Graduate School
Open Graduate Education Alumni
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Open Graduate Education Alumni
The Open Graduate Education program welcomed its first cohort in the 2012-2013 academic year and currently has more than 70 program alumni.
Sean M. Dinces ’13 A.M., ’14 Ph.D.
- PhD: American Studies
- Master's: Urban Education Policy
- Dissertation - Bulls Markets: Power, Place, and Professional Sport in Late Twentieth-Century Chicago
- Current Position: Associate Professor of History, Long Beach City College
Jie Ren ’15 A.M., ’16 Ph.D.
- PhD: Cognitive Science
- Master’s: Biostatistics
- Dissertation - From Features to Words: A Study of Developmental Continuity
- Current Position: Faculty Member, Voice Department, Bard College
Yao Zhang ’15 Sc.M., ’16 Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: Computer Science
- Dissertation - Coherent Structural Dynamics of Rydberg-Excited Molecules
- Current Position: Google
Jing Feng ’17 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Engineering (Electrical)
- Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship
- Dissertation - Plasmonic Interferometry: A New Approach toward Highly-Sensitive Multispectral Biochemical Detection
- Current Position: Professor, Material Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology
Dennis Johannssen ’15 A.M., ’17 Ph.D.
- PhD: German Studies
- Master’s: Philosophy
- Dissertation - Unclaimed Language: The Literary Criticism of Walter Benjamin and Theodore W. Adorno
- Current Position: Assistant Professor of German, Lafayette College
Patrick McKelvey ’17 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Theatre and Performing Arts
- Master’s: Anthropology
- Dissertation - Performing Disemployment: Disability, Theatre, and Work in the United States Since the 1970s
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, University of Pittsburgh
Ayalu Reda ’17 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Sociology
- Master’s: Biostatistics
- Dissertation - Wealth, Health, and Child Education in Developing Countries
- Current Position: Director, Data Science, Enact Mortgage Insurance
Arielle N. Schilit Nitenson ’16 MAT, ’17 Ph.D.
- PhD: Neuroscience
- Master’s: Science Education
- Dissertation - Acetylcholine Supports Olfactory Perceptual Learning through Adult Neurogenesis
- Current Position: Senior Research Data Manager, Office of Research Integrity, Brown University
Eboni Chambers ’18 MPA, Ph.D.
- PhD: Pathobiology
- Master’s: Public Affairs
- Dissertation - The Role of Adenosine Signaling in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Induced Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome
- Current Position: Regional Medical Director, Horizon Therapeutics
Diana Dukhanova ’16 A.M., ’18 Ph.D.
- PhD: Slavic Studies
- Master’s: Religious Studies
- Dissertation - Jesus of Bethlehem: Vasily V. Rozanov and the Discourse of Matrimonial Sexuality in the Russian Orthodox Church
- Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian, College of the Holy Cross
Susan Herringer ’18 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Engineering (Materials Science)
- Master’s: Archaeology and the Ancient World
- Dissertation - Archaeometallurgical Investigations of Copper Alloy Artifacts and Copper Smelting: Studies Utilizing Neutron Methods and Thermodynamic Modeling
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, Switzerland
Mark Ho ’15 Sc.M., ’18 Ph.D.
- PhD: Cognitive Science
- Master’s: Computer Science
- Dissertation - Teaching and Learning in Situated Environments
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology
Brian House ’16 A.M., ’18 Ph.D.
- PhD: Computer Music and Multimedia
- Master’s: Modern Culture and Media
- Dissertation - Rhythmanalysis of the Earth, the Animal, and the Machine
- Current Position: Assistant Professor and Studio Head of Digital Media Fields Center, Department of Art, Lewis and Clark College
Ioana Bogdana Jucan ’15 A.M., ’18 Ph.D.
- PhD: Theatre and Performing Arts
- Master’s: Philosophy
- Dissertation - Out of Concern: Performance Modes of Engaging with the World
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies, Emerson College
Chang Liu ’17 Sc.M., ’18 Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship
- Dissertation - Solid State and Solution State Studies of Lithium Amide Enolates Homoaggregates and Mixed Aggregates
- Current Position: Bioconjugation Scientist, Celnovte Biotech Inc.; Co-founder of STA Technology
Adam Nitenson ’17 Sc.M., ’18 Ph.D.
- PhD: Neuroscience
- Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship
- Dissertation - Genetic Contributions to Heterogeneous Subjective and Neural Response to Psychostimulants
- Current Position: Health Research Project Director, Rhode Island Department of Health
Lakshmi Padmanabhan ’18 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Modern Culture and Media
- Master’s: History
- Dissertation - The Untimely Image: On Feminist Inactivism and Postcolonial Ethics
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, School Communication, Northwestern University
Seth Thorn ’15 A.M., ’18 Ph.D.
