Team Members:
Sagah Ahmed
Sagah is from Burke, Virginia. She hopes to attend medical school after graduation and practice medicine in the Middle East. In her spare time,
she loves to work out, reread the Harry Potter series, and eat Sourpatch Kids.
Major: Neurobiology & Physiology, Arabic Language
Natalie Anzures
Natalie is from Westborough, Massachusetts. After finishing her undergraduate education, she will be continuing on to physical therapy school. Her interests include traveling, eating, reading, jellyfish, going to concerts and volunteering.
Major: Biochemistry
Zach Bosley
Zach is from Cumberland, Maryland. He has not yet decided what he wants to do with his degree after graduation. In his spare time he enjoys reading, the outdoors,
sleeping, and being with friends. He is currently obsessed with the Game of Thrones TV show/novels.
Major: Chemical Engineering
Brendan Bui
Brendan Bui is from Germantown, Maryland. He plans to continue onto medical school after completing his Physiology & Neurobiology and Spanish Language double degree and
hopes to become an ophthalmologist or general surgeon. In his spare time, Brendan enjoys playing volleyball, reading, and ogling the Food Network.
Major: Neurobiology & Physiology, Spanish Language
Ariana Feizi, Team Secretary
Ariana is from Potomac, Maryland. After graduation, she plans to attend dental school. In her free time, she teaches
dance and loves to bake.
Major: Physiology & Neurobiology
Sudi Jawahery
Sudi is from Bethesda, Maryland. She hopes to one day work to improve the infrastructure of her home state.
Her hobbies include hiking, tennis and racket sports, as well as spending time with her cat.
Major: Chemical Engineering, Minor: Mathematics
Courtney Koenig, Team Liaison
Courtney is from Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her future plans are to attend graduate school, to work in counter-terrorism
and to get better at gardening/cooking. Her interests include supporting Women In Engineering, swimming and
playing volleyball, camping, shopping and sleeping.
Major: Bioengineering
Katie Lakomy, Financial Liaison
Katie is from Westminster, Maryland. She plans on attending graduate school and conducting research after graduation.
She is also in the process of looking into research opportunities with professors. In her free time she enjoys spending
time with friends, listening to music, sleeping, and reading.
Major: Electrical Engineering
Megan Lin
Megan is from Clarksburg, Maryland. She is interested in small animal medicine and hopes to attend veterinary school in the future. When she has free time, Megan enjoys reading, running, and eating anything dark chocolate.
Major: Neurobiology & Physiology
Poorna Natarajan
Eisha Nathan, Web Liaison
Eisha is from Ellicott City, Maryland. After graduation, she plans on attending graduate school for computational engineering and
math. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and playing the piano.
Major: Computer Engineering & Mathematics
Hiba Sayed
Hiba is from Potomac, Maryland. She is interested in traveling, playing basketball, reading and
watching lots of Bollywood movies. She hopes to go to medical school after graduation.
Major: General Biology
Eduardo Solano
Eddie is from Bethesda, Maryland but was born in Colombia. After finishing his undergraduate
studies he wishes to attend Medical School or obtain a Ph.D in biomedical engineering.
In his spare time he likes watching House and Spanish soap operas, reading, and studying; he also
enjoys everything food related.
Major: Bioengineering, Pre-Med
Mentor:
Dr. John Fisher
Dr. John P. Fisher is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Fischell
Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland. Dr. Fisher completed a B.S. in chemical engineering
at The Johns Hopkins University (1995), M.S. in chemical engineering at the University of Cincinnati (1998), Ph.D. in
bioengineering at Rice University (2003), and postdoctoral fellowship in cartilage biology and engineering at the
University of California Davis (2003). Dr. Fisher directs the Tissue Engineering & Biomaterial Laboratory which is
involved in the development of biomaterials for engineered tissues, especially bone, cartilage, and skeletal muscle.
The lab focuses on the development of novel materials which can support the development of both adult
progenitor and adult stem cells, and is particularly interested in how biomaterials affect endogenous molecular
signaling among embedded cell populations. Dr. Fisher has received a NSF CAREER Award (2005), the Arthritis
Foundation’s Investigator Award (2006), the University of Maryland Invention of the Year Award (2006), the
Outstanding Graduate Alumnus Award from the Department of Bioengineering at Rice University (2007), the
Engalitcheff Award from the Arthritis Foundation (2008), the University of Maryland Professor Venture Fair
Competition (2009), and the Teaching Excellence Award from the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the
University of Maryland (2011). Dr. Fisher directs the NSF supported Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering REU
Site (2007 – 2009, 2010 – 2012). Dr. Fisher has served as editor of several works, and is currently the Editor-in-
Chief of the journal Tissue Engineering, Part B: Reviews.
Librarian:
Jim Miller
Jim Miller, Reference Librarian at University of Maryland Engineering & Physical Sciences
Library since 1980 (Senior Reference Librarian since 2000), is subject specialist for BIOE, ENAE, ECE ENCE,
ENMA, ENME, Plant Sciences, Tech Reports, and Patents/Trademarks. He is the College Park Patent & Trademark
Resource Center Representative, and was the 18th Patent & Trademark Depository Library Program Fellow at USPTO from June
2001 - June 2002. He has been a librarian for many Gemstone teams, since the very early years of Gemstone.
Electrical Engineering Advisor:
Dr. Mario Dagenais
Professor Dagenais' research interests are III-V integrated opto-electronics, nanotechnology, UV and blue-green GaN
LEDs, GaN solar cells and bio-sensing. Recently, he has been interested in the direct rectification of visible light for
collecting solar energy, in the development of interband cascade lasers and in glycobiology for the development of
new, ultra-sensitive individual and two-dimensional arrays of optical bio-sensors.
Professor Dagenais received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1978 working in Quantum Optics and
photon correlations under the direction of Professor Mandel. Together with Jeff Kimble, he made the first observation
of photon antibunching. He was a Research Fellow at Harvard University from 1978 to 1980, where he worked
in nonlinear optics with Professor Bloembergen. From 1980 to 1987, he worked at GTE Laboratories on photonic
switching and semiconductor lasers. He joined the University of Maryland in 1987 where he has been Professor
of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 1991. He has more than 300 archival and conference publications.
He has co-chaired several national and international meetings. From 1994 to 2000, he was co-director of the NSF
sponsored industry-university cooperative research center on optoelectronic devices, interconnect and packaging.
He is an Affiliate Professor in the Bioengineering department and member of the Chemical Physics faculty. He was
also previous associate editor for Optics Letters and Applied Optics. Professor Dagenais was VP membership for the
Americas for the IEEE Photonics Society. He is a topical editor for the IEEE Photonics Journal. Professor Dagenais is a
Fellow of the Optical Society of America and a Fellow of IEEE .
