Meet Our Graduates

Marm Dixit graduated from Vanderbilt University Mechanical Engineering with a PhD. in December 2020 under the supervision of Dr. Kelsey Hatzell. Marm worked on understanding the processing-structure-function relationships in solid-state batteries. At Vanderbilt, he investigated failure onset and growth mechanisms for several exemplary solid electrolyte materials, and developed a manufacturing… Read More

Francis Afzal received his Ph.D from Vanderbilt University in Electrical Engineering on December 2020. For his Ph.D work titled “Investigation of Photonic Crystal Nanobeams for Resonator Coupling, Modal Fingerprinting and Wavelength Filtering”, Francis worked under the direction of Dr. Sharon M. Weiss to investigate the optical properties of photonic… Read More

Davis Fehrman received his B.S. in Engineering Science with a concentration in nano-science and technology in 2021 from Vanderbilt University. As an undergraduate, Davis was on the VINSE Technical Crew where he learned valuable skills in photolithography, etching, deposition, and metrology through his work in the… Read More

Savannah DuBose received her B.E. in Chemical Engineering in 2021 from Vanderbilt University. As an undergraduate, Savannah was on the VINSE Technical Crew where she learned valuable skills in photolithography, etching, deposition, and metrology. She used these skills to develop VINSE processes and operating procedures… Read More

Kody Wolfe earned his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science at Vanderbilt University in August 2021 under the supervision of Dr. G. Kane Jennings and Dr. David Cliffel. Kody studied electron transfer between biomolecules and electrode materials with an emphasis on using the Photosystem I (PSI)… Read More

Hannah Hickman received her B.A. in Physics in 2021 from Vanderbilt University. As an undergraduate, Hannah was on the VINSE Technical Crew where she learned valuable skills in photolithography, etching, deposition, and metrology. She used these skills to develop VINSE processes and operating procedures applicable to research in microfluidics,… Read More

Mahmud Reaz earned his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program at Vanderbilt University in July 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Ron Schrimpf . Mahmud studied the fabrication, characterization, and simulation of materials and devices from a reliability standpoint. His research empowered reliability analysis of the semiconductor devices, ICs, components, and SOCs… Read More

Tengfei Cao earned his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science in April 2021 under the direction of Dr. Sharon Weiss. Tengfei investigated the use of nanoscale porous silicon-based label-free optical biosensors towards point-of-care diagnostics applications, with the goal of overcoming challenges that often prevent benchtop lab instruments from being… Read More

Drew Tonigan received his Ph.D. from the Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program at Vanderbilt University program, working with Ron Schrimpf and the team at the Institute for Space and Defense Electronics (ISDE). Drew’s research examined one of the most important reliability challenges for advanced electronics: errors produced… Read More

Liudmyla Prozorovska graduated with a Ph.D. in the Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program at Vanderbilt University in May 2021. Liuda is a native of Ukraine and, prior to Vanderbilt, an honor graduate of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI), BE and MS in Metallurgy. Liuda’s doctoral research in Prof. Kane Jennings’s lab focused… Read More