Athena Taymourtash
Athena Taymourtash is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow who develops machine learning methods for optimized acquisition and robust analysis of medical images. Her research interests lie at the intersection of computer science and neuroimaging, with a specific emphasis on computational modeling, computer vision, and machine learning applied to prenatal imaging and healthcare challenges. In her doctoral research, Athena developed novel algorithms fo ...
Silvia Sellán
Silvia Sellán is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in electrical engineering and computer science whose research seeks to broaden the application realm of computer graphics by quantifying the uncertainty of 3D geometric tasks. Their research has yielded groundbreaking results in geometry processing, computer graphics, and related fields. The primary focus of Silvia’s research is reinterpreting common geometric synthesis frameworks like modeling and reconstruct ...
Amanda Elyssa Ruiz
Amanda Elyssa Ruiz is an MIT-Northpond Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in biological engineering whose research interests are in immunology, vaccine development, and global health. Specifically, Amanda’s work concentrates on the development of novel vaccine candidates against flaviviruses, a family of RNA viruses—including Dengue, Zika, and West Nile viruses—that lead to significant morbidity and mortality on a global scale. By leveraging protein engineering ...
Selma Piranej
Selma Piranej is an MIT-Northpond Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in biological engineering whose research aims to develop nanoscale DNA-based biosensing applications for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, with a particular emphasis on robust, affordable nanotechnologies for limited-resource environments. As a doctoral student, Selma developed a novel platform for viral sensing that integrates a rolling DNA motor; this non-equilibrium process is a stark depar ...
Jigyasa Nigam
Jigyasa Nigam is an MIT-IBM Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in electrical engineering and computer science whose research is focused on machine learning for atomistic systems. Specifically, Jigyasa investigates how the mathematical structure of a machine-learning model interacts with the inherent constraints of a physical problem, such as symmetry, smoothness, and conservation laws. Her prior work has tackled core challenges in the field, including how to efficient ...
Vanesa Muñoz Perales
Vanesa Muñoz Perales is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in materials science and engineering whose research is focused on the accelerated discovery of new soft energy materials for electrochemical energy storage and the development of competitive next-generation batteries to support the energy transition at low economic, environmental, and ethical cost. In her doctoral research, Vanesa investigated mass transport phenomena in porous electrodes and alternative ...
Daniel Mukasa
Daniel Mukasa is an MIT-Takeda Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow whose research is focused on computational design and experimental fabrication of biomedical materials. In the past, Daniel designed affordable medical devices to monitor conditions such as Covid-19, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and diseases like phenylketonuria (PKU). A central aim of his work is to optimize methods and tools for detecting low concentrations of biomarkers in sweat. His doctoral resear ...
Bryn Morgan
Bryn Morgan is a Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in civil and environmental engineering whose research focuses on ecohydrology, surface-atmosphere interactions, and the effects of water limitation on terrestrial ecosystems. Specifically, Bryn investigates how dryland plants respond to water stress and how these responses shape ecosystem structure, function, and resilience to climate change. In her doctoral research, she developed a nov ...
Yakira Mirabito
Yakira Mirabito is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in mechanical engineering whose research is focused on decision-making in design and the integration of engineering design with organizational management. The goal of her work is to empower engineers to build higher-performance products through innovative design processes that integrate sociotechnical factors. In her doctoral research, Yakira investigated the impacts of various sociotechnica ...
Cholpisit (Ice) Kiattisewee
Cholpisit (Ice) Kiattisewee is a School of Engineering Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow in biological engineering whose research is focused on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and engineered living therapeutics, or living organisms crafted for treating human diseases. As a doctoral student, he developed a novel CRISPR-based technology to regulate microbial behavior and metabolism that can function in diverse bacteria. Supported by a postdoctoral fellowship, Ice will p ...