Please join the Fischell Department of Bioengineering in celebrating several of our most recent alumni!
| George Banis graduated from The College of New Jersey before coming to the University of Maryland to work on ingestible sensing systems in the MEMS, Sensors and Actuators Laboratory. He is currently a Patent Examiner reviewing electrical biomedical device patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office to further his understanding of federal guidelines on intellectual property. In his spare time, George participates in Greek Folk dancing, which he has practiced for over 20 years, enjoys playing Magic the Gathering, and spending time with friends, family, and his dog Beck. |  |
| Eshan Dahal recently completed his Ph.D. in bioengineering under Dr. Aldo Badano at the FDA. His research focused on advancing x-ray based non-invasive methods to estimate brain amyloid load in Alzheimer’s disease. He received an office level toolbox award at the FDA for outstanding doctoral research. His research efforts led to 10 peer-reviewed journal papers, one patent application, and a startup company called AmyloidX. In addition to research, he also participated in the 2020 UMD I-Corps program and actively wrote business development grants for technology development and commercialization. Eshan will continue at FDA as a postdoctoral fellow while taking on the role of CEO at AmyloidX. |  |
| John Daristotle is a recent BIOE graduate from the Kofinas Lab. He is currently a postdoc in the Langer Lab at MIT. His research focuses on biodegradable drug delivery devices for vaccine development, such as microparticles and microneedles. In his free time he loves to play team sports, and he really misses morning basketball with the BIOE department. |  |
| Josh Gammon defended his Ph.D. in BIOE at the University of Maryland in 2019 under the mentorship of Professor Chris Jewell, where his research focused on developing immunotherapies for type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and cancer. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Kwon lab at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard. His current research involves studying interactions between microbes and the immune system in mucosal tissue, where broadly he hopes to develop interventions to prevent HIV infection in women. He is an avid daydreamer and lover of coffee and hot sauces (not together). |  |
| Kelsey (Gray) Goodfriend graduated from Dr. Kimberly Stroka’s Lab in December 2019. She is currently working as a Senior Scientist in Cell Culture Operations at Pfizer in Pearl River, NY on the High-throughput Clinical Immunoassay and Diagnostics Department in Vaccine Research and Development. Her team is currently focusing on the COVID-19 vaccine and cell culture automation. Her favorite thing about BIOE was the supportive and collaborative environment and she looks forward to returning for alumni events! |  |
| Ryan Huiszoon completed his Ph.D. in bioengineering in August 2020. He worked on developing integrated microsystems for detecting and treating bacterial infections on urinary catheters in the MEMS Sensors and Actuators Lab under Professor Reza Ghodssi. Following graduation, he began working at Facebook Reality Labs in Redmond, WA. Ryan valued his UMD experience and will miss the camaraderie with the other students. |  |
| Anjana Jeyaram is currently an Innovation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) in Cambridge, MA, working on developing new cancer immunotherapies. At UMD, she worked in Dr. Steve Jay's lab on engineering exosomes for gene delivery. Though she misses the BIOE family, she has really enjoyed putting her skills to use in the pharmaceutical industry. When she's not at work, she's been spending her time reading, baking, and going on hikes. |  |
| Andrew Lamont defended his dissertation in July 2020 and has since begun a postdoctoral fellowship at the FDA, where he is working to develop tools to standardize the performance of medical imaging devices. He has remained in touch with his UMD roots, as Andrew regularly returns to campus to use the Nanoscribe 3D printer and maintain the collaboration between his FDA lab and his graduate advisor, Dr. Ryan Sochol. Outside of the lab, he loves fishing, playing softball, playing golf, and has been recently exploring woodworking. Although he misses the camaraderie and welcoming nature of the BIOE department, he is happy to explore the next chapter of his career and is excited to see where his path will take him in the future. |  |
| Kristina Stephens recently completed her Ph.D. as a member of Dr. Bentley's lab, where her research focused on quorum sensing and synthetic biology. Kristina's favorite part of grad school was working with her fellow lab members, and she misses them all! Kristina loves to go camping and will miss spending holiday weekends in nearby Shenandoah National Park, but she is excited to be back in New England closer to her family. |  |
Top