Doctoral Defenses

Tyler Simmons - April 8, 2024

Dissertation Title: Construction and Analysis of Mathematical Models Governing Cellular Exhaustion in Response to Solid Tumors to Guide Future Immunotherapy Research

Date & Time: April 8, 2024 at 10:00 am

Location: 1116 IPST Building (Seminar Room)

Examining Committee: 

Doron Levy (CHAIR)
Abba Gumel
Arpita Upadhyaya
Tonya Webb
Kimberly Stroka


Dedi Wang - April 4, 2024

Dissertation Title: Analyzing and Enhancing Molecular Dynamics through the Synergy of Physics and AI

Date & Time: April 4, 2024 at 12:00 pm

Location: 1136 A.V. Williams Building

Examining Committee: 

Pratyush Tiwary (CHAIR)
Christopher Jarzynski
Brian Pierce
Christopher Metzler
Michelle Girvan
Jeffery Klauda


Riya Samanta - April 1, 2024

Dissertation Title: Understanding Allosteric communication in biological systems using Molecular Dynamics simulations

Date & Time: April 1, 2024 at 10:00 am

Location: 1116 IPST Building (Seminar Room)

Examining Committee: 

Silvina Matysiak (CHAIR)
David Weber
Pratyush Tiwary
Jinwoo Lee
Jeffery Klauda


Madolyn Britt - March 25, 2024

Dissertation Title: The Role of the Protein-Lipid Boundary in the Gating of the Mechanosensitive Channel MscS, and the Thermodynamics of Arginine-Phosphate Interactions

Date & Time: March 25, 2024 at 11:30 am

Location: 1116 IPST Building (Seminar Room)

Examining Committee: 

Sergei Sukharev (CHAIR)
David Fushman
Jinwoo Lee
Silvina Matysiak
Jeffery Klauda


Chenghang Zhang - June 15, 2023

Dissertation Title: Uncovering the Molecular Basis of Activity-dependent Retinofugal Synapse Plasticity

Date & Time: June 15, 2023 at 12:00 PM

Location: 1103 Bioscience Research Building

Examining Committee: 

Colenso Speer (CHAIR)
Joshua Singer
Daniel Butts
Jason Triplett
Pamela Abshire


Zachary Smith - May 19, 2023

Dissertation Title: Toward Ensemble-Based Drug Discovery through Enhanced Sampling

Date & Time: May 19, 2023 at 3:00 PM

Location: 1116 IPST Building (Seminar Room)

Examining Committee: 

Pratyush Tiwary (CHAIR)
Jeffery Klauda
Christopher Jarzynski
Michelle Girvan
Yanxin Liu