Home Navigating Your Degree Oral Defense Dates Oral Defense Dates Haoran Li Program: Bioinformatics Dissertation Title: Enabling Accessible and Robust Long Reads Transcriptomic and Epi-Transcriptomic Analysis by a Multi-Function Web Platform Date: 13 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: MS 1 – 5330 AUDITORIUM, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/98476790065?PWD=PMMB4YMGVLUO18BVCACNSOR PC:000000 Chair: Kin Fai Au Marbely Micolta Calderon Program: Astronomy & Astrophysics Dissertation Title: Field Notes on Planetary Origins: Tracing Refractory Material Through Planet-Forming Disks Date: 14 Oct 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: 4448 EAST HALL Chair: Nuria Calvet Alexandra Putka Program: Neuroscience Dissertation Title: Elucidating the Necessity of Oligodendroglial Dysfunction for Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3 Phenotypes Date: 14 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: KAHN AUDITORIUM, BSRB Chair: Andrew P Lieberman and Hayley McLoughlin Alanah Cardenas-O'Toole Program: Climate & Sp Sciences & Engin Dissertation Title: Ionospheric Irregularities Across Latitudes: Occurrence and Energetics of Polar Cap Patches and Equatorial Plasma Bubbles Date: 15 Oct 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER ROOM 4231 Chair: Shasha Zou Daiwen Zhang Program: Industrial & Operations Eng Dissertation Title: Combinatorial Infeasibility Analysis for Constraint Systems Date: 15 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: IOE 2717 Chair: Amy Ellen Mainville Cohn and Marina A Epelman Adam Rauh Program: Political Science Dissertation Title: The Social Life of a Polarized America: Leveraging GPS Data to Understand Partisan Behaviors Date: 16 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: HAVEN HALL, WALKER ROOM, 5664 Chair: Christian James Fong and Nicholas A Valentino Matias Larramendi Salvat Program: Romance Language & Lit Spanish Dissertation Title: Hacer sonar la lengua: crisis y literatura neobarroca en el Cono Sur y Brasil (1969?2025) Date: 16 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: RLL COMMONS (MLB 4314) Chair: Sergio R Villalobos Ruminott Diana Velazquez Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Organic Matter Burial and Preservation in Modern and Ancient Anoxic Freshwater Environments Date: 19 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: 1100 NORTH UNIVERSITY BUILDING ROOM 2540 Chair: Jenan Kharbush and Nathan Dale Sheldon Joseph Krampen Program: Microbiology & Immunology Dissertation Title: Microbiome Complexity and Climate-Driven Chemical Change in Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Eggs Using Untargeted Metabolomics Date: 19 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: KAHN AUDITORIUM BSRB Chair: Marcy J Balunas Miguel Castroviejo Fernandez Program: Aerospace Engineering Dissertation Title: Advanced Supervisory Control Schemes for Constrained Dynamical Systems Date: 20 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER – ROOM LEC2210 Chair: Ilya Kolmanovsky Bhaskar Kumawat Program: Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Dissertation Title: Evolvability on the Fitness Landscape Date: 20 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: ROOM 4150, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES BUILDING Chair: Luis Zaman Xin Li Program: Biological Chemistry Dissertation Title: Molecular Mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas9 Viral Memory Formation and Phage Evasion of CRISPR-Cas Immunity Date: 20 Oct 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: 2710 FURSTENBERG, MEDICAL BUILDING II Chair: Yan Zhang Dominique Sylvers Program: Health Behavior &Health Equity Dissertation Title: Strength and Structures: Schooling, Employment and Health among Older Adults Date: 21 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: RACKHAM 4TH CONFERENCE ROOM & HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/95700475369 Chair: Paul Fleming and Paul Fleming and Margaret Takako Hicken and Margaret Takako Hicken Michael Jones Program: Aerospace Engineering Dissertation Title: Trajectory Optimization of High-Speed Vehicles Under Aerothermoelastic Constraints Date: 21 Oct 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: FXB 1044 Chair: Carlos E S Cesnik Ken Lohatepanont Program: Political Science Dissertation Title: Making Parties Last: The Dynamics of Unlikely Party Institutionalization Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 8:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/5814491709 Chair: Allen D Hicken Jeronimo Morales Toledo Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Bridging Macroevolution and Ecology in the Arum Family (Araceae): Insights from Exceptionally Preserved Fossil and Exant Fruits Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: 1100 NORTH UNIVERSITY AVENUE, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, IN ROOM 2540 Chair: Selena Y Smith Meredith Eaheart Program: Nuc Eng & Radiol