- PhD: Multimedia and Electronic Music Experiments
- Master’s: German Studies
- Dissertation - Alto.Glove: Instrument and Augmentation
- Current Position: Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Media, and Engineering, Arizona State University
Yun (Ryan) Xu ’18 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Pathobiology
- Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship
- Dissertation - Modeling Innate Immune Triage: The Early Responses to Concurrent Dermal Wounds and Pulmonary Infections
- Current Position: Director, Global Marketing, Strategic Planning and Operations - General Medicine, Amgen
Michael Bedard ’16 Sc.M., ’19 Ph.D.
- PhD: Economics
- Master’s: Applied Mathematics
- Dissertation - Efficient Estimation with Latent Variables
- Current Position: Economist, Amazon
Jessica Emerson ’19 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Behavioral and Social Health Sciences
- Master’s: Cognitive Sciences
- Dissertation - When Outcomes Matter: A Temporal Analysis of Beliefs in the Exercise and Smoking Domains
- Current Position: Scientific Advisor, Clario
Valeria Federici ’19 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Italian Studies
- Master’s: History of Art and Architecture
- Dissertation - Network Culture in Italy in the 1990s and the Making of a Place for Art and Activism
- Current Position: Lecturer, Italian, University of Maryland
Anna Santucci ’16 A.M., ’19 Ph.D.
- PhD: Italian Studies
- Master’s: Theatre and Performance Studies
- Dissertation - Performing Language and Culture: Teaching and Learning Italian through Critical Embodied Encounters
- Current Position: Senior Lecturer in Teaching and Learning Enhancement, University College Cork
Asha Tamirisa ’19 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Computer Music
- Master’s: Modern Culture and Media
- Dissertation - Lossy Recollections
- Current Position: Assistant Professor of Music, Bates College
Vikram Saraph ’19 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Computer Science
- Master’s: Mathematics
- Dissertation - Fault-Tolerant Distributed Computability
- Current Position: Senior Software Engineer, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Mohak Patel ’19 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Engineering
- Master’s: Computer Science
- Dissertation - High-Resolution, Kinematics-based Measurements for Characterizing 3-D Cellular Deformation Fields
- Current Position: Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Google
William Jordan ’19 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry
- Master’s: Data Science
- Dissertation - Drosophila Dosage Compensation as a Model for Combinatorial Transcriptional Regulation
- Current Position: Scientific Investigator, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)
Apollonya Porcelli ’16 Sc.M., ’19 Ph.D.
- PhD: Sociology
- Master’s: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
- Dissertation - An upwelling of expertise: The collapse of the Peruvian Anchoveta Fishery and the Rise of Grassroots Science, 1973-2000
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, Bucknell University
Prannath Moolchand, ’17 Sc.M., ’19 Ph.D.
- PhD: Neuroscience
- Master’s: Applied Mathematics
- Dissertation - Biophysical and Architectural Mechanisms of Subthalamic Theta under Response Conflict
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Neurosurgery, Stanford University
Rachel Deraney, ’19 MPH, Ph.D.
- PhD: Biomedical Engineering
- Master’s: Public Health
- Dissertation - Sample Preparation and Nucleic Acid Extraction for Molecular Diagnostics: Innovations for Resource Limited Setting
- Current Position: Senior Manager, Technical Development Operations, Particles for Humanity, PBC
Gabriela Manzano Nieves ’19 MPA, Ph.D.
- PhD: Neuroscience
- Master’s: Public Affairs
- Dissertation - Developmental Effects of Early Life Adversity on Somatic Growth and Auditory Fear Conditioning
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Weill Cornell
Keith Spangler ’18 Sc.M., ’19 Ph.D.
- PhD: Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences
- Master’s: Epidemiology
- Dissertation - Spatial Heterogeneity of Climatic Health Risks: Evidence to Inform Adaptation
- Current Position: Research Scientist, School of Public Health, Boston University
David Abel ’19 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Computer Science
- Master’s: Philosophy
- Dissertation - A Theory of Abstraction in Reinforcement Learning
- Current Position: Senior Research Scientist, DeepMind, London, UK
Xi Chen ’19 Sc.M., ’20 Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: Computer Science
- Dissertation - The Application of Variational Transition State Theory in Combustion Related Reactions
- Current Position: Software Engineer, Amazon
Amy Teller ’16 Sc.M., ’20 Ph.D.
