Clark Doctoral Fellows Program

The Clark Doctoral Fellows Program supports high-performing engineering Ph.D. students at the A. James Clark School of Engineering. The program was created as part of Building Together, the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation’s $219.5 million investment in the University of Maryland announced October 2017.

Building Together Apply Now

Clark Doctoral Fellow Adetola Koiki explores the benefits of fire imaging techniques, aspiring to contribute to research that positively impacts lives in the future.

The Clark Doctoral Fellows Program substantially increases the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s number of graduate fellows, supporting 30 first-year doctoral students each year as an impetus for research in strategic and vital areas. These fellows have the potential to become tomorrow’s leaders and innovators, launching technology companies and spearheading lifesaving advances to improve society.

Students selected for this distinguished program will participate in networking receptions, seminars, and other events in support of their academic and professional development. Each Clark Doctoral Fellow receives a travel stipend and works under the guidance of a Clark faculty mentor, selected from some of the Clark School's most highly qualified and successful doctoral advisors.

Eligibility

Must be admitted to a full-time Ph.D. degree program in engineering (includes current M.S. students who have been admitted to the Ph.D. program)
Must be a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S. or its territories

No additional application is required for student applying to Ph.D. programs in the Clark School of Engineering. Each graduate program will nominate applicants that they determine are excellent candidates for the program.

This program will fund the tuition and living stipend of Fellows for their first academic year at the University of Maryland. The first-year award is renewable for three additional fiscal years using departmental resources.

More Information

More information about each program and how to apply can be found at the following links:

Current Clark Doctoral Fellows

Aerospace Engineering

Melissa Adams | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Aerospace Navigation, Satellite and Debris Group Tracking
Matthew Arace
Thomas Bone | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Direct Fusion Drive
Nicolas Umberto Bolatto
Victoria Britcher
Frank Cianciarulo
Robotics Using Pneumatic Artificial Muscles
Travis Duchene |Lab Page|LinkedIn
Hypersonic Fluid-Thermal-Structural Interactions
Grant Duemmel
Antonios Gementzopoulos
Ray-Shimry Garatsa | LinkedIn | ORCID
Multibody Dynamics
Rose Gebhardt
Daniil Gribok
Charles Hanner | Lab Page | LinkedIn |Google Scholar | Youtube
Planetary and Exploratory Rovers and Robots
James Marbaix
Hypersonic CFD & Data-driven Analysis
Joshua Martin | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Autonomy, Controls, and Systems for Scientific Exploration of Extreme Environments
Samuel Maszkiewicz
Kenneth McAfee
Hanna Mitamura | ORCID
High-speed flow
Joseph Mockler
Sharan Nayak | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar | YouTube
Motion Planning of Autonomous Robotic Systems
Nathan O'Brien
Narayan Pillai
Cole Sousa
Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition
Aarun Srinivas | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Rachel Suitor | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Cooperative Control of Autonomous Underwater Sensor Networks
Logan Swaisgood
Edward Tocco
Joseph Tolone
Visesh Uppoor
Grazchella Vicente | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
Jacob Ward
Sarah Wielgosz
Nathan Witztum
Jonathan Wrieden
Tak Ming Yeung

Bioengineering

Shohini Banerjee | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
Evan Benke
Allison Boboltz | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
David Boegner |Lab Page |LinkedIn|ORCID
Engineering Point-of-Care Blood Diagnostics
Ken Brandon
Devorah Cahn
Sean Carey | Lab Page | ORCID
Immune Engineering for Autoimmune Disease
Juan Martin Carrasco Carvajal
Yahya Cheema
Kayla Chun
Camilla Edwards
Bailey Felix
Rebecca Johnson | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Optical therapeutics and nanotechnology
Anjana Hevaganinge
Courtney Johnson | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Immunoengineering Using Mechanobiology for Diabetic Tissue Engineered Therapies
Varun Kochar
Daniel Levy | Lab Page | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
Engineering Extracellular Vesicles for Regenerative Medicine
Jacob McCright
Madelynn McElroy
Shannon McLoughlin | Lab Page | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
Multi-material Extrusion Bioprinting for Craniofacial Bone Tissue Regeneration
Kathryn McNaughton
Kaitlyn Moore
Divya Muthusamy
Joy Odigbo
Eva Orozco Morett
Idrisa Rahman
Ann Ramirez | Lab Page | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
Using Immunoengineering Techniques at Gut Mucosal Surfaces and Lymphatics
Sarah Robertson | LinkedIn | ORCID
Proteolysis-dependent Synaptic Plasticity in the Visual Cortex
Justin Schumacher
James Shamul | Lab Page | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
Micro- and Nanotechnology for Central Nervous System Disease Modeling and Therapeutic Development
Caitlyn Singam
Claire Sissons
Ian Smith
Lauren Smith
Talia Solomon
Michael Straker | Lab Page | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
Ingestible Devices for Diagnosing GI Diseases
Briahnah Streeter
Owen Tabah
Linda Tian
Ivy Vien
Jan Oliver Viyar
Rachel Warren
Sydney Yang | Lab Page | ORCID
Mucin-based Hydrogels as Tools for Immune Modulation
Ronald Yang

Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Martin Ahn
Khakim Asadov
Scott Bernota
Faraz Burni
Sichao Cheng | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
Michael Danner | LinkedIn | ORCID
Materials for Energy Efficiency, Electrochemical Engineering, Nano-materials
Nahin Ferdousi-Rokib | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar | News
Characterization of organic aerosol cloud formation abilities
Richard Hoft | LinkedIn
Solid-State Batteries
Jeffrey Jackson
Rajan Jayasankar
Karl Larson | LinkedIn
Solid State Batteries
Joshua Little | Lab Page | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
Noble Metal Ion-Directed Assembly of 2D Materials for Heterostructured Catalysts
Wright Makambi | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Rational Design of Salivary Peptides
Michael McKee
Ryan James Moore
Robert Morris
Funke Okunrinboye
Alyssa Petersen | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
Vaginal microbiome impact on reproductive health
Maria Florencia Petracci Zappala
Joseph Whitmore | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Thin Film Deposition

Civil & Environmental Engineering

Constantinos Frantzis
Probabilistic Natural Hazard Assessment
Camila Proano
Arturo Ramirez
Mia Renna
Amir Riyahi | Personal Website | LinkedIn
Bioremediation of Contaminated Groundwater
Qadri Shaheen | Personal Website | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar | Research Gate
Innovative Financing and Project Delivery Methods for Infrastructure and Transportation
Linda Waters | LinkedIn
Leveraging Federal Disaster Outlays to Achieve Sustainability Targets

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Dimitris Amiridis
Millicent Ayako |Personal Website|LinkedIn|Google Scholar
Quantum Optics for Quantum Communication Networks
Joseph Brock | Lab Page
Integrated Nanophotonic Devices
Marilyn Duong | LinkedIn
Multi-Agent Control, Optimization, Wireless Sensor Networks
Corey Ferrier
Charlie Fisher
Sorah Fischer
Quantum Materials and Optics
Michael Gill
Samuel Harper | Lab Page | Directory Page
Quantum Optics for Quantum Networking Applications
Brian Holt
Brendan Jordan
Fabrication and Characterization of 2-D heterostructures
Zachary McBride Lazri
Application of Signal Processing and Machine Learning to Health Problems
Isaac McDaniel
Digital Circuit Obfuscation
Nicole Menkart | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
Quantum Optics for Communication
Mahshid Noorani
Peter Ogrinc
Sydney Overton | Personal Website | LinkedIn | ORCID | Lab Page
Oslan Ozbay
Hardware security (potential attacks and defenses)
Nathaniel Renegar
Jazzmin Robinson | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
Optoelectronic Analog Processing
Katie Ruland
Ariana Spalter
Joseph Turner
Stefan Waczynski
Daniel Zakzewski

Materials Science & Engineering

Felix Adams | LinkedIn
Computational Materials Science, Autonomous Experimentation
Rachel Beall |LinkedIn|ORCID
Robert Benke
Gillian Boyce
Kayla Callaway | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar
Transmission Electron Microscopy
William Card
Thomas Farinha | ORCID
Molecular Beam Epitaxy of Topological Semimetal Cd3As2
Daniela Fontecha | LinkedIn
ALD Process Development of Ionic Materials, Thin Film Sodium Solid-state Batteries
Samuel Freed
Jessica Garnett | LinkedIn
Patricia Gonzales
Michael Hinshelwood
John Hoerauf | Lab Page
Neuromorphic Computing Materials Development
Noah Hoppis
Ryan Kim
Dylan J. Kirsch | Lab Page | Directory Page | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar
Sputter Deposition, Transport Property Measurements, Energy Storage & Conversion Materials
Joshua Levy
Jonathan O'Neill | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Transport Simulations for Solid-State Battery Optimization
Justin Pearson
Study of Ferroelectrics for Neuromorphic Devices
Parmida Sadat Alhosseini
William Schubert | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
Solid State Batteries
Arefpour Seyed
Amanda Siciliano |Personal Website |LinkedIn|ORCID|Google Scholar
Sustainable Thermal Insulation Building Materials
Aphrodite Strifas | LinkedIn
Process Optimization and Mechanical Properties Enhancement of HY Steels
Leopoldo Tapia-Aracayo
Meryl Wiratmo
Sarah Wittenburg
Aoife Zuercher

