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
Thomas Bone | Lab Page | LinkedIn
 Direct Fusion Drive

Nicolas Umberto Bolatto
Victoria Britcher
Frank Cianciarulo

 Robotics Using Pneumatic Artificial Muscles
Ian DesJardin | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
 Space Debris Detection Through Plasma Acoustic Techniques
Travis Duchene |Lab Page|LinkedIn 
 Experimental Hypersonic Aerodynamics
Grant Duemmel
Eric Frizzell | Lab Page | LinkedIn
 Post-Impact Granular Dilation on Airless Bodies
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
Joshua Martin | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Autonomy, Controls, and Systems for Scientific Exploration of Extreme Environments
Samuel Maszkiewicz
Curtis Merrill
Joseph Mockler

Sharan Nayak | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar | YouTube
 Motion Planning of Autonomous Robotic Systems
Nathan O'Brien
Antonio Giovanni Schoneich
| Lab Page | LinkedIn
 Experimental Hypersonic Aerodynamics
Cole Sousa
 Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition
Rachel Suitor | Lab Page | LinkedIn
 Cooperative Control of Autonomous Underwater Sensor Networks
Logan Swaisgood
Edward Tocco
Joseph Tolone
Grazchella Vicente
| Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
Jacob Ward
Sarah Wielgosz
Nathan Witztum

Bioengineering

Shohini Banerjee | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
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
Camilla Edwards
Bailey Felix

Rebecca Hays
Anjana Hevaganinge
Romanus Hutchins
| LinkedIn
 Biomedical Imaging Using Brillouin Spectroscopy
Courtney Johnson | Lab Page | LinkedIn
 Immunoengineering Using Mechanobiology for Diabetic Tissue Engineered Therapies
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
Eva Orozco Morett
Divya Muthusamy
Idrisa Rahman
Ann Ramirez
| Lab PageLinkedIn | 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 | LinkedInGoogle 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 PageLinkedIn | Google Scholar
 Ingestible Devices for Diagnosing GI Diseases
Briahnah Streeter
Ivy Vien
Jan Oliver Viyar

Callie Weber | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar
 Sex Differences in Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cells
Sydney Yang | Lab Page | ORCID
 Mucin-based Hydrogels as Tools for Immune Modulation

Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Martin Ahn
Robert Allsopp
| Lab Page | ORCID | Google Scholar
 Cellular Signaling from an Atomistic and Thermodynamic View
Faraz Burni
Sichao Cheng
| LinkedIn | Google Scholar
Michael Danner | LinkedIn | ORCID
Materials for Energy Efficiency, Electrochemical Engineering, Nano-materials
Richard Hoft | LinkedIn
 Solid-State Batteries
Karl Larson | LinkedIn
 Solid State Batteries
Joshua Little | Lab PageLinkedIn | 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
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
Nneoma Ugwu 
Linda Waters
| LinkedIn
 Leveraging Federal Disaster Outlays to Achieve Sustainability Targets

Electrical & Computer Engineering

Dimitris Amiridis
Erin Avllazagaj
| Lab Page | LinkedIn | Google Scholar
 Malware Analysis and Big Data Mining
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
Charlie Fisher
Sorah Fischer 
 Quantum Materials and Optics
Andrew Goffin
Samuel Harper
| Lab Page | Directory Page
 Quantum Optics for Quantum Networking Applications
Brian Holt
Brendan Jordan

 Fabrication and Characterization of 2-D heterostructures
Hunter Kippen | LinkedIn
 Post Quantum Cryptography
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
Oslan Ozbay
 Hardware security (potential attacks and defenses)
Michael Pedowitz | Lab Page | ORCID
 Deposition of Thin film Oxides on Graphene Heterostructures
Nathaniel Renegar
Jazzmin Robinson
| Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID
 Optoelectronic Analog Processing
Katie Ruland
Ariana Spalter
Stefan Waczynski

Materials Science & Engineering

Felix Adams | LinkedIn
Computational Materials Science, Autonomous Experimentation
Rachel Beall |LinkedIn|ORCID
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
Patricia Gonzales
Michael Hinshelwood
John Hoerauf
| Lab Page
Neuromorphic Computing Materials Development
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
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
Richmond Wang | LinkedIn
 Pulsed Laser Deposition of Oxide Functional Materials
Meryl Wiratmo

