Member Spotlight
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Profile a Colleague!
Send nominations for Member Focus and Student Spotlight to IBE Headquarters.
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Member Spotlight
Taylor Sheahan is a PhD Student in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. She is a member of the Alberta RNA Research and Training Institute (ARRTI), the first RNA focused research center in the province of Alberta that uses biophysical and engineering approaches to study the structure and function of RNA based cellular systems, while also designing novel systems to address contemporary issues. Taylor’s research specifically focuses on the development of biological tools, such as rationally designed RNA regulators of gene expression, to aid in the design of complex synthetic biological systems. Her educational background consists of a Master’s of Engineering Science in Biomedical Engineering from Western University in Ontario, Canada, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada.
Taylor is also a member of the University of Lethbridge (UofL) Collegiate iGEM team. iGEM, which stands for international Genetically Engineered Machine, is an annual synthetic biology competition where students develop biologically engineered solutions to real world problems. The 2016 UofL iGEM team worked with the Lethbridge Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to characterize the microbiome of EMS vehicles, leading to the development of rapid pathogen test kits. Taylor presented this work at the annual iGEM Giant Jamboree in Boston, MA where the team received Gold, and more recently at the 2017 IBE conference where she was presented with the “Outstanding Student Presentation in Synthetic Biology” award.
Outside of her work in the lab, Taylor is an avid yogi when she is not volunteering in the local community. She is involved with Let’s Talk Science, a charitable organization focusing on STEM education and student outreach for supporting youth development, as well as the co-organizer of “Brick-by-Brick,” an annual charity dinner and silent auction where the proceeds from the 2016 event supported the Interfaith Food bank Society of Lethbridge.
She is a recent member of IBE (as of 2017).
Member Spotlight
Dr. Jeffrey Catchmark is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. He received B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University and Lehigh University, respectively. After working in industry for nearly 9 years in the field of nanoscale semiconductor optoelectronics, Dr. Catchmark joined Penn State University to manage a National nanofabrication facility. As a graduate faculty member, he became interested in biological nanomaterials, with a specific focus on microbial cellulose biosynthesis and nanocomposites. He shifted his career to biological engineering and has been involved with the discipline for over a dozen years.
Dr. Catchmark has a nearly life-long interest in environmental stewardship. Sustainability in terms of the life cycle of the products we manufacture and the environmental impacts of the processes we use to produce them are critical issues for our society. After working as a nanodevice design and process engineer for many years, Dr. Catchmark was eager to apply ideas emerging in the nanodevice fabrication community to the very disparate biomaterials community. His research group focuses on the development of sustainable biologically derived nanomaterials with a focus on polysaccharide polyelectrolyte complexes, bacterial cellulose, crystalline nitrocellulose and other biopolymer composites. Most of the materials developed in Dr. Catchmark’s lab are based on food biopolymers. The objective of his research is to replace unsustainable materials such as those derived from petroleum with biopolymers ready for volume commercialization. He has developed several new biomaterials in the process of commercialization including a new insoluble polysaccharide barrier material aimed at replacing low density polyethylene (LDPE) laminates in food and other packaging applications, a new insoluble polysaccharide foam product for packaging and biomedical applications, and a new nitrocellulose with controllable surface polarity enabling the volume production of improved composite materials.
Member Spotlight
Professor Mark A. Eiteman is a Founding, Charter and Fellow member of IBE. He has distinguished himself with extraordinary contributions to biological engineering and to IBE.
Professor Eiteman was one of the first faculty members who joined the University of Georgia in 1991 to build a new undergraduate degree curriculum in biological engineering. He dared to take on this challenging assignment as an assistant professor in the midst of serious debates questioning whether biological engineering is indeed a new engineering discipline or not. In the process, he helps formulate philosophical and technical content for the degree program as well as established world renowned research that has led to numerous research articles published in most prestigious journals (e.g., PNAS) and patents that are now licensed to prominent industries.
Professor Eiteman recently served as a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in India for six months, when he guided several students and counseled faculty in a prominent university and lectured at several universities throughout the country and in Sri Lanka.
If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else for the "Member Focus" or the "Student Spotlight," email Cody Jones at IBE Headquarters a few sentences describing yourself, your achievements or what you are currently working on. Sending a headshot is optional.
Member Spotlight
Abdullah Dakhlalla is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Mississippi State University. He has maintained membership with IBE during his undergraduate and graduate years, and he is currently the secretary of the Ecological Engineering section of IBE. His research focuses on quantifying the impacts of climate change and land use change on water quantity, including surface water and groundwater, and water quality, including sediments, nutrients, and bacteria loads. He has constructed, calibrated and validated models for two large watersheds in Mississippi that suffer from water quality deterioration.
Abdullah has demonstrated his passionate dedication to his research and his teaching. He has received the Bagley College of Engineering Graduate Fellowship award in 2012 and 2013 for his outstanding commitment to research. Abdullah has also been selected as an NSF GK-12 Fellow, where he teaches and develops lesson plans for High School Physics classes that incorporate aspects of his research methodologies in the classroom. As an undergraduate student, he has received the Mississippi Recycling Coalition scholarship due to his commitment to environmental conservation and recycling efforts.