Mechanical Engineering

Reliability Engineering

Lance Curtis
Use of Entropy to Predict Welded Joint Failure Under Corrosion Fatigue
Camille Levine | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar

Expanding the Causal Logic Foundations of Human Reliability Analysis
Joy Shen | LinkedIn
Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Flooding of Multi-unit Nuclear Reactor Sites
Samantha Wismer | LinkedIn | Google Scholar

Clark Doctoral Fellows Alumni

Robert Allsopp (Ph.D. '24, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
Dissertation: Study of Membrane Binding Proteins and Related Signaling Molecules
Erin Avllazagaj (Ph.D. '24, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Disseration: Systematic Analysis of Adversaries' Exploitations of the End-host
Leah Klein Borden (Ph.D. '22, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
Dissertation: Electroadhesion of Hydrogels to Biological Tissues: A Discovery that Could Enable Sutureless Surgery
Louis Born (Ph.D. '21, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Formulation and Delivery of Enhanced Extracellular Vesicles for Wound Repair
Eric Carmona (Ph.D. ’23, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
Dissertation: Assessing The Impact Of Electrochemical-Mechanical Coupling On Current Distribution And Dendrite Prevention In Solid-State Alkali Metal Batteries
Andrew Ceruzzi (Ph.D. '22, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: Development of Two-point Focused Laser Differential Interferometry for Applications in High-speed Wind Tunnels
Ashley Chapin (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Serotonin Sensor-integrated In Vitro Systems as Research Tools to Address the Gut Brain Axis
Lautaro Cilenti (Ph.D. '22, Mechanical Engineering)
Dissertation: Influence of Noise on Response Localizations in Mechanical Oscillator Arrays
Kristen Croft (Ph.D. ’23, Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Dissertation: Copper and zinc interactions and treatment in stormwater bioretention
Sabrina Curtis (Ph.D. ’23, Materials Science & Engineering)
Dissertation: Functionalized Thin-Film Shape Memory Alloys for Novel MEMS Applications
Merrill Curtis (Ph.D. '24, Aerospace Engineering)
Ariana DeCastro (Ph.D. ’23, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Understanding Functional Behaviors of Organotropic Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells
Parham Dehghani (Ph.D. '22, Mechanical Engineering)
Dissertation: Burning Emulations of Condensed Phase Fuels Aboard the International Space Station
Ian DesJardin (Ph.D. '24, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: Signal Processing and Forward Modeling of Space Debris Detection via Plasma Solitons
Metecan Erdi (Ph.D. '22, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
Dissertation: Tissue Adhesive, Sprayable Polymer Blends as Adjuvant Surgical Tools
Rebecca Fedderwitz (Ph.D. ’23, Materials Science & Engineering)
Dissertation: Magnetic nanoparticle inks for syringe printable inductors
Daniel Fernando Escobar (Ph.D. '20, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: Fundamental Understanding of Helicopter Aeromechanics On Mars Through Chamber Testing and High-Fidelity Analysis
Emily Fisler (Ph.D. '22, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: Comprehensive Study and Fundamental Understanding of Lithium Sulfur Batteries for eVTOL
Eric Frizzell (Ph.D. '24, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: Investigating A Possible Lunar Cold Spot Formation Mechanism: Modeling Granular Waves In Surface Regolith Using Soft Sphere Discrete Element Method
Eugene Froimchuk (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Leveraging Self-assembly and Biophysical Design to Build Next-generation Immunotherapies
Brandon Gaitan (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Development of Fluorescent Imaging Methods and Systems to Determine Photodynamic Potential and Inform Cancer Treatment Efficacy
Andrew Goffin (Ph.D. '24, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dissertation: Dynamics and applications of long-distance laser filamentation in air
Steven Guerin (Ph.D. ’23, Materials Science & Engineering)
Dissertation: Radiation Chemistry in Pressurized Water Nuclear Reactors
Seyhan Gul (Ph.D. '22, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: A modern aeromechanical analysis of hingeless hub tiltrotors with model- and full-scale wind tunnel validation
Raquel Hakes Wetson-Dawkes (Ph.D. '21, Mechanical Engineering)
Dissertation: Studies of Inclined Flame Instabilities and the Relationship Between Wildland Fire Exposure and Structure Destruction
Samuel Horlick (Ph.D. '21, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
Dissertation: Tuning the Structure and Chemistry of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electrodes for High Performance and Stable Operation
Romanus Hutchins (Ph.D. '24, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Tunable Atomic Line Monochromators For Brillouin Spectroscopy