Mechanical Engineering

Kieran Barvenik
Arko Chatterjee
Deng Yun Chen

Adira Colton | Lab Page | LinkedIn
Nano-scale 3D Printing for Biomedical Applications
Cashen Diniz
Allen Garcia | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar
 Natural Language Processing
Nathan Hoffman
Anthony Jones
Elizabeth Jordan
| LinkedIn | ORCID
Optimization and Decision Support Systems
Emils Jurcik
Adetola Koiki |LinkedIn
 Observing Wildfires through UAVs and Fire Imaging Technologies
Samuel Lee | LinkedIn
 Experimental Fluid-Structure Interaction
Charles Meehan | LinkedIn
 Decision Making for Robotic Grasping and Manipulation Tasks
Colleen Murray |LinkedIn|ORCID|Google Scholar
  Energy Absorption in Cellular Structures
Janel Niska | Lab Page | LinkedIn
 Enhanced Tube Heat Transfer
Connor O'Ryan | Lab Page
 Using Language Processing to Extract Information from Domain Specific Text
Kathryn Pacheco
Jesse Parreira

Michael Xu
Olivia Young
| Lab Page | ORCID | Google Scholar
 Additive Manufacturing for Microfluidics Applications

Reliability Engineering

Lance Curtis
 Use of Entropy to Predict Welded Joint Failure Under Corrosion Fatigue
Camille Levine | Lab Page | LinkedIn | ORCID | Google Scholar
 Improving the Causal Foundations for Human Reliability Analysis in Nuclear Power Applications
Joy Shen | LinkedIn
 Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Flooding of Multi-unit Nuclear Reactor Sites

Clark Doctoral Fellows Alumni

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)
DissertationFormulation 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)
DissertationDevelopment 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
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
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)
DissertationFundamental Understanding of Helicopter Aeromechanics On Mars Through Chamber Testing and High-Fidelity Analysis
Emily Fisler (Ph.D. '22, Aerospace Engineering)
DissertationComprehensive Study and Fundamental Understanding of Lithium Sulfur Batteries for eVTOL
Eugene Froimchuk (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
Dissertation: Leveraging Self-assembly and Biophysical Design to Build Next-generation Immunotherapies
Brandon Gaitan (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
DissertationDevelopment of Fluorescent Imaging Methods and Systems to Determine Photodynamic Potential and Inform Cancer Treatment Efficacy
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)
DissertationStudies of Inclined Flame Instabilities and the Relationship Between Wildland Fire Exposure and Structure Destruction
Samuel Horlick (Ph.D. '21, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
DissertationTuning the Structure and Chemistry of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Electrodes for High Performance and Stable Operation
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)
DissertationScramjet Combustor Mode Transition by Controlling Fuel Injection Distribution
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)
DissertationDynamic 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
Shakiba Nikfarjam (Ph.D. '23, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering)
 DissertationEffect of Protein Folding State and Conformational Fluctuations on Hydrogel Formation and Protein Aggregation
Erfaun Noorani (Ph.D. '23, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
 DissertationRobust 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
Shannon Tsai (Ph.D. '22, Bioengineering)
 Dissertation: Leveraging Biomaterials to Direct Immune Function in Cancer and Autoimmunity
Tyler Sinotte (Ph.D. '20, Aerospace Engineering)
DissertationA Strain-Based Experimental Methodology for Measuring Sectional Stiffness Properties of Composite Blades
Aaron Sorrin (Ph.D. '23, Bioengineering)
 DissertationPhotoimmunotherapy-Based Combination Regimens and Drug Delivery Systems for Ovarian Cancer Treatment​​​​​​​
Justin Stine (Ph.D. ’23, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
DissertationMesoscale Embedded Sensor-Integrated Systems For Localized Biomedical Monitoring​​​​​​​
James Sutherland (Ph.D. '22, Aerospace Engineering)
DissertationDevelopment and Whirl Flutter Testing of Swept-Tip Tiltrotor Blades
Amoolya Tirumalai (Ph.D. '23, Electrical & Computer Engineering)
 DissertationMean-field Approaches in Multi-agent Systems: Learning and Control​​​​​​​
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
Amirhossein Yazdkhasti (Ph.D. '22, Mechanical Engineering)
Dissertation: Passive and Active Graded-index Acoustic Metamaterials: Spatial and Frequency Domain Multiplexing


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