The University of Massachusetts Amherst

University News

Doctoral Oral Exams for August 2–6

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

Jung Hwan Koh, Ph.D., Resource Economics, Monday, Aug. 2, 10 a.m. Dissertation: “Essays on Franchising in the Service Industry.” Christian Rojas, chr.

Zhengze Li, Ph.D., Food Science, Monday, Aug. 2, 10:30 a.m. Dissertation: “Microbiota-Mediated Metabolism of Curcumin in the Gastrointestinal Tract and its Implications in Anti-Colitis.” Hang Xiao, chr.

Akash Jain, Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Monday, Aug. 2, 11 a.m. Dissertation: “Computational Rational Design of Electrocatalysts for Electrochemical Ammonia and Hydrogen Synthesis.” Ashwin Ramasubramaniam, chr.

Nitish Panigrahy, Ph.D., College of Information and Computer Sciences, Monday, Aug. 2, 12:30 p.m. Dissertation: “Resource Allocation in Distributed Service Networks.” Donald Towsley, chr.

Jinseon Yook, Ph.D., School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 9 a.m. Dissertation: “Importance of Iron Homeostasis in Beige and Brown Adipocytes.” Soonkyu Chung, chr.

Laura J. Castellanos Garcia, Ph.D., Chemistry, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 10 a.m. Dissertation: “Computational Approaches for the Multimodal Imaging of Nanomaterials and their Biochemical Effects.” Richard Vachet, chr.

Shu Zhao, Ph.D., Molecular and Cellular Biology, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 10 a.m. Dissertation: “Applying Genome-Wide Association in the Fungal Pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus to identify the Genetic Contributors of Antifungal Sensitivity and Thermotolerance.” John Gibbons, chr.

Ryan Turner, Ph.D., Sociology, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 3 p.m. Dissertation: “Vegan Food for Thought: Moral Constructions of Animals.” Robert Zussman, chr.

Ana Alonso Ortiz, Ph.D., Hispanic Literature and Linguistics, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 10 a.m. Dissertation: “La adquisición de los verbos posicionales en niño bilingües de zapoteco-español.” Luiz Amaral, chr.

Cecilia Vasquez, Ph.D., Anthropology, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 12:30 p.m. Dissertation: “The Boundaries of Safety: The Sanctuary Movement in the Inland Empire.” Sonya Atalay, chr.

Eirini Pitidou, Ph.D., College of Education, Thursday, Aug. 5, 9 a.m. Dissertation: “Language Ideologies and Bilingual Education Policies in a Dual Language Classroom.” Ysaaca Axelrod, chr.

Joseph Drake, Ph.D., Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Thursday, Aug. 5, 10 a.m. Dissertation: “On Spatiotemporal Connectivity Dynamics: Perspectives from a Naturally Fragmented Metapopulation.” Christopher Sutherland, chr.

Hachem Saddiki, Ph.D., School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Thursday, Aug. 5, 1 p.m. Dissertation: “High-Dimensional Feature Selection and Multi-Level Mediation with Applications to Human Aging and HIV Prevention and Treatment.” Laura Balzar, chr.

Yousef Bagheri, Ph.D., Chemistry, Thursday, Aug. 5, 2 p.m. Dissertation: “Lipid-DNA Conjugate as a Novel Tool for Cell Membrane Modification and Analysis.” Mingxu You, chr.

Khushboo Singh, Ph.D., Chemistry, Friday, Aug. 6, 9 a.m. Dissertation: “Design and Formation of Antibody-Conjugated Nanoparticles for Targeted Delivery of Drugs and Biologics.” S. Thayumanavan, chr.

Satya Shukla, Ph.D., College of Information and Computer Sciences, Friday, Aug. 6, 1 p.m. Dissertation: “Deep Learning Models for Irregularly Sampled and Incomplete Time Series Data.” Benjamin Marlin, chr.

Ayushi Patel, Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Friday, Aug. 6, 2 p.m. Dissertation: “Metabolic Modeling of Biofilm Communities for Biotechnological Applications.” Michael A. Henson, chr.