Sciences Dissertation Title: Multifidelity Surrogate Modeling for Transient Thermal Hydraulic Analysis of Nuclear Reactors Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: COOLEY BUILDING (BAER ROOM) Chair: Majdi Ibrahim Radaideh Marcel Elkouri Program: Neuroscience Dissertation Title: Individual Differences in Rat Contextual Fear and Recognition Memory Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: DANTO AUDITORIUM, CARDIOVASCULAR CENTER, ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 Chair: Jonathan David Morrow and Brendon Omar Watson Utsav Bhadra Program: Economics Dissertation Title: On Unemployment, Labor Markets and Monetary Policy Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: NORTH QUAD RESIDENTIAL AND ACAD COMPL (NQ) RM: 4445, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/95343988780 Chair: Christopher L House Samuel Ogunwale Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Mechanistic and Data-Driven Modeling of Complex Fluids: Phase Evolution, Transport, and Rheology Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: NCRC BUILDING 10, ROOM G065; ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92354754386; PASSCODE: CRYSTAL Chair: Ronald G Larson Renisha Karki Program: Environmental Engineering Dissertation Title: Rumen-Inspired Anaerobic Dynamic Membrane Bioreactors for Food Waste and Sewage Sludge: Process Performance and Microbial Community Dynamics Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 8:00 a.m. Location: GG BROWN 2029 / ZOOM HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/7770337290?OMN=97751230875 PW:DEFENSE Chair: Lutgarde M Raskin and Steven J Skerlos Chenzhe Wang Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Spatial Engineering of Coupled Mechanical Systems: From Artificial Lattices to Structured Acoustic Fields Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: GGB 2540 Chair: Chengzhi Shi Jada Langston Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Lake Erie Hydrology Over the last 15 ka: Insights from Stable isotope Geochemistry, Water Balance Modeling and Bulk Geochemistry Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: NORTH UNIVERSITY BUILDING 2540 Chair: Naomi Levin Kara Larson Program: Anthropology Dissertation Title: Examining Urban Foodways in the Northern Negev Desert 3100-2500 B.C.E. Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: WEST HALL ROOM 411 Chair: Alicia Ventresca-Miller Ashray Mohit Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Large-Eddy Simulations of Waste Gas Flares Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: ROBERT H. LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER 4231 – GM ROOM, ZOOM- UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/97579333425 Chair: Jesse Alden Capecelatro and Margaret S Wooldridge Zhuoyu Xiao Program: Industrial & Operations Eng Dissertation Title: On Solving Modern Noncooperative Games: Stochasticity, Nonconvexity, Nonsmoothness, and Hierarchy Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: G610, IOE BUILDING Chair: Uday V Shanbhag Delaney Snead Program: Environmental Engineering Dissertation Title: Developing Alternative Virus Inactivation Credit Frameworks for Unconventional Ozone Treatments Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: GM ROOM AT LEC, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/96133805815?JST=3 Chair: Krista Wigginton Grace Jackson Program: Music Performance Dissertation Title: Three Dissertation Recitals and Document Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: STUDIO 2110 (E.V. MOORE BUILDING) Chair: Nicole Antoinette Keller Daniele Bracale Program: Statistics Dissertation Title: Online Learning and Decision-Making for Dynamic Pricing and Performative Prediction Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 2:30 p.m. Location: 470 WEST HALL Chair: Moulinath Banerjee and Yuekai Sun Laura Constain Montoya Program: Civil Engineering Dissertation Title: Rational Approach to Understanding the Behavior of Components in Steel Frame Lateral Force Resisting Systems Date: 26 Oct 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: GGB 2029 (GG BROWN BUILDING) Chair: Jason P McCormick Hongyu Zhou Program: Aerospace Engineering Dissertation Title: Online Learning and Adaptation for Control Under Uncertainty Date: 26 Oct 2026 Time: 12:30 p.m. Location: FXB 1044 Chair: Vasileios Tzoumas Leesi George-Komi Program: Movement Science Dissertation Title: Exploring the Role of Youth Sports in Mitigating the Impact of Stressors on Mental Distress: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Protective Mechanisms Date: 27 Oct 2026 Time: 8:30 a.m. Location: ROOM: SKB 2200; ZOOM URL: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/91274248204 PC: 506925 Chair: Leah Elizabeth Robinson Contact Academic Records and Dissertations Hours: Academic Records and Dissertations is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The office is closed Saturdays and Sundays and on the following holidays: Thanksgiving (Thursday and the following Friday), Christmas through New Year’s, Memorial Day, Independence Day (July 4), and Labor Day. Location 0120 Rackham Building 915 East Washington Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070 Contact Phone: 734.763.0171 Fax: 734.936.3335 Email: [email protected]
