People

Principal Investigator

Prof. Michelle A. O’Malley
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCSB

USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT/Broad Institute (2009-2012)
Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware (2009)
B.S. Chemical Engineering; B.S. Biomedical Engineering,
Carnegie Mellon University (2004)
[CV]
Email

Postdoctoral Researchers and Project Scientists

Dr. Xuefeng (Nick) Peng
(co-advised with Dave Valentine)
Ph.D. Geosciences, Princeton University (2015)
Genomic and metabolic characterization of anaerobic consortia
[CV]
Email

Dr. Susanna Seppala
Ph.D. Biochemistry, Stockholm University, Sweden (2012)
M.Sc. Molecular Biology, Stockholm University, Sweden (2005)
Membrane Protein Biogenesis
[CV]
Email

Graduate Students

Justin Yoo
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University (2013)
NSF Graduate Fellow
Receptor Engineering for Detection and Diagnostics
Email

Igor Podolsky
B.S. Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University (2015)
Email

Jennifer Brown
B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of Toledo (2015)
Engineering Stable Anaerobic Consortia
Email

Michael Vigers
(co-advised with Songi Han)
B.S., Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University - Bozeman (2016)
Email

Patrick Leggieri
B. S. Chemical Engineering, Lafayette College (2018)
Metabolic and systems modeling of anaerobic consortia
Email

Stephen Lillington
(co-advised with Scott Shell)
B. S. Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University (2018)
Characterization and engineering of cellulosomes from anaerobic fungi
Email

Candice Swift
B.S. Chemical and Biological Engineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison (2010)
NSF Graduate Fellow
Email

St. Elmo Wilken
(co-advised with Linda Petzold)
M. Eng. Control Engineering, University of Pretoria (2015)
Email
[CV]

Khanh (Kendrick) D. Nguyen
(co-advised with Songi Han)
B. S. Chemistry, University of New Orleans (2016)
Biophysical Study of G Protein-Coupled Receptor
Email
[CV]

Tom Lankiewicz
B.A. Biology, Grinnell College (2012)
M.S. Marine Studies, University of Delaware (2014)
Identifying and Characterizing Lignin-active Enzymes in Anaerobic Fungi
Email
CV

Kellie Heom
(co-advised with Siddarth Dey)
B. S. Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (2018)
Email

Emily Sun
(co-advised with Arnab Mukherjee)
B. S. Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley (2017)
Email

International Visitor

Dr. Mike Theodorou
Professor of Anaerobic Digestion & Fermentation Technology
Harper Adams University, UK

Ph.D. Biochemical Plant Pathology, Imperial College London
Email

Current Undergraduate Students

Mohan Saxena
UCSB Chemical Engineering 2019

Patrick Kolence
UCSB Molecular Biology 2019

Alex Smith
UCSB Microbiology 2020

Teagan Pado
UCSB Chemical Engineering 2019

Jenna Hoover
UCSB Biochemistry 2019

Nikola Malinov
UCSB Chemical Engineering 2021

Lab Alumni

Former Postdoctoral Scholars

Dr. Kevin Solomon (2012-2015), Currently Asssitant Professor, Purdue University
Dr. Charles Haitjema (2012-2016), Currently ProteinSimple
Dr. Jessica Sexton (2014-2016), Currently Apeel Sciences
Dr. Monica Reith (2014-2016), Currently Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University (Edwardsville)
Dr. Doriv Knop (2016-2018)

Former PhD Students

Dr. Jennifer Guerrero, Currently Amgen
Dr. Nicole Schonenbach, Currently Pfizer
Dr. John Henske, Currently Finch Therapeutics
Dr. Sean Gimore, Currently Ascus Biosciences

Former Undergraduates

Josie Tressl (2012-2013), currently Boehrigner Ingelheim
Elisa Ovadia (2012-2013), currently PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, University of Delaware
Meredith Green (2012-2013), currently Merck
Briane Kiliman, McNair Scholar (2012-2013), currently Intel
Brian Owens (2012-2013), currently TriSep
Jessica O'Day (2012-2013), currently Kite Pharma
David Chau (2013-2014)
Jiehao (CJ) Chen (UC-Berkeley), INSET (2013), currently Genentech
Kane Nania (UCLA) (2013), currently PhD student UCLA
Marla Nyamdori (2013-2014)
Chris Euchus (UC-Irvine), INSET (2014)
Erich Brodbeck, Amgen Fellow, ICB URAP (2013-2014), currently Amryis
Wen-Kang Chou, ICB URAP (2014-2015), currently PhD student ChE, Princeton
Natalie Banakis (2012-2015), currently Meissner
Sarah Maxel (2013-2015), currently PhD Student Chemical Engineering, UC-Irvine
Herman Ching (2015-2016), currently PhD Student Chemical Engineering, UC-Irvine
Charlotte Abrahamson (2013-2015), currently PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, Northwestern
Daniel Yur (2014-2016), currently PhD Student Chemical & Biomolecular Eng, University of Delaware
R. Andres Parra Sperberg (2014-2016), currently PhD Student Bioengineering, Stanford University
Francis Cunningham (2016-2017), currently PhD Student Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering, UC-Berkeley
Jessica Hauk (2015-2017), currently Chemetry
Randall DeGroot (2015-2017), currently Zymergen
Winston Hsu (2016-2017)
Zach Cogan (2015-2017), currently UCSF
Julia Bryne (2016-2018)
Samantha Lee (2015-2018)