Home Navigating Your Degree Oral Defense Dates Oral Defense Dates Maya Fields Program: Climate & Sp Sciences & Engin Dissertation Title: Antarctic Ice Shelf Vulnerability to Surface Meltwater-Driven Collapse Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: LEC4231 Chair: Jeremy N Bassis and Mark Moldwin Adele Correia Program: Cellular & Molecular Biol Dissertation Title: Defining Pathology and Therapeutic Opportunities in Niemann?Pick Disease Using Translational Models Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: THSL 2903 Chair: Andrew P Lieberman Christen Snyder Program: Neuroscience Dissertation Title: Mechanistic Insights into the Glucocorticoid Withdrawal Syndrome Based on Novel Mouse Models Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: MEDICAL SCIENCE 2 – 3699 S LECTURE HALL Chair: Audrey F Seasholtz and Joanna Louise Spencer-Segal Hersh Desai Program: Electrical & Computer Engineer Dissertation Title: Innovative Ferroelectric Acoustic Radio Frequency Circuits Spanning Switches, Couplers, Modulators, and Millimeter-Wave Resonators Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: 3316 EECS Chair: Amir Mortazawi Mohammad Asadi Tokmedash Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Engineering Nano-Bio Interfaces for Functional Materials and Devices Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 3:30 p.m. Location: NCRC B10 AUDITORIUM Chair: Jouha Min Noah Curran Program: Computer Science & Eng Dissertation Title: Expert-Guided Guardrails for Assuring Trustworthiness and Safety in Semi-Autonomous Systems Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 4:30 p.m. Location: LEINWEBER 2365 Chair: Kang Geun Shin Guanjin Yan Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Physics- and Data-Driven Modeling of Macro- and Microstructures in Automotive Laser Welding Date: 9 Nov 2026 Time: 9:30 a.m. Location: 1100 DOW Chair: Wenda Tan Swaraj Bose Program: Biostatistics Dissertation Title: From Individual Treatment Effects to Policy Gradients: Conformal Inference for Sequential Decision-Making Date: 9 Nov 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: 2690 SPH I Chair: Walter Dempsey Hongfan Chen Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: A Physics-Data Hybrid Approach for Probabilistic Sun-to-Earth Space Weather Forecasting in Data-Sparse Settings Date: 10 Nov 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: ROOM 1642, G.G. BROWN BUILDING (GGBA) Chair: Yang Chen and Xun Huan Anil Bansal Program: Nuc Eng & Radiol Sciences Dissertation Title: Optimizing Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Cathodes for Molecular Species Date: 11 Nov 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: BAER ROOM-2906 COOLEY Chair: John Edison Foster Firaol Midekssa Program: Biomedical Engineering Dissertation Title: Modular Control of Hydrogel Architecture to Drive Vascularization, Host Integration, and Parenchymal Tissue Support Date: 13 Nov 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: FMCRB 1050 (FORD MOTOR COMPANY ROBOTICS BUILDING, ROOM 1050) Chair: Brendon Baker Yun-Huai Kuo Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Central Nervous System Anchoring Enables Efficient, Ultra-Long-Lived Drug Delivery and Targeted Date: 13 Nov 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: NCRC B10 RESEARCH AUDITORIUM Chair: Peter Tessier Ruoliu Zhang Program: Biomedical Engineering Dissertation Title: Miniaturized MEMS-Based Dual-Axis Confocal Endomicroscope for In Vivo EGFR-Targeted Imaging of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Date: 18 Nov 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NCRC10 ACR1 Chair: James David Weiland Cynthia Zajac Program: Bioinformatics Dissertation Title: Single-Nucleus Transcriptomics and Regulatory Genomics in the Danforth Short Tail Mouse Date: 18 Nov 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: MEDICAL SCIENCE 2 2710 FURSTENBERG Chair: Stephen Cj Parker Justin Ting Program: Electrical & Computer Engineer Dissertation Title: Computational Models of Sensorimotor Behavior based in Stochastic Control Theory Date: 19 Nov 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: GGBL2540 + (HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/99506208174) Chair: Lisa Li Angeliz Soto Acevedo Program: Chemistry Dissertation Title: Engineering Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Integrators for Multiplexed Analyte Detection Date: 19 Nov 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: MICHIGAN LEAGUE – HENDERSON ROOM Chair: Wenjing Wang Lindsey Dehaan Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Morphological Diversification of Fishes in the Wake of Ecological Opportunity: Insights from a Combination of Paleontological and Neontological Data Date: 20 Nov 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: NUB 2540 Chair: Matt Friedman Alice Mei Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Synthetic Data Generation for Scalable and Evolvable Decision-Making in Smart Manufacturing Date: 20 Nov 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: OBERT H. LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER, ROOM 4231; ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/99291206171 Chair: Chenhui Shao Evangelos Dikopoulos Program: Electrical & Computer Engineer Dissertation Title: CMOS Quantum-Inspired Solver Architectures and Circuits for Combinatorial Optimization Leveraging Continuous-Time Dynamical Systems Date: 20 Nov 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: 3316 EECS Chair: Michael Flynn Niloufar Pouyan Program: Neuroscience Dissertation Title: In the Senses of the Beholder: Sensory Sensitivity and Its Modulation in Psychedelic-Induced Altered States of Consciousness Date: 20 Nov 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: DANTO AUDITORIUM Chair: Steven Edward Harte and George A Mashour 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]