Haoran Li Program: Bioinformatics Dissertation Title: Enabling Accessible and Robust Long Reads Transcriptomic and Epi-Transcriptomic Analysis by a Multi-Function Web Platform Date: 13 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: MS 1 – 5330 AUDITORIUM, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/98476790065?PWD=PMMB4YMGVLUO18BVCACNSOR PC:000000 Chair: Kin Fai Au
Marbely Micolta Calderon Program: Astronomy & Astrophysics Dissertation Title: Field Notes on Planetary Origins: Tracing Refractory Material Through Planet-Forming Disks Date: 14 Oct 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: 4448 EAST HALL Chair: Nuria Calvet
Alexandra Putka Program: Neuroscience Dissertation Title: Elucidating the Necessity of Oligodendroglial Dysfunction for Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3 Phenotypes Date: 14 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: KAHN AUDITORIUM, BSRB Chair: Andrew P Lieberman and Hayley McLoughlin
Alanah Cardenas-O'Toole Program: Climate & Sp Sciences & Engin Dissertation Title: Ionospheric Irregularities Across Latitudes: Occurrence and Energetics of Polar Cap Patches and Equatorial Plasma Bubbles Date: 15 Oct 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER ROOM 4231 Chair: Shasha Zou
Daiwen Zhang Program: Industrial & Operations Eng Dissertation Title: Combinatorial Infeasibility Analysis for Constraint Systems Date: 15 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: IOE 2717 Chair: Amy Ellen Mainville Cohn and Marina A Epelman
Adam Rauh Program: Political Science Dissertation Title: The Social Life of a Polarized America: Leveraging GPS Data to Understand Partisan Behaviors Date: 16 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: HAVEN HALL, WALKER ROOM, 5664 Chair: Christian James Fong and Nicholas A Valentino
Matias Larramendi Salvat Program: Romance Language & Lit Spanish Dissertation Title: Hacer sonar la lengua: crisis y literatura neobarroca en el Cono Sur y Brasil (1969?2025) Date: 16 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: RLL COMMONS (MLB 4314) Chair: Sergio R Villalobos Ruminott
Diana Velazquez Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Organic Matter Burial and Preservation in Modern and Ancient Anoxic Freshwater Environments Date: 19 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: 1100 NORTH UNIVERSITY BUILDING ROOM 2540 Chair: Jenan Kharbush and Nathan Dale Sheldon
Joseph Krampen Program: Microbiology & Immunology Dissertation Title: Microbiome Complexity and Climate-Driven Chemical Change in Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Eggs Using Untargeted Metabolomics Date: 19 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: KAHN AUDITORIUM BSRB Chair: Marcy J Balunas
Miguel Castroviejo Fernandez Program: Aerospace Engineering Dissertation Title: Advanced Supervisory Control Schemes for Constrained Dynamical Systems Date: 20 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER – ROOM LEC2210 Chair: Ilya Kolmanovsky
Bhaskar Kumawat Program: Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Dissertation Title: Evolvability on the Fitness Landscape Date: 20 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: ROOM 4150, BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES BUILDING Chair: Luis Zaman
Xin Li Program: Biological Chemistry Dissertation Title: Molecular Mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas9 Viral Memory Formation and Phage Evasion of CRISPR-Cas Immunity Date: 20 Oct 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: 2710 FURSTENBERG, MEDICAL BUILDING II Chair: Yan Zhang
Dominique Sylvers Program: Health Behavior &Health Equity Dissertation Title: Strength and Structures: Schooling, Employment and Health among Older Adults Date: 21 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: RACKHAM 4TH CONFERENCE ROOM & HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/95700475369 Chair: Paul Fleming and Paul Fleming and Margaret Takako Hicken and Margaret Takako Hicken
Michael Jones Program: Aerospace Engineering Dissertation Title: Trajectory Optimization of High-Speed Vehicles Under Aerothermoelastic Constraints Date: 21 Oct 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: FXB 1044 Chair: Carlos E S Cesnik
Ken Lohatepanont Program: Political Science Dissertation Title: Making Parties Last: The Dynamics of Unlikely Party Institutionalization Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 8:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/5814491709 Chair: Allen D Hicken
