"Advances in Modern and Traditional Methods for Pharmaceutically Relevant C–C and C–N Bond Formation"
yuting shan
Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology
Advisor(s): R. Stephanie Huang
"Deciphering Sex Differences in Tumor Progression and Cancer Treatment Response by Studying Intratumoral Microbiome-Host Interactions"
jaan Sharma Pathak
Geography
Advisor(s): Vinay Gidwani, Bruce Braun
"A State of Uncertainty: Flood and Erosion Management in the Brahmaputra Valley (India)"
anala shetty
Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology and Genetics
Advisor(s): Juan Carlos Rivera-Mulia, Walter Low
"Overcoming barriers to organ generation for transplantation therapy through interspecies chimerism"
Nikoleta (Nika) sremac
Sociology
Advisor(s): Joachim Savelsberg, Alejandro Baer
"History in Whose Hands? Women's Collective Memory of the Yugoslav Wars in Serbia"
Chowdhury Tasnova "Nova" Tahsin
Rehabilitation Science
Advisor(s): Manda Keller-Ross, Ida Fonkoue
"Sympathetic Regulation and Endothelial Function in Postmenopausal Females with Sleep Disturbance"
Sneha Venkatachalapathy
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Mark Distefano
"Building the Protein-Drug Revolution"
sarah Wahby
Public Affairs
Advisor(s): Ragui Assaad
"The nexus of climate change, migration and conflict in Sudan"
elijah wallace
History
Advisor(s): Andrea Sterk
"Saints, Soldiers, and Society in the Late Roman West: Reassessing the End of Empire in Italy and Illyricum"
reo wang
Family Social Science
Advisor(s): Stacey Horn
"Perceptions and Meaning-Making of Homophobic Language Among Mandarin-Speaking Adolescents"
Zijian wang
Pharmaceutics
Advisor(s): Changquan Sun
"Tabeletability Flip of Drugs upon Formulation"
dillon williams
Biomedical Engineering
Advisor(s): David Wood
"Defining the mechanics and kinetics of red blood cell sickling in sickle cell disease"
murphi williams
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran
"Modulating the structure and function of bacterial heme proteins"
christopher Winchester
Business Administration
Advisor(s): Elizabeth Campbell
"When Underperformance Means Success: Mixed-Methods Theory-Building & Testing of Strategic Underperformance"
Mingzhou yang
Computer Science
Advisor(s): Shashi Shekhar
"Vehicle-Physics-Informed AI for Transportation Science"
Tingyuan yang
Pharmacology
Advisor(s): Ameeta Kelekar
"Bcl-2 protein, Noxa, as a Regulator of Proliferative Metabolism and Apoptotic Cell Death in human CD8+ T cells"
Siliang zeng
Electrical Engineering
Advisor(s): Mingyi Hong
"Aligning Human and AI Systems: Framework, Algorithm Design and Applications in Large Language Models"
Sylvester (Wenze) zhang
Mathematics
Advisor(s): Pavlo Pylyavskyy
"Super Cluster Algebras and Generalized Boson-Fermion Correspondence"
Gaonan zhao
Mechanical Engineering
Advisor(s): Sun Zongxuan
"System Modeling and Motion Control for Autonomous Off-road Vehicles"
caini Zheng
Chemistry
Advisor(s): Ilja Siepmann, Tim Lodge
"Self-Assembly of Polymers and Amphiphiles into Bicontinuous Phases"