Johan Ahlberg is an undergraduate student at the School of Technology and Health student at the Royal Institute of Technology, located in Sweden. He will begin his B.S. work in the next year and hopes to work in the fields of biomaterials, neural implants and neural prosthetics. In his spare time he enjoys exercising, being with friends and trekking.

Naze Avci is a first year PhD student in the Department of Bioengineering at Marmara University under the supervision of Prof. Dilek Kazan and Assoc. Prof Berna Sariyar Akbulut. She is interested in protein engineering for medical therapies and is working on the beta-lactamase mediated antibiotic resistance and the design of BLIP-based peptides to overcome the resistance. Currently, she works as fellow in the Scientific and Technological Research Council of the Republic of Turkey (TUBITAK) for 'Investigation of the cell-uptake and in-vivo inhibition potential of inhibitory peptides using computational and experimental methods’. Naze had her master degree in the same department with a thesis entitled "Production and Purification of RTEM-1 Beta-Lactamase and Its Inhibition by Peptides". During her master studies, she also held a fellowship from TUBITAK for the Production of Industrial Enzymes in Food Industry. She earned her BSc degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Haliç University. Born in Istanbul, she is Turkish and a graduate of Saint Joseph French High School. Fascinated by opera and ballet, she enjoys swimming, skiing, dancing and travelling. Naze is fluent in English and French, and has a beginner level of Italian.

Mitu Bhattatiry is an undergraduate student in the Fu Foundation School of Engineering at Columbia, comes from Dallas, Texas, and has participated in numerous scientific research positions, and is currently an undergraduate researcher in Professor Henry Hess’s lab. Her interests range over a variety of disciplines, as she was a member of Business Professionals of America and competed at the national level in Economic Research and Network Design. Currently, Mitu is an editor in Columbia’s Journal of Global Health, a member of Society of Women Engineers and is a member of Engineers Without Borders, which is working to build a bridge in Ait Bayoud, Morocco. In her free time, Mitu enjoys playing tennis and violin whenever she can, catching up on all of her favorite TV shows, attempting to sneak in some reading for pleasure, and of course, exploring all of the great food and entertainment in New York City.

Priya Chitta is currently an undergraduate student at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, planning on majoring in biomedical engineering and possibly economics, with a minor in global health. She has researched at the University of Texas at Dallas Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech institute under the guidance of Dr. Raquelle Ovalles and Dr. Josef Velten, investigating the effect of nanocrystalline structures on dye sensitized solar cells as a means of efficient light absorption. Priya is from Dallas, Texas and she is actively involved in the global health organization at Emory and participate in the Indian Classical Carnatic Music ensemble. She enjoys playing tennis, volunteering, cooking, and keeping up and discussing current events with my friends.

Angélica Córdoba is a MSc researcher in the Neurocomputing and Neurorobotics Research Group of the Complutense University of Madrid under the supervision of Prof. Fivos Panetsos Petrova. Her aim is to set up a foundation to find the differential growth of sensory and motor nerves in the absence of a target to apply these findings to the development of innovative prosthetic devices. Currently she is doing her Final Master Dissertation about the differential nerve growth in the experimental model of the rat sciatic nerve with the use of scaffolds and molecular therapy. She earned her BSc degree in neurobiology from Complutense University of Madrid. Born in Colombia, she moved in her early years to Spain, and she graduated Diego Porcelos High School. She is a history literature enthusiast, she enjoys to walk with her dogs and travelling. Angélica is fluent in English, and beginner level of Japanese.

Behzad Damadzadeh is a first year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. His research focuses on synthetic biology and is currently investigating how a custom-built protein functions inside of a host cell. Behzad was born in Esfahan, a historic city in the center of Iran. He received his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Iran. He has two master’s degrees, one in Chemical Engineering from the University of Boras in Sweden and the other in Biotechnology from Chalmers University of Technology also in Sweden. He moved to the States in 2010 and was working for Roche company in Tucson, Arizona before he started his studies at ASU.

Minghao (Indiana) Dong, a Ph.D candidate in his last year, is from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Xidian University, where he finds his scientific interest in neuroscience and bioengineering. His current study concerns the topic of human brain neuroplasticity on the system level (both adaptive and maladaptive changes) using model of acupuncturists and disease model, with special attention on perceptual learning and motor learning. He also develops devices which facilitate the psychophysical tasks as well as bio-feedback devices which are used in training protocols involved in his study.

Adina Draghici is currently a senior at Smith College, graduating this May with a degree in Engineering and Physics. One of her most rewarding undergraduate research experiences was working on her Honors Thesis on developing a portable data acquisition system to measure real-time MP3-player sound pressure output. She spent a semester abroad in London, UK, studying bone biomechanics at Imperial College. In her free time, She enjoys watching Formula 1 and spending time outdoors.

Ryan Ellis is currently a senior at Princeton University, graduating this June with a degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis, skiing and hiking. He has a younger brother and sister attending Claremont McKenna and Stanford University respectively. His father is a professor at University of Washington School of Medicine and his mother is an oncologist.