Jeronimo Morales Toledo Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Bridging Macroevolution and Ecology in the Arum Family (Araceae): Insights from Exceptionally Preserved Fossil and Exant Fruits Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: 1100 NORTH UNIVERSITY AVENUE, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, IN ROOM 2540 Chair: Selena Y Smith
Meredith Eaheart Program: Nuc Eng & Radiol Sciences Dissertation Title: Multifidelity Surrogate Modeling for Transient Thermal Hydraulic Analysis of Nuclear Reactors Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: COOLEY BUILDING (BAER ROOM) Chair: Majdi Ibrahim Radaideh
Marcel Elkouri Program: Neuroscience Dissertation Title: Individual Differences in Rat Contextual Fear and Recognition Memory Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: DANTO AUDITORIUM, CARDIOVASCULAR CENTER, ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 Chair: Jonathan David Morrow and Brendon Omar Watson
Utsav Bhadra Program: Economics Dissertation Title: On Unemployment, Labor Markets and Monetary Policy Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: NORTH QUAD RESIDENTIAL AND ACAD COMPL (NQ) RM: 4445, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/95343988780 Chair: Christopher L House
Samuel Ogunwale Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Mechanistic and Data-Driven Modeling of Complex Fluids: Phase Evolution, Transport, and Rheology Date: 22 Oct 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: NCRC BUILDING 10, ROOM G065; ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92354754386; PASSCODE: CRYSTAL Chair: Ronald G Larson
Renisha Karki Program: Environmental Engineering Dissertation Title: Rumen-Inspired Anaerobic Dynamic Membrane Bioreactors for Food Waste and Sewage Sludge: Process Performance and Microbial Community Dynamics Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 8:00 a.m. Location: GG BROWN 2029 / ZOOM HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/7770337290?OMN=97751230875 PW:DEFENSE Chair: Lutgarde M Raskin and Steven J Skerlos
Chenzhe Wang Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Spatial Engineering of Coupled Mechanical Systems: From Artificial Lattices to Structured Acoustic Fields Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: GGB 2540 Chair: Chengzhi Shi
Jada Langston Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Lake Erie Hydrology Over the last 15 ka: Insights from Stable isotope Geochemistry, Water Balance Modeling and Bulk Geochemistry Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: NORTH UNIVERSITY BUILDING 2540 Chair: Naomi Levin
Kara Larson Program: Anthropology Dissertation Title: Examining Urban Foodways in the Northern Negev Desert 3100-2500 B.C.E. Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: WEST HALL ROOM 411 Chair: Alicia Ventresca-Miller
Ashray Mohit Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Large-Eddy Simulations of Waste Gas Flares Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: ROBERT H. LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER 4231 – GM ROOM, ZOOM- UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/97579333425 Chair: Jesse Alden Capecelatro and Margaret S Wooldridge
Zhuoyu Xiao Program: Industrial & Operations Eng Dissertation Title: On Solving Modern Noncooperative Games: Stochasticity, Nonconvexity, Nonsmoothness, and Hierarchy Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: G610, IOE BUILDING Chair: Uday V Shanbhag
Delaney Snead Program: Environmental Engineering Dissertation Title: Developing Alternative Virus Inactivation Credit Frameworks for Unconventional Ozone Treatments Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: GM ROOM AT LEC, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/96133805815?JST=3 Chair: Krista Wigginton
Grace Jackson Program: Music Performance Dissertation Title: Three Dissertation Recitals and Document Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: STUDIO 2110 (E.V. MOORE BUILDING) Chair: Nicole Antoinette Keller
Daniele Bracale Program: Statistics Dissertation Title: Online Learning and Decision-Making for Dynamic Pricing and Performative Prediction Date: 23 Oct 2026 Time: 2:30 p.m. Location: 470 WEST HALL Chair: Moulinath Banerjee and Yuekai Sun
Laura Constain Montoya Program: Civil Engineering Dissertation Title: Rational Approach to Understanding the Behavior of Components in Steel Frame Lateral Force Resisting Systems Date: 26 Oct 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: GGB 2029 (GG BROWN BUILDING) Chair: Jason P McCormick
Hongyu Zhou Program: Aerospace Engineering Dissertation Title: Online Learning and Adaptation for Control Under Uncertainty Date: 26 Oct 2026 Time: 12:30 p.m. Location: FXB 1044 Chair: Vasileios Tzoumas
Leesi George-Komi Program: Movement Science Dissertation Title: Exploring the Role of Youth Sports in Mitigating the Impact of Stressors on Mental Distress: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Protective Mechanisms Date: 27 Oct 2026 Time: 8:30 a.m. Location: ROOM: SKB 2200; ZOOM URL: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/91274248204 PC: 506925 Chair: Leah Elizabeth Robinson
