Doctoral Oral Exams for August 4, 2025 – August 8, 2025

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

Katherine Rickelton, PhD., Molecular and Cellular Biology
Monday, August 4, 2025, 1:00PM, LSL 610.
Dissertation: “Metabolic Contributions to Primate Brain Evolution: Insights from Molecular and Functional Analyses.” Courtney Babbitt, Chair.

Shivangi Bajpai, PhD., Kinesiology
Tuesday, August 5, 2025, 10:00AM, Furcolo W201. 
Dissertation: “Assessing the Utility of Wearable Technology in Monitoring Health of Women and Women Caregivers for Dementia.” Amanda Paluch, Chair.

Chae Young Paek, PhD., Philosophy
Tuesday, August 5, 2025, 10:00AM, via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “Doing Things Together: Shared Agency and Autonomy.” Ned Markosian, Chair.

Xiupe Zhou, PhD., Plant and Soil Science
Tuesday, August 5, 2025, 12:30PM, Paige Lab 202 and via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “Nanoplastics in Water: Roles of Minerals, Antibiotics, and Organic Matter in their Environmental Fate and Process.” Baoshan Xing, Chair.

Noor Mohammed, PhD., Electrical and Computer Engineering
Wednesday, August 6, 2025, 11:00AM, via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “Intra-Body Power Transfer and Backscatter Communication.” Jeremy Gummeson, Chair.

Eric P. Chia, PhD., Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Wednesday, August 6, 2025, 1:00PM, Kellogg Engineering Lab II. 
Dissertation: “Percolation-Driven Tuning of Electrotechnical Behavior in Polydimethylsiloxane-Conductive Protein Nanowire (PDMS-CPN) Polymer Nanocomposites.” Stephen S. Nonnenmann, Chair.

Mingdi Jiang, PhD., Chemistry
Wednesday, August 6, 2025, 10:00AM, Goessmann 153. 
Dissertation: “Polymer-Based Multichannel Sensor Arrays for Advancing Cell-Based Diagnostics and Drug Discovery.” Vincent Rotello, Chair.

Mashrur Rashik, PhD., Computer Science
Friday, August 8, 2025, 11:00AM, LGRC A311. 
Dissertation: “Human-Centered Design of Contextually Appropriate Conversational Agents for Enhancing Public Interaction, Engagement, and Multimodal Experiences.” Narges Mahyar, Chair.

Shib Dasgupta, PhD., Computer Science
Friday, August 8, 2025, 2:00PM, CS 243. 
Dissertation: “Box Embeddings as Set-Theoretic Representations for Information Retrieval and Recommender Systems.” Andrew McCallum, Chair.

Mary Chase Sheehan, PhD., Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Friday, August 8, 2025, 9:30AM, Marcus Hall Gunness Student Center. 
Dissertation: “Simulation Guided Energy Delivery Designs for Pulsed Electric Field Applications.” Govind Sromathveeravalli, Chair.

Sheraden ‘Denny’ Bobot, PhD., Education
Friday, August 8, 2025, 10:00AM, via Zoom. 
Dissertation: “Exposing Administrative Gaps in Trans Inclusion within Higher Education: An (Auto)ethnographic Exploration of Trans Kinship Networks at UMass Amherst.” Ezekiel Kimball, Chair.

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