Our Graduate Fellows
The E.E. Just Graduate Fellowship (EEJGF) is a position awarded to established members of the Dartmouth graduate community who have a deep commitment to the mission of the E.E. Just Program. Graduate Fellows serve as near-peer mentors and role models for undergraduates and beginning graduate students in the E.E. Just Community. Working in collaboration with the Director, Graduate Fellows design and facilitate E.E. Just Programming. As a result of their involvement with the E.E. Just Program, graduate fellows will be better positioned for promising careers in academia and/or industry.
Current Graduate Fellows
Matthew Bazan
Research Mentor: Michael Hoppa, Department of Biological Sciences
Matthew Bazan is an Integrative Neuroscience PhD candidate in Dr. Michael Hoppa's neurobiology lab. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Neuroscience from the University of Georgia in 2024. Currently, his research focuses on developing new microscopy techniques to study the distribution of membrane voltage throughout neurons. Matthew has a longstanding interest in science accessibility and hopes to pursue a career in nonprofit scientific research. As an E.E. Just Graduate Fellow, he is particularly interested in supporting students at transition points throughout their academic and scientific careers.
Adelaide Cagle
Research Mentor: Katherine Hixon, Thayer School of Engineering
A fourth year PhD candidate in Thayer, Adelaide earned her bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering at Binghamton University in New York. An Innovation Fellow in Dr. Katherine Hixon's tissue engineering lab, Adelaide takes a biological and biomaterials approach to restoring dermal barrier function around transcutaneous prosthetics with a particular focus on supporting osseointegration.
Sasha Campana
Research Mentor: Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil, Physics and Astronomy
Sasha Campana (she/her) is a second-year graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. She graduated from Randolph-Macon College with a major in Physics and Minors in Mathematics and Astrophysics. Currently, she is working in Dr. Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil's research group investigating the outskirts of the smallest, faintest galaxies in the universe: ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. Her research goal is to understand how many of these likely early-universe relics are tidally disrupting around the Milky Way. Sasha is passionate about making academia more inclusive and accessible, and is eager to fulfill her role as an E.E. Just Graduate Fellow.
Brian Galaviz Sarmiento
Research Mentors: Kristina Godek and Duane Compton, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Brian Galaviz Sarmiento is a graduate student at Dartmouth's Molecular & Cellular Biology graduate program and a E.E. Just Liftoff Fellow. He was born in Mexico and moved to California, where he obtained his bachelor's in Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California Santa Barbara. His interest in cell biology and developmental biology carried over to his graduate work under Kristina Godek and Duanae Compton. In their lab, Brian studies the mechanism of erroneous chromosome segregation during early human development. Using human pluripotent stem cells as a model of early development, Brian comparares stem cell's cell division to that of somatic cells using quantitative microscopy with the goal to identify differences between the two that explain erroneous cell division in early development.
Miriam Janssen
Research Mentor: Matthijs van der Meer, Psychological & Brain Sciences
Miriam Janssen (she/her) is a second-year graduate researcher in the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department at Dartmouth College. She graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor's in economics and bioengineering. During her post-baccalaureate she worked at the National Institute of Mental Health in Dr. Bruno Averbeck's Section on Learning and Decision-Making. Currently, she works in Dr. Matthijs van der Meer's laboratory to investigate potential coupling between memory replay and reward-teaching signals in the brain using electrophysiology and fiber photometry techniques. She is broadly interested in learning, memory, and value-based decision-making.
Bruno Miranda Henrique
Research Mentor: Eugene Santos Jr., Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
Bruno is a Fulbright PhD Candidate from Brazil, researching Artificial Intelligence. He has been researching applications of Machine Learning and forecasting models to Financial Markets since his Master's degree in Finance. More recently, his research has also included human-AI interaction aspects, such as trust and reliance. Before joining Dartmouth, Bruno worked as a Federal Finance and Control Auditor for the Brazilian Government, auditing state-owned banks.