- PhD: Sociology
- Master’s: Ecology, Evolutionary Biology
- Dissertation - Chocolate Futures: How Eco-Civic Engagement is Remaking Past Monoculture on Brazil's Cocoa Coast
- Current Position: Researcher, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Doria Charlson ’18 A.M., ’20 Ph.D.
- PhD: Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
- Master’s: History
- Dissertation - Consuming Crises: Migrant Labor, Spectacle, and Precarity in the Twentieth-Century
- Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of California Davis
Margaret Geoga ’18 A.M., ’20 Ph.D.
- PhD: Egyptology and Assyriology
- Master’s: Comparative Literature
- Dissertation - Receptions of a Middle Egyptian Poem: A Textual and Material Study of the Teaching of Amenemhat in the New Kingdom
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, University of Chicago
Yuan Liu ’18 Sc.M., ’20 Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: Engineering
- Dissertation - Finite Temperature Physics of Molecules and Solids via Auxiliary Field Quantum Monte Carlo and Observation of p-Type Dipole-Bound States Near the Molecular Threshold
- Current Position: Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science, North Carolina State University
Lu Lu ’19 Sc.M., ’20 Ph.D.
- PhD: Applied Mathematics
- Master’s: Computer Science
- Dissertation - Theory, Algorithms, and Software for Physics-Informed Deep Learning
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, Yale University
Diego Ramos Toro ’19 A.M., ’20 Ph.D.
- PhD: Economics
- Master’s: History
- Dissertation - History, Social Preferences, and Development Outcomes
- Current Position: Assistant Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College
Malay Firoz Arora ’19 A.M., ’20 Ph.D.
- PhD: Anthropology
- Master’s: Modern Culture and Media
- Dissertation - The Resilience Paradox: Ethical Quandaries of Humanitarian Aid in Jordan and Lebanon
- Current Position: Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Arizona State University
Qingyu Ye ’20 Sc.M., ’21 Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: Data Science
- Dissertation - D-FW Analysis with Corrections on Diffusion Coefficients by a Molecular Shape Representation Learned by Triplet Deep Clustering Algorithm
- Current Position: Applied Scientist, Amazon
Min Chen ’21 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Engineering
- Master’s: Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship
- Dissertation - The Exploration of Lead-Free Halide Perovskite Materials for Solar Cells
- Current Position: Chief Technology Officer, PeroNova
Miriam Rothenberg ’21 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Archaeology and the Ancient World
- Master’s: Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
- Dissertation - Community and Corrosion: A Contemporary Archaeology of Montserrat's Volcanic Crisis in Long-Term Comparative Perspective
- Current Position: Junior Research Fellow, Christ Church College
Watufani Poe ’18 A.M., ’21 Ph.D.
- PhD: Africana Studies
- Master’s: History
- Dissertation - Resisting Fragmentation: The Radical Possibilities of Black LGBTQ+ Activism in Brazil and the United States
- Current Position: Assistant Professor of Activist Media, Department of Communication, Tulane University
Jordan Jones ’21 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
- Master’s: Hispanic Studies
- Dissertation - Affective Crossings: Mapping Empathy and Human Rights in Literature of the Americas
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University
Warren Harding ’19 A.M., ’21 Ph.D.
- PhD: Africana Studies
- Master’s: Comparative Literature
- Dissertation - Migratorial Reading: Black Caribbean Women in Migration and the Work of Literary Cultures
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, Binghamton University State University of New York
Yixiang Deng ’19 Sc.M., ‘22 Ph.D.
- PhD: Engineering
- Master’s: Applied Mathematics
- Dissertation - Biomechanistic and Bioinformatic Modeling for Diabetes
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard
Amanda Khoo ’21 Sc.M., ’22 Ph.D.
- PhD: Biomedical Engineering
- Master’s: Data Science
- Dissertation - Profiling Cancer Cell Invasion and Plasticity in Biomimetic Materials
- Current Position: Senior Data Scientist, Media Therapeutics
Anni Pullagura ’22 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: American Studies
- Master’s: History of Art and Architecture
- Dissertation - Seeing Feeling: The Work of Empathy in Exhibition Spaces
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale Center for British Art
Parsa Bastani ’22 MPH, Ph.D.
- PhD: Anthropology
- Master’s: Public Health
- Dissertation - Continuing the War on Drugs: Carceral Public Health During the U.S. Opioid Crisis
- Current Position: Epidemic Intelligence Officer, Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Cheng Zeng ’22 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Engineering
- Master’s: Data Science
- Dissertation - Molecular Simulations by Exploiting Atomic Forces
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Northeastern University
Yichen Chai ’21 Sc.M., ’22 Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: Computer Science
- Dissertation - New Algorithms and Insights for Geodesic Paths through Potential Energy Landscapes for Liquid State Systems
Marie Schenk ’21 Sc.M., ’22 Ph.D.
