2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

1. Dr. Yanfen Li http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-9465-7147 University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign [biography]

   Yanfen Li is currently a third year Ph.D student in Dr. Kilian's lab in the department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focus is on biomaterials and tissue engineering. At the U of I, she is the Academic Liaison for the graduate section of the Society of Women Engineers.

2. Miss Danielle Jamie Mai University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign [biography]

   Danielle J. Mai is a Ph.D. candidate in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Danielle earned her B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and an Illinois Mavis Future Faculty Fellow; her dissertation research focuses on improving the understanding of branched polymer dynamics via single molecule experiments. Danielle is an active member and current speaker coordinator of the Graduate Committee of the Society of Women Engineers (GradSWE).

3. Elizabeth Horstman University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [biography]

   Elizabeth Horstman is a third year graduate student from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Her research focuses on developing microfluidic platforms for applications in the pharmaceutical drug discovery. Aside from her research, Elizabeth is the director of the graduate division of the Society of Women Engineers (GradSWE) at Illinois. In this role, she hopes to encourage women to pursue graduate school, support them throughout their graduate education, and help prepare them for their future careers after they complete their degree.

4. Prof. Rohit Bhargava University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [biography]

   Rohit Bhargava is Bliss Faculty Scholar of Engineering and Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a faculty member with affiliations in several departments across campus (Primary – Bioengineering: Affiliated - Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Science and Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Chemistry) as well as the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. Rohit received dual B.Tech. degrees (in Chemical Engineering and Polymer Science and Engineering) from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1996 and his doctoral thesis work at Case Western Reserve University (Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering) was in the area of polymer spectroscopy. He then worked as a Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health (2000-2005) in the area of biomedical vibrational spectroscopy. Rohit has been at Illinois since as Assistant Professor (2005-2011), Associate Professor (2011-2012) and Professor (2012-). Rohit was the first assistant professor hired into the new Bioengineering department and played a key role in the development of its curriculum and activities. He later founded and serves as the coordinator of the Cancer Community@Illinois, a group dedicated to advancing cancer-related research and scholarship on campus. Research in the Bhargava laboratories focuses on fundamental theory and simulation for vibrational spectroscopic imaging, developing new instrumentation and developing chemical imaging for molecular pathology. Using 3D printing and engineered tumor models, recent research seeks to elucidate hetero-cellular interactions in cancer progression. Rohit’s work has been recognized with several research awards nationally. Among recent honors are the Meggers Award (Society for applied spectroscopy, 2014), Craver Award (Coblentz Society, 2013) and the FACSS Innovation Award (2012). Rohit has also been recognized for his dedication to teaching in the College of Engineering (Rose and Everitt awards) and he is routinely nominated to the list of teachers ranked excellent at Illinois.

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