Natalie Rodriguez
Research Mentor: Bala Chaudhary, Ecology, Evolution, Environment and Society
Natalie Rodriguez is a Ph.D. student in the Ecology, Evolution, Environment, and Society Program. She is originally from Los Angeles, California and graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences and a minor in Chicano/Latino Studies. During her undergraduate education, she worked on community ecology and fungal ecology research in the Mooney Lab and Treseder Lab. Through the support and mentorship from both labs, she led an independent project combining what she learned from both labs and looked at above—and below—interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and biogenic volatile-mediated communication during insect herbivory. After graduating, she spent the summer at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory through a post-baccalaureate award with the Schaeffer Lab (Utah State University). Aside from playing with fungi, Natalie enjoys hiking, running, watching documentaries, and exploring the East Coast.
Jannitta Yao
Research Mentor: C. Brenhin Keller, EARS
Jannitta Yao (she/her) is an Earth Science Ph.D. student at Dartmouth studying the geochemical evolution of Earth's continents with Professor Brenhin Keller. Prior to Dartmouth, Jannitta obtained a B.A. in Geosciences and Computer Science from Wellesley College. Jannitta is excited to join the E.E. Just community as a Graduate Fellow and is committed to increasing representation and accessibility in STEM at Dartmouth.
Recent Past Graduate Fellows
Rayna Rampalli
Research Mentor: Elisabeth Newton, Physics & Astronomy
Born and raised in California, Rayna (she/her) is a graduate student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth. She graduated from Wellesley College with a bachelor's in astrophysics and spent two years doing astronomy research through Columbia University's Bridge to the Ph.D. Program in STEM. With Prof. Elisabeth Newton, she uses stars as tools to understand the evolution of planets and our own Milky Way. Rayna is committed to making science more inclusive and accessible for undergraduates and is excited to engage in this effort as an E.E. Just Graduate Fellow.
Sandile Dube
Program Advisor: Geoffery Parker, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth
Sandile graduated from the Master of Engineering Management program at the Thayer School of Engineering. Prior to joining the program, he worked in health sciences equipment manufacturing, where he led a wide range of high-impact projects in new product development, new product integration, and manufacturing process improvement. Sandile holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Engineering from Dartmouth College. His interests include machine intelligence for manufacturing operations, supply chain optimization, and semiconductor fabrication. As an E.E. Just Graduate Fellow, Sandile aims to help students majoring in STEM fields prepare for careers in industry and technology entrepreneurship.
Juan Mercado Del Valle
Research Mentor: Scott Gerber, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
A graduate of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Juan earned a bachelor's degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology. A RISE scholar and a Ryan Fellow studying in the Department of Molecular and Systems Biology. In the Gerber Lab, Juan uses the auxin-inducible degron (AID) technology as a means to rapidly and specifically degrade endogenously degron-tagged Plk2, in conjunction with quantitative phosphoproteomics to identify potential substrates of Plk2 and decipher its signaling in basic biology and disease.
Nabila Riaz
Research Mentor: Mary Lou Guerinot, Biological Sciences
Nabila received a B.S. in Biology from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan, in 2015. She also received a master's degree in Plant Sciences from the University of Bonn, Germany in 2017. Nabila is a graduate student in Mary Lou Guerinot's lab in the Biological Sciences Ph.D. program. She is studying the regulation of Iron homeostasis and abiotic stress adaptations in plants. Outside Lab, she enjoys kayaking, hiking, and baking cakes. Nabila, who is originally from Pakistan, believes that her experiences as an international student have given her insight into the importance of exchanging ideas, and is looking forward to opportunities in building a diverse and inclusive community in STEM.
Monika Roznere
Research Mentor: Dr. Alberto Quattrini Li, Computer Science
Monika is a PhD candidate in the Computer Science department at Dartmouth. She graduated from SUNY at Binghamton with a major in Computer Science and a minor in Graphic Design. She is a member of the Dartmouth Reality and Robotics Lab where she focuses on designing and deploying low-cost robotic systems for conducting vision-based tasks in low lighting environments, usually underwater. She also collaborates on projects, such as shipwreck analysis, lake algae bloom monitoring, and plant-pollinator detection. She enjoys mentoring graduate and undergraduate students in designing exciting robotic field projects on the water, as well as helping grade school classrooms through the SEPA partnership. Outside of the lab, she enjoys backpacking, photography, and – if time allows it – a good jigsaw puzzle.