Anupam Garg will be receiving a B.S. in bioengineering with an emphasis on nanoscience and molecular engineering from the University of Washington in June 2013. Post-graduation, he plans to pursue an MD/PhD with the long-term goal of becoming a medical scientist in the field of ophthalmology. Currently, he works in the lab of Dr. Richard Gardner in the UW Department of Pharmacology, working on a project to engineer a survival-based assay to screen for substrates of ubiquitin ligases. He also works as a researcher in the lab of Dr. Mark Pennesi at Casey Eye Institute in Portland, OR, currently studying the application and development of adaptive optics and optical coherence tomography imaging technology for the characterization and monitoring of retinal degeneration.

Gamze Gürsoy is a fourth year Bioinformatics Ph.D. student in the bioengineering department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is working with Dr. Jie Liang in the Molecular and Systems Computational Bioengineering Lab. Her Ph.D. research is focused on the dynamics of macromolecules and computational design of chromosomes. Her research aims are to reconstruct the allosteric signaling pathways of proteins, predict their functionally important regions, and to construct 3-D models for chromosomes using polymer physics. Gamze received her B.S. in chemical engineering at Bogazici University, where her work was focused on protein folding and application of stochastic differential equations to chemical engineering. In her spare time, Gamze enjoys painting, playing ultimate frisbee and traveling.

Venkatesh Hariharan is currently enrolled in the M.S. to Ph.D. program in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. In 2009, he received his B.S. in Bioengineering from The Pennsylvania State University with Honors from the Schreyer Honors College. His research focuses on the progression of Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC). Particularly, he studies the effects of shear forces on cardiac myocytes expressing ARVC- causing mutant proteins, and changes to underlying cell signaling pathways (Advised by Hayden Huang). In his free time, he enjoys playing tabla, cycling, and volunteering with local groups (Animal Haven, The Young Women’s Leadership Academy, etc.).

Katy Hammersmith will be graduating from Georgia Institute of Technology this Summer with her B.S in Biomedical Engineering. During her undergraduate studies she worked in Dr. Todd McDevitt's Engineering Stem Cell Technologies Lab for four years. In the Fall she will be conducting immunology research at the Imperial College of London with the support of the Whitaker International Scholars Fellowship. She will then return to Georgia Tech to pursue her PhD in Biomedical Engineering. Her career goal is to obtain a position in academia where she can combine her stem cell and immunology knowledge in order to engineer methods for successful cell transplant therapies.

Ofer Idan received his B.S. in physics and mathematics from the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) in 2009 where he worked on developing mathematical models for biological systems. He is currently a 3rd year PhD candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, working in Dr. Henry Hess’ nanobiotechnology and synthetic biology lab. His research interests are self-assembly and emergent behavior in complex systems, synthetic biology and stochastic processes in biological systems. He is currently working on developing logistics model for enzymatic cascades and signaling pathways.

Matthew Kerr is a graduate student in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He now works in the laboratory of Dr. Sridevi Sarma where he applies network-based methodologies to studying neurological data. He received his BS degree from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX where he majored in Electrical Engineering and minored in Chemistry and Mathematics. While there, he worked on projects ranging from using high voltage pulses to increase cottonseed oil yields to teasing out the neurological basis for the positive and negative associations people form with different images.

Sonal Kothari is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her B.E. in electronics and communication engineering from M.B.M Engineering College, Jai Narain Vyas University (India) in 2008. She received her M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2011. Currently, she is doing research in the area of image informatics under Dr May Wang's guidance at Bio-MIBLAB (Bio- Medical Informatics and Bioimaging Lab). The objective of her research is to design, develop, and validate computer-aided decision-support systems for the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer from histopathological images. Her research interests are in the areas of pathology image informatics, biomedical image processing, computer-aided diagnosis, pattern recognition, and machine learning.

Holly Lauridsen is a first year PhD student in the biomedical engineering department at Yale University. Working with Dr. Anjelica Gonzalez and Dr. Jay Humphrey, Holly is developing both experimental and computational models of neutrophil transendothelial migration in the microvasculature. Her research aims to examine how each component of the microvasculature, endothelial cells, basement membrane and pericytes, modulate this migration process, as well as expanding our understanding of neutrophil mechanics during transendothelial migration. Prior to starting at Yale, Holly received her B.S. in biomedical engineering at Brown University, where her work was focused on vascular biomaterials. In her spare time, Holly enjoys baking and ice cream making, traveling, photography, and practicing her French.

Dominic Lawrance is currently working towards a PhD at Imperial College London. His project is focussed on the development of a biosensor for use in the diagnosis of a liver condition specific to pregnancy. Before joing Imperial College Dominic completed an MSc in Systems Biology and a BSc in Biochemistry, both at the University of Warwick, in 2007 and 2006 respectively. Dominic's academic interests are largely centred around biomedical engineering and biotechnology but he has previously worked on methods for identifying transcription factor binding sites using microarray data and the mapping of a gene from the Arabidopsis genome. Outside of his PhD work Dominic enjoys playing football and is a member of the Imperial College 2nd team. He is also keen to learn about the commercialisation of research and recently participated in the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme run by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in October 2011, which involved drafting and presenting a business plan for a mock biotechnology start-up company.

