On Wednesday June 3rd nine graduate students received the MRL and ScienceLine awards for their outstanding contribution to promoting science education in K-12 schools during 2014-2015. Four other scientists were also recognized for their commitment and consistent support to the outreach programs of the MRL.
Back row from left to right: Nate Emery from Life Science, Michael Paull and John H. Abel from Chemical Engineering, Ramsey Majzoub from Physics, Kaila Mattson from Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Front row from left to right: Vanessa May Brillo from Earth Science, Wennie Wang from Materials, Katherine Kanipe from Chemistry and Biochemistry, Carol Tsai from Chemistry, Saemi Oh from Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Leah Kuritzky from Materials.
Not pictured: Michael Gaultois who recently graduated from Materials, Graham Hagen-Peter from Earth Science and Misty Riddle from the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.
Nate Emery
Nate is a PhD Candidate in the Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology Department. His dissertation research focuses on how coastal fog affects plant physiology along the Santa Barbara coast and if fog ultimately affects wildfire patterns.
Michael Paull
Michael is originally from the East Coast and migrated to Santa Barbara for the weather and superb science. He is pursuing a PhD in Chemical Engineering as part of the Daugherty Lab. Michael’s research focuses on the antibody-mediated aspects of age-related macular degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease.
John H. Abel
John is a second year graduate student in the Chemical Engineering Department working for Frank Doyle and Linda Petzold on computational neuroscience and circadian rhythms. John is broadly interested in the physical basis for transmitting information across the body. He is currently studying this by looking at the signaling network that controls circadian rhythms.
Ramsey Majzoub
Ramsey Majzoub is a graduate student in the Safinya research group and is defending his dissertation during the summer of 2015. He studies the intracellular pathways of lipid-DNA nanoparticles for delivery applications using quantitative fluorescence imaging. Outside of research, he enjoys playing basketball and playing with his cat.
Vanessa May Brillo
Vanessa is originally from Philippines, she has a B.S. in Geology from UCLA. Vanessa started as a Master's student in UCSB in 2013; she works under Alex Simms studying sedimentology, specifically a really old rock formation (~265 million years old) in Oklahoma and what the state looked like during the time of its deposition.
Wennie Wang
Wennie works on first-principles calculations on complex oxides with Prof. Van de Walle in the Materials Department. When not excited to talk about science, she likes to eat and bake goodies.
Carol Tsai
Carol is a third year graduate student in the Fredrickson research group, where she is developing a computational algorithm to accelerate the discovery of block copolymer materials. In her free time, Carol enjoys singing in the choir at the Santa Barbara Mission, hiking, cooking, and reading.
Saemi Oh
Saemi is a 3rd year graduate student in both Hawker and Read de Alaniz groups in Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her research focuses on using metal-free photocatalysts for synthetic modifications.
Graham Hagen-Peter
Graham is a 5th year PhD student in the Earth Science department. His research focuses on the magmatic processes that occur deep in the crust beneath large volcanic chains. Graham uses field geology, geochronology, and geochemistry to study the timescales over which magmatism occurs in volcanic chains and to try to discern between different magma sources (i.e., what has melted to form a magma). Outside of research Graham enjoys teaching, participating in outreach, running, biking, and cooking.