Doctoral Oral Exam Schedule

The Graduate Dean invites all graduate faculty to attend the final oral examinations for the doctoral candidates scheduled as follows:

Doctoral Oral Exams for October 5, 2026 – October 9, 2026

Elahe Yahyapour Demouchali, PhD., Civil Engineering. 
Friday, October 9, 2026, 11:00AM, Marston Hall 234. 
Dissertation: “Trustworthy AI for Safety: Perception, Decision-Making and Explanation.” Chengbo Ai, Chair.

Doctoral Oral Exams for September 28, 2026 – October 2, 2026

Pracheta Boddavaram Amaranath, PhD., Computer Science. 
Monday, September 28, 2026, 10:30AM, CSL E400 and via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “The Interface of Simulation and Causal Modeling.” David Jensen, Chair.

David Pritchard, PhD., English. 
Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 1:00PM, via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “The Making of New Narrative: The Politics of Gay Liberation and the Poetics of Revolutionary Agency.” Ruth Jennison, Chair

Yu-Zhen Chen, PhD., Computer Science. 
Wednesday, September 30, 2026, 12:00PM, CSL E239 and via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “Toward Resource-Efficient Decision-Making for Networked Systems.” Donald Towsley, Chair.

Shradha Khanduja, PhD., Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. 
Thursday, October 1, 2026, 11:00AM, LSL N410 and via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “Engineering Next-Generation Bacterial Therapies for the Treatment of Solid Tumors.” Neil S. Forbes, Chair.

Connor Witt, PhD., Polymer Science and Engineering. 
Friday, October 2, 2026, 9:00AM, Conte Polymer Research Building A110/A111. 
Dissertation: “From Bottlebrush Polymers to Ordered Carbon: Bottlebrush Self-Assembly, Templating Strategies, and Advanced Carbonization Techniques.” Gregory N. Tew and James Watkins, Co- Chairs.

Roxana Popescu, PhD., Astronomy. 
Friday, October 2, 2026, 9:00AM, LGRT 1033. 
Dissertation: “Measuring Dust in Galaxies of Different Metallicities and Within Various Environments at Cosmic Noon.” Alexandra Pope, Chair.

Cruz David, PhD., Philosophy. 
Friday, October 2, 2026, 1:00PM, South College E301. 
Dissertation: “Truly Biased: Getting Licit Bias from Nature’s Proclivities.” Hilary Kornblith, Chair.

Doctoral Oral Exams for September 14, 2026 – September 18, 2026

Sandra Bustamante Gonzalez, PhD., Astronomy. 
Tuesday, September 22, 2026, 12:00PM, 1033 LGRT. 
Dissertation: “Heterodyne Instrumentation for the Large Millimeter Telescope and Next-Generation of the Event Horizon Telescope.” Gopal Narayanan, Chair.

Ozge Bakay, PhD., Linguistics. 
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 10:00AM, N400 ILC. 
Dissertation: “Structuring Linguistic Memory: Investigations with the Turkish Reciprocal.” Brian Dillon and Faruk Akkus, Co-Chairs.

Ruya Ji, PhD., Food Science. 
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 10:30AM, via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “Gut Microbiota-Mediated Degradation of Food-Grade Iota-Carrageenan and its Pro-Inflammatory Effects in Vitro and In Vivo.” Hang Xiao, Chair.

Gina Georgadarellis, PhD., Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. 
Wednesday, September 23, 2026, 11:00AM, Kellogg Room ELab II. 
Dissertation: “Investigating Nurse + Engineer Collaboration for Designing Technology in the Hospital Setting.” Frank Sup IV, Chair.

Ryan Ent, PhD., Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. 
Friday, September 25, 2026, 2:00PM, Kellogg Room. 
Dissertation: “Three Essays on Day Ahead Imbalance Reserves in Wholesale Electricity Markets.” Golbon Zakeri, Chair.

M. Victoria Acevedo-Estupinan, PhD., Food Science. 
Friday, September 25, 2026, 1:30PM, Chenoweth Lab 210A. 
Dissertation: “Lipid Oxidation of Oleosomes: The Importance of the Food Matrix.” Eric Decker, Chair.

Doctoral Oral Exams for September 14, 2026 – September 18, 2026

Kaushal Sumaria, PhD., Mechanical Engineering. 
Thursday, September 17, 2026, 9:00AM, N210 LSL. 
Dissertation: “Design and Fabrication of Stretchable Electronics and Dielectrics for Chronic Use Bioelectronics.” Tingyi “Leo” Liu, Chair.