2019 Incoming Graduate Students | Fischell Department of Bioengineering

Please join the Fischell Department of BIoengineering in welcoming our newest Ph.D. and M.S. students!

Incoming Ph.D. Students

Devorah Cahn graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) with degrees in chemical engineering and biology. Her recent work revolved around polymer-based drug delivery. In her spare time, Devorah likes to draw, bake, and spend time with family and friends.
Sean Carey was born and raised in Michigan, but just graduated in April from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in chemical engineering. In school, Sean worked for the admissions office as a tour guide to recruit incoming students, which he really enjoyed! Some of his hobbies include reading, playing guitar, and (sometimes) running. He is looking forward to starting the next chapter of his career as a Terp!
Dulara De Zoysa is a biomedical engineering graduate from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, where one of his greatest achievements was earning the gold medal for best performance in biomedical engineering. Subsequently, Dulara worked as a lecturer at his university until this past July. His research interests are in the field of computational bioengineering. His future goal is to pursue a career in academia and research. He is crazy about travel, and is a self-proclaimed “travel freak.”
Anthony Chung is a recent University of Maryland graduate who previously studied materials science and gained experience working at NIST and W. L. Gore & Associates. In pursuing a Ph.D. in bioengineering, he aims to promote the marriage of materials science and biology to solve future challenges in medicine. His hobbies include playing the ukulele, Taekwondo, traveling, and watching Netflix – although he's open to learning anything new and exciting. Fun fact: Anthony learned to ride the unicycle before the bicycle, so he's always looking for opportunities to practice riding the bike!
Kayla Chun graduated from the University of California-San Diego in 2018 with a degree in molecular biology and physics. Since then, she has worked at Gritstone Oncology as a research associate on their antibody therapeutics team. She hopes to broaden her skill set and return to industry after graduate school. In her spare time, Kayla enjoys rock climbing, foraging, and live music.
Camilla Edwards is very excited to begin school and research at the University of Maryland. She graduated in 2017 from the University of Florida with a B.S. in materials engineering and has been working as a packaging engineer for Procter & Gamble since then. Her research interests include developing immunotherapies to enable the body to prevent and cure diseases using its own resources, with fewer side effects than conventional drugs. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, spending time with friends and family, long distance running, and CrossFit.
Suhas Gotla graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology with a focus on biotechnology from PES University in Balalore, India. Currently, he works in Dr. Silvina Matysiak's lab and studies chitosan hydrogels through molecular dynamics. Suhas describes himself as a museum-going, cat-loving, Slytherin who played bass on primetime TV in 2018. He hopes to use his skills and experience to contribute to science education, and to reduce the reliance of the biomedical sciences on animals.
Anjana Heva has lived in Maryland all her life but has traveled with her family to more than seven countries around the world, including France, Belgium, Turkey, and England. She obtained her B.S in bioengineering from the University of Maryland this past May. Her research interests lie in the bio-imaging field. In her free time she likes to dance, do yoga, or draw her own anime characters and zentangle patterns.
Daniel Levy is an incoming first-year Ph.D. student born and raised in northern California. He received his B.S. from the University of California, Davis, and his M.S. from Santa Clara University, where he researched nanovesicle mediated drug delivery methods. Daniel will be working in Dr. Steven Jay’s lab at the University of Maryland, performing similar research with cell-derived nanovesicles. Outside of school and research, Daniel’s interests include movies, music, exercise, and the Sacramento Kings (2002 Western Conference Finals, never forget).
Raymundo Rodríguez López is a proud Mexican student who is really looking forward to being part of the Fischell Department of Bioengineering! He graduated from college with a biophysics degree and then pursued a master's degree in interdisciplinary sciences. He believes that, in order to solve any problem, there must be interaction among the different science fields. For this reason, he finds bioengineering to be fascinating and he wishes to continue his research in interdisciplinary projects. He can't wait to start his studies at UMD and meet the wonderful people who will push him to grow not only in an academic way, but in a personal way, too. Raymundo loves dancing, eating Mexican food and sports. He also loves being in an international and diverse environment, with people from different cultures, where everyone can learn from one another.
Shannon McLoughlin is originally from the Philadelphia area, but recently graduated magna cum laude from Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering. Her initial interest in the field had stemmed from her experience as a scoliosis patient. Shannon was captivated by the use of medical technology to create her brace, which allowed her to avoid surgery, so she could continue doing gymnastics at the time. Because of this experience, Shannon had originally wanted to attend medical school after graduation but became fascinated by the field of tissue engineering – specifically, the goal to replace transplant organs with artificially generated ones. In her spare time, Shannon enjoys spending time with her family (especially her dog, Buddy), going to the gym, reading, painting, and watching gymnastics. She is incredibly excited to start her Ph.D. at UMD!
