EMERGENCY INFORMATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Graduate Research Associate
Arjun Iyer received his B.Tech. in Engineering Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He joins Professor Renninger's group at the Institute of Optics after spending a year as a research associate at the optical communications group at Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Arjun studies novel optomechanical phenomena.
: Austin is investigating evolutionary rate correlations (ERCs) among nuclear and mitochondrial genes, and more broadly ERCs as a tool for investigating protein interactions and networks. Austin is a computation biology major.
Ben Harrington is currently pursuing a PhD in Materials Science at the University of Rochester (U of R). He received his B.S. in Nanoscale Engineering with Honors from SUNY Polytechnic Institute in May 2021. His undergraduate research in the photoluminescent properties of nanostructured materials drives his interests with the nanoscale thermal transport lab at the U of R and towards develop nanothermometry techniques utilizing luminescent materials. In his free time Ben enjoys playing the piano and also playing volleyball.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, University of Iowa
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist - Broad Institute
Cordelia Forkpah (Technician): As well as managing the laboratory, Cordelia is involved in several projects. Currently she is concentrating on the genetic basis of learning differences among Nasonia species.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist - University of Rochester
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- Assistant Professor, Williams College
David is a graduate student at the University of Rochester. He is interested in examining the inferences that people make about others' goals and motivations within social and achievement environments. His work focuses on competition, achievement motivation, income inequality, and research methodology. David is especially passionate about teaching statistical methods, including R, Bayesian data analysis, and simulation-based research design. Outside of the lab, he enjoys baking, biking, and brewing coffee/tea.
Dr. Andrew J. Elliot, Ph. D., is Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Rochester. He has held year-long Visiting Professor positions at the University of Munich (2003-2004), the University of Cambridge (Churchill College, 2008-2009), the University of Oxford (Jesus College, 2013-2014), Columbia University (Teachers College) and New York University (2022-2023). He conducts research on approach and avoidance motivation, especially achievement motivation, and has published over 300 scholarly papers. He has given keynote or university addresses in 23 different countries, and his lab regularly hosts professors, post-docs, and graduate students from around the globe. He has won numerous research and teaching awards, and has been named a Fellow in 5 different professional organizations. He has been Associate Editor at numerous journals (e.g., Journal of Personality, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Psychological Science), and is currently Editor of Advance in Motivation Science. Dr. Elliot has served as President of the Society for the Science of Motivation. He has served or is serving on several not-for-profit boards, including the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Calvin University, and Verbree International. He started and oversees a school library building program for H.O.P.E., a NGO in rural Haiti. He and his wife Juli (a classically trained singer) live in Rochester, NY; they have three adult children and three grandsons.
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Researcher - University of Georgia
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist - Universite De Paris Sud
Ethan Wasche is a graduate student at the University of Rochester. His current research is focused on expanding the achievement goal framework into unexplored domains. He has given two poster presentations: Wasche, E. & Haggard, M. (2022). Susceptibility to the Dunning-Kruger Effect: Measuring Correlates of a Self-Serving Bias. Poster presented at SPSP 2022, San Francisco, CA. and Wasche, E., Henderson, E., & Sargent, J. (2021). Neural Response to Symmetry Does Not Track Memory Advantage. Poster presented at the 62nd Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting. He pursued his undergraduate studies at Francis Marion University in Florence, SC. Outside of academia, he enjoys exploring flea markets, garage sales, and estate sales to look at old-timey trinkets that reflect lifestyles from past decades.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist - University of Grenada
Job Titles:
- Professor and Head of the Group
- Professor and Head of the Group / Research
- Wyant Professor of Optics
: Hannah is studying the diversity of Nasonia species, including how their frequencies have changed over time and whether one species has gone extinct in nature.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Professor: 2002, 2009, and 2016
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- Associate Professor, Department of Entomology University of Amsterdam, Holland
)John (Jack) Werren is the Nathaniel and Helen Wisch Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester. He received his interdisciplinary B.A. degree (Echols Scholar) from the University of Virginia and his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Utah with Eric Charnov. Here is Werren's CV.
Job Titles:
- Professor - University of Minnesota
Laura Kowalski is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Optics at the University of Rochester (UR). She received her Bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Physics from SUNY Geneseo in 2020. She then received her Master's degree in Engineering Sustainability from University at Buffalo (UB) where her research involved synthesizing a nanohybrid to initiate the photodegradation and absorption of PFAS, a group of manmade chemicals. In her free time, she enjoys painting and hiking!
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- Professor, Department of Genetics, University of Groningen, Holland
Job Titles:
- Graduate Student / Research
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- Associate Professor - University of Bourgogne
Job Titles:
- Instructional Assistant Professor - U. of Rochester
: Miranda is studying the genetics of species differences in learning and memory.
Andrea Pickel joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Rochester as an Assistant Professor in July 2019. She received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2019, where she was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and a UC Berkeley Chancellor's Fellowship. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with University and College Honors from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014. Her current research focuses on harnessing the unique properties of luminescent materials to develop nanothermometry techniques for challenging operating environments. Andrea is the recipient of an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) Doctoral New Investigator Award (2020), a University of Rochester Furth Fund Award (2021), and an NSF CAREER Award (2022), and she was named a Scialog Fellow for Automating Chemical Laboratories (2024). Her teaching contributions have been recognized with the G. Graydon Curtis '58 and Jane W. Curtis Award for Non-Tenured Faculty Teaching (2023).
Job Titles:
- Professor - University of California, Riverside
: Sammy is investigating the evolution of lateral gene transfers from bacteria to insects.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Research Associate
Sarat Tirumala received his B.S. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He joins Professor Renninger's group at the Institute of Optics from the Optics and Microfluidics Instrumentation Lab (OMI LAB) at IISc. Sarat's research focuses on ultrashort pulse nonlinear optics.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
: Shaan is investigating genetic basis of differences in head shape and body color among Nasonia species.
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Independent Research and / or Thesis
Job Titles:
- Fellow
- Optical Communications, Information Security
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Associate Now
Job Titles:
- Graduate Research Associate
Wendao Xu received his B.Eng. in Optoelectronic Information Science and Technology at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. He joined the group for his M.S. program thesis and is continuing on with the group for his PhD degree. Currently, he is investigating optomechanical interactions in novel optical fibers.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor of Optics and Physics
William Renninger received his B. S. and Ph. D. degrees in Applied Physics from Cornell University. Before joining the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester he was a Postdoctoral Associate and an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Applied Physics at Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Research Associate
Xue Dong received her B.S. from SUNY Binghamton. She loves to explore natural sciences, to travel and occasionally some video games. She hopes to contribute a little more to the world. With that hope, she joins Professor Renninger's group. She is currently working on fiber Kerr resonators and ultrafast nonlinear optics.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist - Ohio State University
Job Titles:
- Graduate Research Associate
Zhenhua Guo is currently a PhD student in the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. He received his B.S of Opto-electronic Information and Science from Tianjin University, China. During his undergraduate study he spent one year as an exchange student at the College of Optical Science, University of Arizona. Zhenhua joined the group as an MS student and is continuing on to the PhD degree.
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Associate Now
Ziyang Ye graduated with a Bachelor degree in Materials Science from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 2017. Then he began master's study at University of Rochester and did research of water-soluble conjugated polymers in Rothberg's group. In 2019, after obtained master's degree, he decided to stay in Rochester, joined Pickel's group and took photophysics to be his greatest research interest. Now, he is trying to investigate the optical properties and applications of upconversion nanoparticles. He enjoys listening classical music and doing gym with his friends.