Katherine Broun
Katherine (Katie) Broun (Chambers Fellow) is a first-year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in medical optics from the University of Rochester. As an undergraduate, she worked for Dr. Whasil Lee using confocal microscopy of shoulder cartilage to determine early rotator cuff tear arthropathy. At Duke, she is working at Duke Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies (GWHT), led by Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam. In GWHT, she hopes to develop low-cost microscopy tools to better understand breast cancer metabolism.
Clare cook
Clare Cook (Chambers Scholar) is a third year PhD student in the Biomedical Engineering department. She graduated with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and is now studying in the Computational Optics Lab under Dr. Roarke Horstmeyer. Clare's research focuses on high speed and high-resolution 3D optical imaging techniques at the mesoscale. Her goal is to design imaging systems and accompanying image processing algorithms to enable real-time 3D visualization for applications such as microsurgery, comparative biology, and studying behavior in model organisms.
Kerry Eller
Kerry Eller (Fitzpatrick Scholar) is a 3rd year biomedical engineering PhD candidate in the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies at Duke University. She also plans to complete an MS in bioethics and science policy. During her undergraduate education at Northeastern University, Kerry completed a B.S. in bioengineering with a minor in political science to develop her expertise in both engineering and policy. Throughout her time at Northeastern, Kerry conducted health research on meniscal tears, assays for visual impairment models in zebrafish, and the musculoskeletal effects of obesity. In Santiago, Chile, she also worked to track vector-borne illness and monitor pesticide exposure in agricultural workers. For her doctoral research under the mentorship of Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam, Kerry is designing tools that will make cervical cancer screening more accessible, comfortable, and empowering for all people who have a cervix. Towards this goal, she is developing a speculum-free colposcope for self-use and a sensor that will measure the biomarkers of HPV in cervical mucus.
khang hoang
Khang Hoang (Chambers Fellow) is a first-year Ph.D. student under Dr. Tuan Vo-Dinh in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Under the guidance of Dr. Vo-Dinh, Khang is advancing Synergistic Immuno Photothermal Nanotherapy (SYMPHONY) for the treatment of unresectable and metastatic cancers. Khang is also developing high-speed Surfaced-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for the detection of microRNA on inverse molecular senitnel sensors (iMS). Prior to Duke, Khang recevied a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering: Biotechnology from the University of California, San Diego. As an undergraduate, Khang worked under Dr. Lingyan Shi to combine ultrafast laser scanning multimodal imaging and spectroscopic technologies, such as stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), Two-photon excitation microscopy (2PEF), and bioorthogonal labeling to visualize metabolic dynamics of chronic diseases in situ with subcellular resolution. Khang is also the recipient of the Pratt-Gardner Graduate Fellowship, the Duke Biomedical Engineering Scholar Award and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF-GRFP).
Amit Narawane
Amit Narawane (Chambers Scholar) is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Izatt. His current research projects focus on new applications of robotically-aligned optical coherence tomography as well as development of handheld optical coherence tomography systems, both for image guidance in ophthalmic diagnostics and procedures. He received a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in History from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to starting his Ph.D., he completed three years of the M.D. program at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and plans to return to complete his medical degree after his time at Duke.
hooman barati sedeh
Hooman Barati Sedeh (Chambers Scholar) received a B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering–communications from Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2019 and his master’s degree in electrical engineering–electromagnetics at Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA, in 2021. He is currently a 3rd-year Ph.D. student, supervised by Professor Litchinitser in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Duke University. His research interest focuses on the theoretical and experimental studies of linear and nonlinear light-matter interaction with subwavelength engineered structures for various applications, including nonlinear optics, chiroptical responses, scattering manipulation, and biomedical imaging.
nicole Vijgen
Nicole Vijgen (Chambers Fellow) is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science department under Dr. Christine Payne. Nicole graduated from Western Washington University with a B.S. in Plastics and Composites Engineering. After her undergraduate studies, Nicole worked as a materials engineer for TE Connectivity, a sensor technology company, focusing mainly on designing and manufacturing an improved polymer-based catheter product for healthcare solutions. In the Payne group, Nicole uses machine learning methods to predict the formation and composition of protein coronas that form on nanoparticle materials when exposed to a biological environment; with nanoparticle properties a significant influence in determining the subsequently formed protein corona, probing material properties, such as surface roughness, with high-resolution microscopy techniques is essential in better understanding the protein corona.