Hear from experts in areas like cultural bias and specialized physics fields!
Material Physics
Dr. Yongmei Jin is a Professor at MTU in the Materials Science and Engineering department. Her research interests include microstructure evolution in crystalline solids, solid state phase transformations, magnetic domains, single crystal diffraction and diffuse scattering, and computational materials science.
Cultural Bias Roundtable
Cassy Tefft de Muñoz is the Executive Director for the Center for Educational Outreach at MTU.
Grad School Panel
Dr. Ranjit Pati is the Graduate Director for the Physics department at MTU. His research primarily focuses on addressing some of the fundamental challenges associated with nanoscience. Specifically, his research tries to answer some of the open questions pertaining to the electron (both charge and spin) transfer process involving nanoscale junction in a non-equilibrium condition using quantum many body theory.
Optics & quantum Computing
Dr. Jae Yong Suh is an Associate Professor at MTU in the Physics department. He studies the light-matter interactions and quantum optics on nanoscale platforms (i.e. nanostructures), coherent and nonlinear processes in metal or semiconductor nanocavities, and time-resolved laser spectroscopy and nanofabrications.
Early Career Panel
Jarrod Wong is the Head of Engineering and the Founding Engineer at Chloris Geospatial. He has led the development of Chloris’s software and infrastructure for petabyte-scale data processing from day one. In his daily work, Jarrod manages the engineering team, coordinates the efforts of the science team, and aligns technical work with the commercial team and product development.
Microscope Workshop
Dr. Freitas worked for the multiuser electron microscopy facility at UFMG for 12+ years (2009-2021) with the day-to-day operation of the TEM and managed the TEM lab for 4 years (2017-2021). At Michigan Tech, he manages the FEI 200kV Titan Themis STEM in the Electron Optics Facility of ACMAL, the Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory.
Cultural Bias Roundtable
Dr. Demet Usanmaz is an assistant professor at Kettering University and specializes in material science, thermodynamics, and thermal conductivity.
Material Science
Dr. Pandey is the Chair for the Physics department at MTU. His research interests are in the area of Computational Materials Physics. These include development of theoretical methods and computer programs, as well as analysis of specific materials and defects.
Grad School Panel
Tiffany Jaeger is the Manager of Graduate Student Outreach & Retention at MTU.
Identity in Teaching & Learning
Dr. Adrienne Minerick’s is the Director of MTU’s ADVANCE program. Her primary area of research is electrokinetics with a focus on medical microdevices, blood cell dynamics, and point of care diagnostics.
Work-Life Balance Panel
Dr. Mazzoleni is an Associate Professor in the Chemistry department of MTU. Her primary research interests are to identify organic aerosol constituents from a variety of atmospheric environments. Her research group uses advanced mass spectrometry (MS) techniques to identify organic molecules from atmospheric complex mixtures.
Identity in Teaching & Learning
Dr. Shari Stockero is the Director of Teacher Education, Psychology and Human Factors at MTU. Her research focuses on mathematics teacher noticing, mathematics teaching practice, and teacher professional development.
Success in Research Panel
Dr. Diane Oyen is a Scientist and Team Leader of Artificial Intelligence in the Information Sciences Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Optics & Quantum Computing Dr. Jacek Borysow is a professor at Michigan Tech and specializes in nonlinear ramen spectroscopy.
Astrophysics & Particle Physics
Dr. Huentemeyer is a Distinguished Professor in the Physics department of MTU. She is currently interested in the study of gamma and cosmic rays to solve the century-old puzzle of the origin of galactic cosmic rays.
Grad School Panel
Dr. Will Cantrell is the Dean of the Graduate School at MTU. He and his students study contact freezing by conducting controlled, laboratory experiments in an attempt to isolate the most important physical and chemical characteristics of the particles that catalyze the phase transition.
Identity in Teaching & Learning
Paige Short serves as associate director of operations in Michigan Tech’s Engagement and Belonging department, where she uses her expertise in project management and process improvement to enhance University operations and build an inclusive campus environment.