Member Spotlight
Dr. Asif Rahman is a young bright, rising scholar of Biological Engineering who is being profiled for his research accomplishments in synthetic biology coupled with the conversion of waste-to-bioproducts, and for exceptional leadership in the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) and at Utah State University (USU).
Dr. Rahman received his Bachelors in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his Masters in Chemical and Materials Engineering from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He received a PhD in Biological Engineering from Utah State University, where his dissertation research was in Sustainable Production of Novel Biomaterials in Escherichia coli. His research demonstrated increased production of biomaterials using synthetic biology and utilizing sustainable carbon substrates as production platforms. Asif’s PhD work was funded in part by the Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) Initiative. During his time at USU, Asif received numerous awards, including: USU Outstanding Engineering Graduate Scholar-Student and the Department of Biological Engineering Outstanding Achievement for Excellence Award.
Asif’s research has resulted in: eight peer-reviewed publications, three patent applications, and conference presentations at 12 international meetings. Dr. Rahman was awarded the 2014 Grand Prize, the highest prize awarded, for the Student Poster Presentation at the 2014 Annual Meeting.
Currently, Asif is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Bioengineering Branch at NASA Ames Research Center. His current transdisciplinary research addresses biologically based molecular- and process-level problems in the challenging environments of Space. This includes studying the fields of Synthetic Biology, Space Biology, Biomaterials, Biological Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, and Environmental Engineering with the objectives of implementing biology-based technologies for Deep Space Missions.
Asif has been a member of IBE since 2010 and was elected to serve twice as a graduate councilor in the years 2013 and 2014. He was the organizer and chair of the three IBE Western Regional Conference from 2010-2012 that promoted IBE in the Western region of the United States. The Western Regional Conferences were very successful, increasing attendance each year and doubling to approximately 120 participants over the three years he was involved. Asif also represented IBE at the USA Science and Engineering Festival in 2014 to create awareness about the growing field of biological engineering, where over 350,000 people attended. He was an invited speaker at a special biological engineering session at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers meeting in 2014. He served as a Student Poster Competition judge at the 2015 annual IBE meeting.
Dr. Rahman was elected an IBE Councilor-at-Large and is currently serving the two-year term started on January 1, 2015.
Member Spotlight
Anna Doloman is a PhD candidate at Utah State University in the department of Biological Engineering. As a recent member of IBE (since 2016) she has served its community as a Graduate Council representative and took part in organizing the recent 2016 IBE Annual Meeting in Greenville, SC.
Anna is a passionate researcher driven by application of fundamental scientific knowledge to solve real world problems. She does her research in the field of renewable energy, specifically working on anaerobic digestion of wastewater. She is focused on microbial consortia that drive the whole process of digestion and investigates ways to improve the wellbeing and productivity of those consortia.
Anna holds an engineering Biotechnology BS degree from National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (NTUU ”KPI”) and a Microbiology MS degree from the University of Oklahoma, which she attended as a Fulbright Scholar.
Anna enjoys communicating her research and spreading scientific ideas. She has attended numerous scientific conferences, both in Ukraine and in the USA. Her oral presentations received awards at the meetings in 2012 “Ecology.Human.Society.” at NTUU ”KPI” and at the regional meeting of Missouri Valley and Missouri Branch of American Society for Microbiology, Kansas City, MO, 2014. She also won awards for the poster presentations at Graduate Student Research and Performance Day at the University of Oklahoma, 2014 “McNair Choice Award for the best graduate student poster” and at the 2016 IBE Annual Meeting in Greenville, SC.
In addition to being a member of IBE, Anna is also a member of American Society for Microbiology and believes that “eventually, microbes will save the world”. Managing kindergarten of bacteria in the lab does not take all her time and energy: she enjoys rock climbing, running marathons and science fiction.
Member Spotlight
Jay Barlow is a graduate research assistant at the Sustainable Waste-to-Bioproducts Engineering Center (SWBEC) at Utah State University (USU). Jay is motivated to advance the availability of renewable energy through new technology and affect sustainability policy for the developing world.
Jay conducts techno-economic and life-cycle analyses to determine the feasibility and sustainability of algal biofuels systems. This systems-level research is grounded in experimental results from pilot-scale algal cultivation architectures, and lab-scale hydrothermal liquefaction of algal biomass. Research at SWBEC integrates knowledge from environmental, biological, and mechanical engineering, which is essential for his systems-level research.
Jay graduated with an undergraduate degree majoring in Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology from Whitman College. Prior to joining Utah State University, he attended the University of Montana and the University of Alberta.
Jay serves on Logan City’s renewable energy board, and volunteers with a community solar energy program and student farm. He plans to continue work in sustainability modeling with the ultimate goal of contributing to global mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. He has a passion for learning and teaching and seeks a future replete with both. He says at USU he is enjoying mountain biking and “the greatest snow on earth.”
Jay has been an IBE member since 2014.