Our leadership and team science philosophy: Leadership is intentionally establishing norms that allow others to bring their full selves into a space such that a group of individuals becomes more than the sum of their parts – augmenting the group’s ability to identify and achieve collective goals, while respecting the lived experience, motivations, and aspirations of individual members. [Akpa, 2022]
PI
Belinda S Akpa is a Senior Staff Scientist in the Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Joint Associate Professor in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee.
Postdocs
Charles Hodgens (UTK)
Focus: Multiscale modeling of vacuole fusion in guard cells
PhD, Genetics and Molecular Biology, UNC-Chapel Hill 2020
Email
Nolan English (ORNL) 
Focus: Systems modeling for AI-driven drug design
PhD, Quantitative Biosciences, Georgia Tech 2022
Email
Graduate Students
David Flaherty (NCSU)
Focus: Machine intelligence in defining ‘tiny data’ biomodels
BS Genetics, North Carolina State University
PhD candidate, Comparative Biomedical Sciences, NC State
Email
Mustafa Farahat (UTK)
BS Chemical Engineering, Iowa State University
PhD candidate, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UT-Knoxville
Email
Ghizelle Abarro (UTK)
BS & MS Materials Engineering, University of the
Philippines Diliman
PhD candidate, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UT-Knoxville
Email
Undergraduate and Other Researchers
Lydia Gillan
BS candidate, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
University Scholar, NC State University
Joined us in her Freshman year (Summer 2019)
Email
Mikayla Hall
BS candidate, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
University of Tennessee
Email
Thomas Simunovic
BS candidate, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering
University of Tennessee
Email
Alumni (Postdoc)
Phuong Nguyen
PhD, Theoretical Biophysics, University of Otago 2017
PhD, Mathematical Biology, University of Auckland 2013
Alumni (Graduate)
Dr Nicolas Barbera (UIC)
Thesis: Uncovering the Functional Effects of Multifaceted Cholesterol-Kir2 Interactions via Molecular Modeling
Co-advised with Prof. Irena Levitan
PhD, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2020)
Currently: AHA Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Virginia
Dr Manuela A A Ayee
Thesis: Molecular modeling of endogenous and exogenous toxins at phospholipid interfaces
PhD, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2015)
Past: T32 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Dept of Medicine, UIC
Currently: Associate Professor, Dordt University
Justin D Carlson
MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2014)
BS Chemistry, Pacific Lutheran University (2007)
Bernard Hsu
PharmD, University of Illinois at Chicago, (2015)
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago
First position: Novo Nordisk
Ilin Kuo
MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2012)
BS, Biochemistry
First position: Depomed
Akshaya S T Polaepalli
MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2016)
BS, Chemical Engineering
Rubin D Torf
MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2013)
BS, Astronomy
First position: SunCoke Energy
Alejandro J Trimarchi
MS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2013)
BS, Chemical Engineering
First position: Rich Products
Aniket Antad
Focus: Machine learning, automated image analysis for live cell imaging
B.E. Electronics and Telecommunication, Pune University (2015)
MS, Electrical & Computer Engineering, NCSU (2019)
First position: Amazon
Shalin Rathi
Focus: Machine learning, automated image analysis for live cell imaging
MS, Electrical & Computer Engineering, NCSU (2020)
Alumni (Undergraduate and Other)
Linda Quan
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2011)
Joined us in her Junior year
First position: Engineer at Baxter Healthcare
Elizabeth Moscoso
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2012)
Joined us in her Senior year (Spring 2012)
First position: Cargill
Amber May
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2014)
Joined us in her Junior year (Summer 2013)
David Alonso
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2015)
Joined us in his Sophomore year (Summer 2013)
Zamia Siddiqui
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago
Joined us in her Sophomore year (Spring 2014)
Shambhu Shah
BS Biology, Loyola University
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2015)
Joined us in his Junior year (Spring 2014)
Michael Getz
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2015)
Joined us in his Sophomore year (Summer 2013-Summer 2015)
First position: PhD student, UC San Diego
Richard Murphy
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago
Joined us in his Sophomore year (Summer 2014-Summer 2015)
First position: Carlisle Construction Materials
Jessica Shoukry
BS Candidate, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago
Joined us in her Junior year (Summer 2014-Summer 2015)
First position: Cornerstone Controls
Kelly Corbitt
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2015)
Joined us in her Junior year (Summer 2014-Summer 2015)
Talha Al-Zoubi
BS Candidate, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2016)
Joined us in his Junior year (Fall 2014-Summer 2015)
First Position: PhD student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Charles Roth
BS Biochemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2016)
Joined us in his Sophomore year (Spring 2015-Spring 2016)
First position: Perfection Plating
Rohan Shah
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2017)
Joined us in his Sophomore Year (Summer 2015-Spring 2017)
First position: Middough, Inc.
Mohammad Noful
BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago (2017)
Joined us in his Sophomore year (Summer 2015-Spring 2017)
First position: OPW
Caroline Moody
BS Candidate, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and International Studies
Joined us in her Sophomore Year (Summer 2017)
Dylan Jackson
BS Candidate, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Joined us in his Junior Year (Summer 2017)
Erik Switzer
BS, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (2019)
Joined us in his Sophomore Year (Summer 2017)
First Position: TRC Companies, Inc.
Zohaib Qazi
PhD Candidate, Electrical and Computer Engineering
(Summer 2017)
Nicholas Biondo
BS, Animal Sciences, North Carolina State University (2018)
CALS Honors Program
Joined us in his Sophomore Year (2016-2018)
First position: MS student, North Carolina State University
Kerrington Shade
BS candidate, Applied Mathematics
Goodnight Scholar
Joined us in her Sophomore year (Fall 2018)
Micah Council
BS candidate, Economics and Chemistry, University of Miami
Summer REU (2019)
Pooja Parameswaran
BS, Biochemistry
University Honors Program
Joined us in her Sophomore year (Fall 2018)