Bilal Moiz grew up in Baltimore County and spent three years at UMBC, before transferring to the University of Rochester, where he studied biology and computer science. He returned to Maryland afterwards to begin the M.D./Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland Medical School. Bilal completed his second year of medical school and is excited to begin the graduate school portion of his training in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering.
Divya Muthusamy went to Northeastern University and graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.S. in engineering management in 2018. During her time there, she had the opportunity to work in Dr. Thomas Webster's nanomedicine lab, working specifically on electrophoretic deposition onto PLLA scaffolds. Through the co-op program, she worked in several different companies: Sanofi Genzyme, in upstream protein manufacturing; Nuvera, in fuel cell research and development; and Biogen, in anti-sense oligonucleotide formulation development. Upon graduation, she worked as a research associate at Takeda Vaccines in formulation development. Outside the lab, Divya enjoys listening to music, cooking, and traveling.
Ann Ramirez hails from California, and completed her undergraduate study at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She is interested in researching tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and wound healing. When she isn’t studying, you can probably find her watching cooking shows on Netflix or looking through Pinterest for bullet journal ideas. Even though she has been on the East Coast for a while now, she lives for the summer and spending time at the beach. She has always wanted to live in the DMV area and she cannot wait to join the UMD family!
Shruti Vig is from Delhi, India. She completed her undergraduate studies in bioengineering at The School of Chemical & Biotechnology (SCBT) at SASTRA University in 2017. Following graduation, she worked in the renal division at the Harvard Institute of Medicine as a research trainee for a year on two parallel projects. The first was a study on the role of recombinant bacterial peptides in kidney injury models .The second project evaluated whether KIM-1 enhanced adhesion of kidney tubular epithelial cells to fibronectin and focused on developing CRISPR-Cas9 edited cells that could be used as a tool to do the same. Shruti likes to swim, travel, and explore different cultures through food. Her interests are in understanding the immune system and advancing technologies in order to develop immunotherapies for better cancer treatments. Fun fact: Shruti does not get jet-lagged!
Callie Weber is from Sun Valley, Idaho. She attended Vanderbilt University as an undergrad where she was a member of the SYBBURE undergraduate research program, and worked in Dr. Leon Bellan's lab. She majored in biomedical engineering and minored in neuroscience. Her undergraduate research focused on modeling microvasculature using iPSCs to study Alzheimer's disease. As a graduate student, Callie would like to continue working with vasculature and progress into tissue engineering. Outside the lab, she loves running, hiking, swimming, and cooking! A fun fact about Callie is that she did triathlons in high school.
Sydney Yang is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Lehigh University with a B.S. in bioengineering this past spring. She focused her undergraduate research on characterizing the mechanical properties of glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-peptide hydrogels; however, she wants to shift her research focus towards investigating the applications of biomaterials as drug delivery vehicles. She was awarded the Lehigh University Grant for Experiential Learning in Health (2018) during her undergraduate experience and, more recently, was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. In her spare time, she likes to dabble in art, including sketching, painting, and clay sculpting. Sydney co-established Lehigh University’s very first first-generation student organization to help provide and create resources for students in need, such as a textbook and laptop lending library.
F. Rahma Zakaria holds bachelor's degrees in biological engineering and biology. Recently, she worked in synthetic biology research involving the development of a platform to engineer bacteriophages and efficiently select for recombinants. She hopes to continue pursuing research towards therapeutic strategies involving synthetic biology or other biotechnology fields. In her free time, she enjoys making art, particularly through paper quilling, hand lettering, and knitting; exploring nature; and learning to figure skate!

Incoming M.S. Students

Nabid Ahmen (M.D./M.S. student) is a rising fourth year medical student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is originally from Connecticut, and he studied biomedical engineering at the University of Connecticut. Nabid is joining the Frenkel Lab in Baltimore, where he plans on pursuing a thesis in focused ultrasound. He intends to pursue Diagnostic/Interventional Radiology for residency. Outside the biomedical world, Nabid loves to make mandala art.

Giovanni Oppizzi (M.S. student) is an Italian electrical engineer, but his interest in the quest for performance and mechanics spans also to the human body. For this reason, Giovanni spent the last year at Dr. Li-Qun Zhang’s lab in Baltimore, where they worked together on rehab robotics. This year, Giovanni will still be working with Dr. Zhang as a research assistant, continuing his work on an exoskeletal arm device. Giovanni is looking forward to expanding his background to the bio world, as he believes this will make him a more complete engineer. Outside the lab, Giovanni is a huge motor sports fan.

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