Collin Inglut (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Light Activatable Pure Porphyrin Nanoparticles for the Photodynamic Opening of the Blood-brain Barrier and Glioblastoma Treatment
Nathan Johnson (Ph.D. ’23, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
Dissertation: Assessing the thermal safety and thermochemistry of lithium metal all-solid-state batteries through differential scanning calorimetry and modeling
Mithuun Kanapathipillai (Ph.D. '22, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: Scramjet Combustor Mode Transition by Controlling Fuel Injection Distribution
Hunter Kippen (Ph.D. '24 Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dissertation: Advances in Concrete Cryptanalysis of Lattice Problems and Interactive Signature Schemes
Ellery Klein (Ph.D. ’23, Mechanical Engineering)
Dissertation: Development Of Variable Tube Geometry Heat Exchangers Using Adjoint Method With Performance Evaluation Of An Additively Manufactured Prototype
Stephanie Kronstadt (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Assessment of Mechanical Cues to Enhance the Clinical Translation of Extracellular Vesicles
Austin Drisko Lewis (Ph.D. '22, Reliability Engineering)
Dissertation: Dynamic Bayesian Network Data Updating Approaches for Enabling Causal Prognostics and Health Management of Complex Engineering Systems
Barry Liang (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Engineering Light-activatable Nanocomplex to Overcome Multidrug Resistance and Improve Drug Delivery
Ravi Lumba (Ph.D. '22, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: Scalable Domain Decomposition for Parallel Solution of Three-Dimensional Multibody Finite Element Based Rotorcraft Aeromechanics
Madeline Antonia Morales (Ph.D. '22, Materials Science and Engineering)
Dissertation: Understanding the effect of fabrication conditions on the structural, electrical, and mechanical properties of composite materials containing carbon fillers
Colleen Murray (Ph.D. ’24, Mechanical Engineering)
Shakiba Nikfarjam (Ph.D. '23, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
Dissertation: Effect of Protein Folding State and Conformational Fluctuations on Hydrogel Formation and Protein Aggregation
Erfaun Noorani (Ph.D. '23, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dissertation: Robust Reinforcement Learning via Risk-Sensitivity
Ramsay Nuwayhid (Ph.D. '22, Materials Science & Engineering)
Dissertation: Atomic layer deposition of alkali phosphorus oxynitride electrolytes for beyond-lithium nanoscale batteries
Vincent Paglioni (Ph.D. ’23, Reliability Engineering)
Dissertation: Improving the Foundational Knowledge of Dependency in Human Reliability Analysis
Michael Pedowitz (Ph.D. ’24, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dissertation: Novel Graphene Heterostructures for Sensitive Enviromental and Biological Sensing
Shannon Tsai (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Leveraging Biomaterials to Direct Immune Function in Cancer and Autoimmunity
Colin Schell (Ph.D. ’24, Reliability Engineering)
Antonio Schoneich (Ph.D. '24, Aerospace Engineering)
Tyler Sinotte (Ph.D. '20, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: A Strain-Based Experimental Methodology for Measuring Sectional Stiffness Properties of Composite Blades
Aaron Sorrin (Ph.D. '23, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Photoimmunotherapy-Based Combination Regimens and Drug Delivery Systems for Ovarian Cancer Treatment
Justin Stine (Ph.D. ’23, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dissertation: Mesoscale Embedded Sensor-Integrated Systems For Localized Biomedical Monitoring
James Sutherland (Ph.D. '22, Aerospace Engineering)
Dissertation: Development and Whirl Flutter Testing of Swept-Tip Tiltrotor Blades
Amoolya Tirumalai (Ph.D. '23, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Dissertation: Mean-field Approaches in Multi-agent Systems: Learning and Control
Nneoma Ugwu (Ph.D. '24, Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Dissertation: Equity Issues In Electric Vehicle Adoption And Planning For Charging Infrastructure
Kendyl Waddell (Ph.D. ’23, Mechanical Engineering)
Dissertation: Near-Limit Spherical Diffusion Flames and Cool Diffusion Flames
Sally Wang (Ph.D. ’23, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Feedback-controlled Bioelectronic Hybrid System Enable by Electrogenetic CRISPR
Richmond Wang (Ph.D. '24, Materials Science & Engineering)
Dissertation: Synthesis And Characterization Of Oxide Thin Films For Ion Transport
Callie Weber (Ph.D. ’24, Bioengineering)
Dissetartion: Metabolic Profiling of Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells: Investigating the Role of Sex, Stress, APOE Genotype, and Exercise in Alzheimer's Disease Risk
Amirhossein Yazdkhasti (Ph.D. '22, Mechanical Engineering)
Dissertation: Passive and Active Graded-index Acoustic Metamaterials: Spatial and Frequency Domain Multiplexing

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