- PhD: Political Science
- Master’s: Data Science
- Dissertation - America Online: Everyday Talk and Conflict in Online Communities
- Current Position: Assistant Professor, Lehigh University
Tong Cai ’22 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: PRIME
- Dissertation - Metal Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals: Colloidal Synthesis, Doping Chemistry, Transformation and Optoelectronic Applications
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University
Tong Shen ’21 Sc.M., ’23 Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: Applied Math
- Dissertation: Recursive Auxiliary Field Quantum Monte Carlo: From Simulations in the Canonical Ensemble to Entanglement Measures
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Southern California
Selahaddin Gumus ’23 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Chemistry
- Master’s: PRIME
- Dissertation: Toward Reliable and Sustainable Data Storage Using Molecular Systems
- Current Position: Co-Founder, AtomICs
Brian Markovitz ’23 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: TAPS
- Master’s: Anthropology
- Dissertation - Mark Rothko's Harvard Murals: A Fugitive History of Art and Science
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Scholar, Northwestern University
Albert Webson ’23 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Computer Science
- Master’s: Philosophy
- Dissertation: Tuning Language Models to Follow Instructions
- Current Position: Senior Research Scientist, Google DeepMind
Mariz Kelada ’23 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Anthropology
- Master’s: Modern Culture and Media
- Dissertation: Behind the Seen: The Extramoral Political Economics of Visual Media Production in Egypt
- Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Europe in the Middle East (EUME)
Brooke Grasberger ’23 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: History
- Master’s: Religious Studies
- Dissertation - Spirits of the Sea: the Faith of Sailors through the Death of the Age of Sail
- Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Boston College
Joe Colleyshaw ’23 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Slavic Studies
- Master’s: Political Science
- Dissertation - Melding Gold to Steel: The Rehabilitation of the Russian Empire’s Belle Epoque in Putin’s Russia
Yifeng Cai ’23 MPH, Ph.D.
- PhD: Anthropology
- Master’s: Public Health
- Dissertation - How China's Male Sex Workers Mix Business with Pleasure
- Current Position: Founder and CEO, Polar Education (Shanghai, China)
Kiara Lee ’22 MPH, ’23 Ph.D.
- PhD: BioMedical Engineering
- Master’s: Public Health
- Dissertation - Leveraging Biotransport Mechanisms in the Design of Technologies to Improve Access to Blood-Based Diagnostics
- Current Position: NIH Fogarty LAUNCH Postdoctoral Fellow, Fogarty International Center at NIH
Louis Gularte ’24 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Philosophy
- Master’s: Cognitive Science
- Dissertation - Nothing is Bad, and So Is Suffering - A Gentle Critique of Moral Thinking
- Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor, Tulane University
Ying Huang ’24 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Philosophy
- Master’s: Cognitive Science
- Dissertation - Explanation: Distance, Gaps, Regress and Circularity
Marlon Jimenez Oviedo ’21 A.M., ’24 Ph.D.
- PhD: Theatre & Performance Studies
- Master’s: Integrative Studies (Development Studies)
- Dissertation - Majoritarian Decolonization: A Performance Ethnography
Rachel Eleanor Kalisher ’24 Sc.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Archaeology
- Master’s: Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology
- Dissertation - A Bioarchaeological Study of House Kinship at Bronze Age Megiddo
- Current Position: Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor of Anthropology, New York University
Robert Christopher Kashow ’24 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Religious Studies
- Master’s: Anthropology
- Dissertation - The Violent Imagination: Agency and Representation in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Ancient Judaism
- Current Position: Adjunct Faculty Religious and Theological Studies, Salve Regina University
Bryan Natividad ’24 Ph.D.
- PhD: Sociology
- Master’s: Data Science
- Dissertation - Invisible or Invincible? An Empirical Analysis of University Disability Support Services and Academic Success
Marko Vitas ’24 A.M., Ph.D.
- PhD: Classics
- Master’s: Egyptology & Assyriology
- Dissertation - The Myth of Destruction Beyond Floods and Wars: An Essay in Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Literature
Tara Mara Wheelwright ’21 A.M., ’24 Ph.D.
- PhD: Slavic Studies
- Master’s: Theatre & Performance Studies
- Dissertation - Creating a National Style: Soviet Drama-Ballet and the Elevation of the Word
- Current Position: Assistant Director of STEM Global Awards at New York University