Maya Fields Program: Climate & Sp Sciences & Engin Dissertation Title: Antarctic Ice Shelf Vulnerability to Surface Meltwater-Driven Collapse Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: LEC4231 Chair: Jeremy N Bassis and Mark Moldwin
Adele Correia Program: Cellular & Molecular Biol Dissertation Title: Defining Pathology and Therapeutic Opportunities in Niemann?Pick Disease Using Translational Models Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: THSL 2903 Chair: Andrew P Lieberman
Christen Snyder Program: Neuroscience Dissertation Title: Mechanistic Insights into the Glucocorticoid Withdrawal Syndrome Based on Novel Mouse Models Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: MEDICAL SCIENCE 2 – 3699 S LECTURE HALL Chair: Audrey F Seasholtz and Joanna Louise Spencer-Segal
Hersh Desai Program: Electrical & Computer Engineer Dissertation Title: Innovative Ferroelectric Acoustic Radio Frequency Circuits Spanning Switches, Couplers, Modulators, and Millimeter-Wave Resonators Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: 3316 EECS Chair: Amir Mortazawi
Mohammad Asadi Tokmedash Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Engineering Nano-Bio Interfaces for Functional Materials and Devices Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 3:30 p.m. Location: NCRC B10 AUDITORIUM Chair: Jouha Min
Noah Curran Program: Computer Science & Eng Dissertation Title: Expert-Guided Guardrails for Assuring Trustworthiness and Safety in Semi-Autonomous Systems Date: 6 Nov 2026 Time: 4:30 p.m. Location: LEINWEBER 2365 Chair: Kang Geun Shin
Guanjin Yan Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Physics- and Data-Driven Modeling of Macro- and Microstructures in Automotive Laser Welding Date: 9 Nov 2026 Time: 9:30 a.m. Location: 1100 DOW Chair: Wenda Tan
Swaraj Bose Program: Biostatistics Dissertation Title: From Individual Treatment Effects to Policy Gradients: Conformal Inference for Sequential Decision-Making Date: 9 Nov 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: 2690 SPH I Chair: Walter Dempsey
Hongfan Chen Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: A Physics-Data Hybrid Approach for Probabilistic Sun-to-Earth Space Weather Forecasting in Data-Sparse Settings Date: 10 Nov 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: ROOM 1642, G.G. BROWN BUILDING (GGBA) Chair: Yang Chen and Xun Huan
Anil Bansal Program: Nuc Eng & Radiol Sciences Dissertation Title: Optimizing Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Cathodes for Molecular Species Date: 11 Nov 2026 Time: 3:00 p.m. Location: BAER ROOM-2906 COOLEY Chair: John Edison Foster
Firaol Midekssa Program: Biomedical Engineering Dissertation Title: Modular Control of Hydrogel Architecture to Drive Vascularization, Host Integration, and Parenchymal Tissue Support Date: 13 Nov 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: FMCRB 1050 (FORD MOTOR COMPANY ROBOTICS BUILDING, ROOM 1050) Chair: Brendon Baker
Yun-Huai Kuo Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Central Nervous System Anchoring Enables Efficient, Ultra-Long-Lived Drug Delivery and Targeted Date: 13 Nov 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: NCRC B10 RESEARCH AUDITORIUM Chair: Peter Tessier
Ruoliu Zhang Program: Biomedical Engineering Dissertation Title: Miniaturized MEMS-Based Dual-Axis Confocal Endomicroscope for In Vivo EGFR-Targeted Imaging of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Date: 18 Nov 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NCRC10 ACR1 Chair: James David Weiland
Cynthia Zajac Program: Bioinformatics Dissertation Title: Single-Nucleus Transcriptomics and Regulatory Genomics in the Danforth Short Tail Mouse Date: 18 Nov 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: MEDICAL SCIENCE 2 2710 FURSTENBERG Chair: Stephen Cj Parker
Justin Ting Program: Electrical & Computer Engineer Dissertation Title: Computational Models of Sensorimotor Behavior based in Stochastic Control Theory Date: 19 Nov 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: GGBL2540 + (HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/99506208174) Chair: Lisa Li
Angeliz Soto Acevedo Program: Chemistry Dissertation Title: Engineering Genetically Encoded Fluorescent Integrators for Multiplexed Analyte Detection Date: 19 Nov 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: MICHIGAN LEAGUE – HENDERSON ROOM Chair: Wenjing Wang
Lindsey Dehaan Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Morphological Diversification of Fishes in the Wake of Ecological Opportunity: Insights from a Combination of Paleontological and Neontological Data Date: 20 Nov 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: NUB 2540 Chair: Matt Friedman
Alice Mei Program: Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Title: Synthetic Data Generation for Scalable and Evolvable Decision-Making in Smart Manufacturing Date: 20 Nov 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: OBERT H. LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER, ROOM 4231; ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/99291206171 Chair: Chenhui Shao
Evangelos Dikopoulos Program: Electrical & Computer Engineer Dissertation Title: CMOS Quantum-Inspired Solver Architectures and Circuits for Combinatorial Optimization Leveraging Continuous-Time Dynamical Systems Date: 20 Nov 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: 3316 EECS Chair: Michael Flynn
Niloufar Pouyan Program: Neuroscience Dissertation Title: In the Senses of the Beholder: Sensory Sensitivity and Its Modulation in Psychedelic-Induced Altered States of Consciousness Date: 20 Nov 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: DANTO AUDITORIUM Chair: Steven Edward Harte and George A Mashour