Kristen Lee is a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis in 2009. Currently, she conducts research in the Cell and Molecular Biomechanical Lab, advised by Dr. Christopher Jacobs. Her research interests include mechanobiology of bone tissue and bone cells and mechanisms of mechanotransduction mediated by the primary cilium. Outside of the lab, she enjoys traveling, cooking, eating good food, watching movies, and spending time outdoors.

Xiuli Li is currently a Ph.D. candidate in State Key Lab. of Management and Control for Complex Systems, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Before joining Institute of Automation in September 2009, she received her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. Her research interests are centered on medical image processing, especially medical image segmentation using graph cut method, 3D medical image segmentation based on statistical shape models and multiple surfaces analysis.

Meishan Lin is currently a third year PHD student in Bioinformatics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and works in the Molecular and Systems Computational Bioengineering Lab under the direction of Prof. Jie Liang. She received her B.S. in Telecommunication engineering and M.S in Biomedical engineering in China. Her current research interests include characterizing structural and thermodynamic properties of membrane proteins. She analyzes theses problems using various computational models which stem from techniques such as combinatorial theory, statistical mechanics and algorithm design. In her spare time, Meishan enjoys playing volleyball, traveling and cooking.

'Jack' Hoang Lu is wrapping up his MSE studies in Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is conducting biomaterials research in Professor Jason Burdick's laboratory. He has also worked on protein engineering research projects in Professor Scott Banta's lab at Columbia University, where he received a BS in Chemical Engineering and a minor in East Asian Studies. He will be moving to Princeton University to start his PhD work in Chemical and Biological Engineering this fall. Outside of lab, he enjoys helping others cook, eating, tree climbing, and engaging in other fun expeditions.

Matt Macellaio graduated from Pomona College in 2009 with a B.A. in Neuroscience. Since then, he has been working for Dr. Stephen Porges at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Brain-Body Center exploring the links between the autonomic nervous system dysregulation and behavioral features of people with autism. He is beginning his Ph.D. in the Neurobiology program at the University of Chicago in the fall, focusing on mechanisms of neural microcircuit development and computational methods of understanding circuit abnormalities. Outside the lab, he spends his time biking and playing Ultimate Frisbee and rock violin.

Luvena Ong is currently a second year Ph. D. student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program. She is working with Prof. Peng Yin at Harvard Medical School on DNA nanotechnology. Specifically, she is researching new methodologies to better control DNA structures formation and kinetics. Outside of lab, she enjoys cooking, feeding others, climbing trees, and engaging in other fun expeditions..

Leah Pagnozzi received her B.S.E. in biomedical engineering with a specialization in biomechanics and biomaterials from Stony Brook University in 2012 where she was an undergraduate research assistant in the wound healing laboratory of Dr. Richard Clark. Her undergraduate research focused on characterizing the anisoropic force distributions in the skin layers throughout the wound healing process as well as in the application of low intensity high frequency mechanical vibrations for the higher ordered healing of chronic cutaneous wounds. Upon graduation Leah joined the cardiovascular developmental bioengineering laboratory at Cornell University to begin her graduate studies where she will be studying the effects of dynamic force distributions and the mechanobiological processes that contribute to cardiovascular disease. On top of her research, Leah enjoys teaching and, of course, learning about the effect of the physical environment on biological processes.Outside of school Leah is an avid outdoorswoman and enjoys hiking, rock climbing, mountain climbing, sailing, skiing, and fishing.

Wilson Poon is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto with a BASc in Engineering Science, majoring in biomedical engineering. His interest to study biophysics and nanotechnology with microscopy can be seen through his summer experience working with the helium ion microscopy at the National University of Singapore, and his undergraduate thesis in crystallographic mapping with atomic force microscopy. Soon, he will be enrolled in graduate studies at McGill University working on cellular nanoprobes. In his spare time, he volunteers as a first aid responder on the campus emergency response team, which he has been director for the last two years. His hobbies include traveling, photography, theater, and classical music.

Benjamin Schwartz is a PhD student in bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research centers about mathematically modeling the diffraction of viscoelastic waves in alginate beads. The beads are a small bioreactor system for mesenchymal stem cells, used in magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) studies of cartilage tissue development. Before coming to UIC, Benjamin recieved his M.S. in bioengineering from the University of Vermont where, working under Jason Bates, he developed a model of compliant airways in lung mechanics. Benjamin earned his B.S.E. in bioengineering at Arizona State University. Mentored by Jit Muthuswamy, his senior project was to design and build a miniature incubator for up to two mammalian cell cultures. Benjamin is quite partial to the works of Puccini and very high quality black licorice.

Oscar Svantesson is a graduate student at the School of Technology and Health in Medical Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. His research activities focus on the developement of novel medical instrumentation for the detection of cervical cancer. He plays a leadership role in the KTH Medical Engineering Student Union Chapter.

Youbo You is currently a Ph.D candidate in pattern recognition and intelligent system in Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Before joining CASIA in September 2009, he received bachelor's degree in automation from University of Science and Technology Beijing. His current research interests are mainly focused on medical image processing, especially for fMRI and MEG data analysis.