Astrophysics
Dr. Elena Giusarma is an Assistant Professor in the Physics department at MTU, She is a cosmologist working on the interplay between theory and data analysis. Her work is focused on analyzing cosmological datasets and performing statistical inference to learn about the origin, evolution, and composition of our Universe.
Work-Life Balance Panel
Dr. Christina Othon is a Professor of Physics at Ripon College in Wisconsin. Her research focuses on how liquid dynamics can modify and regulate biological processes.
Early Career Panel 2
Dr. Ami DuBois is a Physicist at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
Identity in Teaching & Learning Dr. Laura McCullough is a professor at the University of Wisconsin – Stout and conducts research for gender and leadership in STEM, gender and science and physics education research.
Optics & Quantum Computing Dr. Miguel Levy is a professor at Michigan Tech and specializes in photonics.
Cultural Bias Roundtable
Christopher Sanders is the Assistant Director for the Center for Diversity and Inclusion at MTU.
Success in Research Panel
Dr. Claudio Mazzoleni is the Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Ph.D. Program at MTU. His research in the Environmental Optics Laboratory involves the study of the effects that anthropogenic and natural particulates suspended and transported in the atmosphere (aerosols) have on Earth’s climate and air quality.
Nanotube Workshop
Dr. Yoke Khin Yap is the Director of Applied Physics Graduate Program at MTU. He is interested in the fundamentals of synthesis, characterization, and applications of quantum materials and nanomaterials, including B-C-N nanostructures (carbon, boron nitride, boron carbon-nitride, carbon nitride, boron, etc); Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs); and ZnO.
Material Science
Dr. Alexandra Glover is an Assistant Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering department at MTU. Her research interests include mechanical behavior of materials, strengthening mechanisms, deformation processing and design for manufacturing, shape memory alloys, and deformation induced phase transformations.
Cultural Bias Roundtable
Julia Keleher is the Director for Diversity and Inclusion at MTU.
Early Career Panel 2
Dr. Rita Sambruna is the Deputy Director for the Astrophysics Division, Science Exploration Directorate.
Success in Research Panel
Dr. Laura McCullough is a professor at the University of Wisconsin – Stout and conducts research for gender and leadership in STEM, gender and science and physics education research.
Hear the from the perspective of Students and Post-Docs at MTU!
Grad Student Panel 1
Kathryn is a first-year graduate student studying physics and teaching first-year undergraduate labs here at Michigan Tech. Her research interests include gamma-ray and multi-messenger astrophysics.
Grad Student Panel 2
Success in Research Panel
Rhiannon is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Physics department and works with Dr. Huentemeyer to study galactic cosmic-ray accelerators through gamma-ray astronomy.
Work-Life Balance
David Gordon is a third year undergraduate physics student at Michigan Tech.
Grad Student Panel 1
Casey Aldrich is a 2nd year PhD candidate studying under Dr. Issei Nakamura. Her research interests are in computational soft matter physics and physics-informed machine learning.
Grad School Panel 1
Aaron Wildenborg is a 5th year PhD candidate under Dr. Jae Yong Suh. He is currently conducting research in Quantum Optics.
Grad Student Panel 2
Jester Itliong is a 4th year PhD candidate researching under Dr. Issei Nakamura. He primarily focuses on soft condensed matter.
Python Workshop
Siddhart Karkhanis is a 4th year PhD candidate researching with Dr. Issei Nakamura. His interests include computational soft matter physics and materials modelling & simulations.
Reflections on Grad School
Dr. Supriya Senapati is a post-doc at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Grad Student Panel 2
Shikha Rani is a 2nd year PhD candidate with Dr. Tiffany Lewis, where she investigates astrophysics phenomena.
Grad School Panel 3
Dr. Xiaojie Wang is a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan Technological University, working with the HAWC Gamma-ray Observatory and contributing to the development of the next-generation Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO). She has also made significant contributions to the field through leadership roles within large international collaborations and mentoring students.