A Semester of Success
Fall 2016 brought a semester of success for a number of Applied Science students. Four members of the department successfully defended their dissertations, thus earning a Ph.D. degree in Applied Science. We would like to acknowledge and congratulate each of them!
Hanbing Song: Successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Rhythmogenic and Premotor Functions of Dbx1 Interneurons in the pre-Bötzinger Complex and Reticular Formation: Modeling and Simulation Studies” on Friday, August 18th. Student of Christopher A. Del Negro, Ph.D. with significant contributions from his committee members Drew Lamar, Ph.D. (Professor of Biology), Leah Shaw, Ph.D. (Professor of Applied Science), and Gregory D. Smith, Ph.D. (Professor of Applied Science). The committee was honored to have Kaiwen Kam, Ph.D., (Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy from the Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University) as one of its members.
Diane Pelejo: Successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Matrix Results and Techniques in Quantum Information Science and Related Topics” on Wednesday, November 9th. Student of Chi-Kwong Li, Ph.D., with significant contributions from his committee members Gregory D. Smith Ph.D. (Professor of Applied Science), Leah Shaw, Ph.D. (Professor of Applied Science), and Junping Shi, Ph.D. (Professor of Mathematics). The committee was honored to have Yiu Poon, Ph.D., (Professor of Mathematics from Iowa State University ) as one of its members.
Wiktor S. Phillips: Successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Studies of Respiratory Rhythm Generation Maintained in Organotypic Slice Cultures" on Friday November 18th. Student of Christopher A. Del Negro, Ph.D., co-advised by Jens C. Rekling, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). Wiktor's committee also included Joshua A. Burk, Ph.D. (Associate Professor and Chair of Psychology ) and Hannes C. Schniepp, Ph.D., (Associate Professor of Applied Science).
Andrew Kottick: Successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Developmental, Physiological, and Transcriptomic Analyses of Neurons Involved in the Generation of Mammalian Breathing” on Monday November 21st. Student of Christopher A. Del Negro, Ph.D. with significant contributions from his committee members Margaret S. Saha, Ph.D. (Professor of Biology), Lizbeth Allison, Ph.D. (Professor of Biology), and Gregory D. Smith, Ph.D. (Professor of Applied Science) who helped direct Andrew’s work in the areas of molecular biology and bioinformatics. The committee was honored to have Greg D. Funk, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology from the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) as one of its members.
