Luisa Barrera

Luisa Barrera is a postdoctoral fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and a first-year PPFP Fellow. She earned a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016 followed by a M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan in 2023. Her graduate studies focused on harnessing solar energy to electrochemically treat wastewater nitrogen species for nutrient and energy recovery. As a postdoctoral fellow, she is continuing her work in waste nutrient recovery by expanding her scope to include organic nitrogen species as well as other waste matrices, such as wastewater sludge.

Vanessa Franco Carvalho Dartora

Vanessa Dartora is a postdoctoral fellow within the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and a first-year PPFP Fellow. She completed her B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Cuiaba, Brazil, and further pursued her MS and Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sao Paulo. Her academic focus involved innovating nanostructured and nanoparticulate delivery systems to enhance drug distribution, co-localizing multiple agents in targeted areas such as skin and breast tissues, with potential benefits for breast cancer, skin diseases, and wound healing treatments. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, she conducted postdoctoral research at the Biomedical Engineering Department of the University of California, Davis, as part of the UC Davis Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Training Program. Her research is broadly based on interdisciplinary approaches including biomaterials, peptide synthesis, cell biology, analytical characterization, and translational medicine. Her current postdoctoral research at Georgia Tech is focused on the engineering of biomacromolecules to modulate the secretome of Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs), encompassing growth factors, cytokines, miRNA, and extracellular vesicles (EVs), to enhance both angiogenesis and skin regeneration. This research convergence has the potential to impact the field of regenerative medicine.

Juan Carlos Martinez Mori

Carlos Martínez, an Ecuadorian engineer-turned-mathematician, is a first-year PPFP Fellow. He is a Schmidt Science Fellow and a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University and his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he visited the Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute as a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Fall 2023 program on Algorithms, Fairness, and Equity.

He is broadly interested in discrete mathematics, from its real-world applications to foundations in optimization and combinatorics. As a postdoctoral fellow, he is interested in models and algorithms that support equity in the design of public infrastructure (e.g., public transit). One of his career goals is to improve representation in the mathematical sciences. This interest was catalyzed by his experience as a teaching assistant for two different Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs in mathematics.

Rachael Thompson Panik

Rachael Thompson Panik is a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the Transportation Systems Engineering group. Rachael holds degrees in transportation engineering and urban planning from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (B.S.), Clemson University (M.C.R.P), and Georgia Tech (Ph.D.). Before pursuing her Ph.D., she worked as a transportation engineering and planning consultant, helping communities across the U.S. implement safe infrastructure for bicyclists and pedestrians. Rachael leverages her diverse work experience and education towards an interdisciplinary program of research on transportation safety. She uses advanced quantitative methods to study “upstream” safety — causes of traffic crashes that do not relate to crashes themselves, but rather decision-making factors that preclude effective planning of safe transportation systems. Recent focus areas include exploring and eliminating barriers to implementing safe infrastructure, studying attitudes toward safety among decision-makers, and estimating biking and walking volumes toward risk-based project prioritization.

Parisa Sarikhani

Parisa Sarikhani is a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Georgia CTSA NIH TL1 Postdoctoral Scholar. She earned her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Shiraz University and later completed her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Informatics at Emory University. During her graduate studies, Parisa focused on developing precision neuromodulation therapies using artificial intelligence. At Georgia Tech, she investigates the mechanisms of brain circuits and their interactions with electrical stimulation by leveraging advances in neuromodulation technologies, biophysical modeling, and machine learning. This work aims to guide clinical decision-making for deep brain stimulation in treatment-resistant depression. Parisa’s research bridges neural and artificial systems to uncover the fundamental mechanisms of brain circuits and the structural and functional dynamics underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders. She also studies how external stimulation influences brain dynamics, contributing to a deeper understanding of the complex brain networks.