Where we are from!
Current members
(352)392-1864
Victoria Morgan
PhD student, ABE Graduate Fellow, ABEGSO acting President
Victoria's interests are in creating a safer and more sustainable environment for people and the planet through development of nanosensors coupled with risk models. Her primary focus is on sensing and modeling of mercury (Hg) from to Artisanal Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) for vulnerable communities in Colombia. By combining data from her sensors to create heat maps with socio-economic factors, she wants to create a risk assessment model determining how knowledge on the issue can affect human behavior and the best remediation steps to mitigate the problem for the communities and government.
Education and Training
BS Millsaps College
Biology Department
(352)392-1864
Nicholas Cavallaro
PhD student, ABEGSO Past President
Nicholas’s interests lie in creating devices to benefit human health through improving food safety. His primary focus is on creating impedemetric biosensors for the detection of the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. He is working on engineering disposable pathogen detection test strips using laser scribed graphene (LSG). His work also includes characterization of flexible LSG circuits to determine ideal conditions for biosensing purposes. Conventional methods of bacterial detection, such as polymerase chain reaction, colony counting, and immunological methods take hours to days to complete. He is working to develop a sensor that is comparable to the current performance of conventional methods with the aim of improving rapid pathogen detection by reducing the time for detection from hours to minutes.
CV
Education and Training
BS University of Florida
Department of Chemical Engineering
(352)392-1864
Dong Xiang
MS student
Dong is working on wireless electrodes for monitoring soil chemistry.
Education and Training
Google scholar
Research gate
BS Lanzhou University (China)
Biotechnology
CV
(352)392-1864
Yifan Tang
MS student
Yifan is working on entropic patterning of electrodes and application for measuring neonicitinoids in water, honey, and wax samples.
Education and Training
Google scholar
Research gate
BS Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (China)
Agriculture
CV
Research assistants
Visiting scientists
Rebecca J Austin-Datta
Rebecca is a MPH student and is interested in low cost devices for environmental and public health.
Undergraduate researchers
Zoe Wexelman
Zoe is a junior in chemical engineering and is working on analysis of laser scribed graphene electrodes for food safety biosensors. Zoe is also co-developing a vacuum system with integrated sensors.
Ayla Sage
Ayla is a sophomore in biological engineering and is working on low cost sensors for analysis of metals and bacteria in water. Ayla is also interested in digital twins and 3d printing.
Julianna Crews
Julianna is a sophomore in biological engineering and is working on electrochemical sensors based on flexible carbon circuits.
Jordan Milano
Jordan is a freshman in biology and is working on analysis of bacteria detection using portable carbon circuits functionalized with aptamers.
Enoch Kuo
Enoch is a junior in biological engineering and is working on analysis of an origami multiplexing electrode system for rapid analysis of water quality. Enoch is interested in point of care medicine and vulnerable communities.
Kristin Thorne
Kristin is a freshman in biomedical engineering and is interested in sensors for analysis of heavy metals in drinking water.
Kelli McCourt
Kelli is a senior in biological engineering and is working on analysis of laser scribed graphene electrodes, and smart systems for plant growth in challenging environments.
Zöe Davis
Zoe is a McNair scholar working on pathogen biosensors for water quality.
Previous members
Visiting scientists
Lynda Harris
Lynda is a 3rd grade teacher at JJ Finley Elementary School (Gainesville, FL). Lynda is interested in the STEM process and how to create STEM activities for K-6 students. Lynda was a NSF MRET scholar in summer 2018
Yuehong Pang
Yuehong is an Associate Professor of Food Science and Technology at Jiangnan University (China). Yuehong worked with us in 2014 to study biosensors for biogenic amines.
Meagan Vaughn
Meagan is a 2nd grade teacher at JJ Finley Elementary School (Gainesville, FL) interested in the process of instilling a spirit of engineering in the students and ultimately inspire them to make the world a better place. Meagan was a NSF MRET scholar in summer 2018
Graduate students
Undergraduate students
Yue Rong
Yue graduated with a PhD in 2017 and is now a Post Doc at UCF (Orlando, FL)
email: yuerong@ufl.edu
Stephanie L. Burrs
Stephanie graduated with a PhD in 2015 and is now an assistant professor at Texas A&M Prairie View University
(Prairie View, Texas)
email: slburrs@pvamu.edu
Masashige Taguchi
Masashige graduated in 2015 with a PhD and is now a reserach scientist at Clara-Schumann Strasse
(Berlin, Germany)
email: mtaguchi@whitney.ufl.edu
Diana Vanegas
Diana graduated with a MS in 2012, and a PhD in 2014. Diana is now an assistant professor at Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia)
email: vanegas.d.c@gmail.com
Jeff Suen
Jeff graduated in 2014 with an MS and is now a PhD student at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
email: jeffsuen@ufl.edu
Hetal Maharaja
Hetal graduated with an MS in 2014 and is now a PhD student at Clemson University (Clemson, SC)
email: maharajahu@gmail.com
Prachee Chaturvedi
Prachee graduated with a PhD in 2014 and is now lead a project leader at Monsanto Co. (St. Louis, MO)
Abhishek Deshkmuth
Abhishek was a Khorana scholar for Fall 2018 and worked on surface plasmon resonance sensors for metal detection. He is now working on a BS at University of Pune, India.
Yang (Alessia) Shen
Yang was an SSTP student in 2018 and is now in her senior year of high school in NY.
Kyle Hagerty
Kyle graduated in biochemistry (2018) and is now in medical school at UF.
Hannah Schmidt
Hannah graduated in biological engineering (2018) and is now a research fellow at NIH.
Robert Hjort
Robert graduated in biological engineering (2018) and is now a PhD student at Iowa State (Gomes lab).
Ishika Khondaker
Ishika graduated in chemical engineering (2018) and is now a research fellow at NIH.
John Hursh
John graduated in chemical engineering (2018) and is now a research scientist at NRL.
Samantha Winter
Sam was a SURF student in 2017 and is currently a senior at Marquette.
Andrea Padron
Andrea graduated in biological engineering in 2017 and is now a PhD student at Rice University
Brandon Meyer
Brandon graduated from chemical engineering in 2017 and is now an engineer at Packaging Corp. of America
Carlos Ramirez
Carlos graduated from chemical engineering in 2017 and is now a research scientist at the University of Miami.
John Kiernan Lewis
John graduated in 2016 and is now a research scientist at Design Thinking.
Neil Schwalb
Neil graduated in 2014 and works at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory on research related to Planetary Protection.
Katelyn Ward
Katelyn graduated in 2014 and is a medical school student at Northwestern University.
Grace Justinvil
Grace graduated in 2014 and is a PhD student at the University of Michigan. Google Scholar P
Mathew Shupler
Matt graduated in 2014 and is now a PhD student at George Washington University.
Samuel Frey
Sam was an NSF REU student in 2012 and is now an engineer for Water ReSource.
Andrew Neal
Andrew was an NSF REU student in 2012 and is now a graduate student at Penn State.
Madeline Porterfield
Madeline was an NSF REU student in 2011 and is now a student at Parson's School of Design.
