Quantitative Bioscience at the University of Tennessee
Success Stories
Pathways to Graduate Study Associated Faculty
Our graduate programs available at UT are currently supporting a diverse group of students pursuing PhD's in quantitative life sciences. For a sampling of these students, we invite you to hear from the recent NIMBioS Graduate Awardees as they tell brief stories of their research projects. Below is a summary listing of the PhD students who have obtained their degrees under the mentorship of faculty affiliated with our programs, along with their position following graduation, to provide evidence of the success of our programs in supporting graduate students to move on to a diverse range of successful careers, whether academia, government or industry.
Academia
Erika Asano, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2006. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Lecturer, Montana Tech. Univ., Butte, MT
Ouassim Bara, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering (co-advised), 2017. Advisor: Judy Day. Postdoctoral Fellow INRIA, Nice, France
Mahadev Bhat, Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics, 1991. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Professor, Florida International Univ.
Jason Bintz, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2015. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Asst. Professor, Johnson Univ., Knoxville, TN
Erin N. Bodine, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2010. Advisors: Louis Gross and Suzanne Lenhart. Assoc. Professor, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN
Sam Borstein, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology, 2019. Advisor: Brian O'Meara, Postdoctoral Fellow at Univ. of Michigan
Sanjay Chawla, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 1995. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Professor, Univ. of Sydney, Australia
Timothy Clayton, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2008. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Asst. Professor, Lincoln Memorial Univ., TN
Kokum De Silva, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2015. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Asst. Professor, Univ. of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
Mahir Demir, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2019. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Postdoctoral Fellow, Michigan State Univ.
Wandi Ding, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2006. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Professor, Middle Tennessee State Univ., Murfreesboro, TN
Scott Duke-Sylvester, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2006. Advisor: Louis Gross. Assoc. Professor, Univ. of Louisiana, Lafayette
Christine Dumoulin, Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 2017. Advisor: Paul Armsworth. Postdoctoral Fellow, Univ. of Georgia
K. Renee Fister, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 1996. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Professor, Murray State Univ., Murray, KY
Mauricio Ganzales Forero, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution, 2013. Advisor: Sergey Gavrilets. Postdoctoral Fellow, Univ. of Lausanne
Rachel Fovargue, Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 2017. Advisor: Paul Armsworth. Postdoctoral Fellow, Univ. of Oklahoma
Lindsey Fox, Ph.D. in Mathematics with a concentration in Mathematical Ecology, 2019. Advisor: Judy Day. Asst. Professor, Mathematics, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL
Holly Gaff, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 1999. Advisor: Louis Gross. Professor, Old Dominion Univ.
Milena Holmgren, Ph.D. in Ecology, 1996. Advisor: Louis Gross. Assoc. Professor, Waganingen Univ.
Vlad Hrynkiv, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2006. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Asst. Professor, Univ. of Houston, Downtown, deceased 2018.
Xiaohu Hu, Ph.D. in Life Science/Genome Science and Technology, 2016. Advisor: Jeremy Smith. Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
Michael Joseph Hughes, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2014. Advisor: Louis Gross. Postdoctoral Fellow, Oregon State Univ.
Gwen Iacona, Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 2014. Advisor: Paul Armsworth. Postdoctoral Fellow, Resources for the Future
Hem Raj Joshi Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2002. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Professor, Xavier Univ., Cincinnati, OH
Ivan Juric, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution, 2014. Advisor: Sergey Gavrilets. Postdoctoral Fellow, Univ. of Oklahoma
Quentin Johnson, Ph.D. in Life Science/Genome Science and Technology, 2015. Advisor: Tongye Shen. Asst. Professor, Berry College
Michael Kelly, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2014. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Asst. Professor, Transylvania Univ., Lexington KY
Rachel Leander, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2010. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Asst. Professor, Middle Tennessee State Univ., Murfreesboro, TN
Natalie Lemanski, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution, 2017. Advisor: Nina Fefferman. Post Doctoral Researcher, UCLA
Benjamin Levy, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2016. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Asst. Professor, Fitchburg State Univ., Fitchburg, MA
Eric Lofgren, Ph.D. in Epidemiology (co-advised), 2013. Advisor: Nina Fefferman. Asst. Professor, Washington State Univ.
Marco Martinez, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2013. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Assoc. Professor, North Central College, Chicago, IL
Rachael Miller Neilan, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2009. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Assoc. Professor, Duquesne Univ., Pittsburgh, PA
Barmak Mostofian, Ph.D. in Life Science/Genome Science and Technology, 2014. Advisor: Jeremy Smith. Postdoctoral Fellow, Oregon Health and Science Univ., Portland, OR
Eric Numfor, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2014. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Asst. Professor, Augusta Univ., Augusta, GA
Buddhi Pantha, Ph.D. in Mathematics with a concentration in Mathematical Ecology (co-advised), 2016. Advisors: Suzanne Lenhart and Judy Day. Asst. Professor, Mathematics, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, GA
Logan Perry, Ph.D. in Math, 2019. Advisor: Sergey Gavrilets. Instructor, Univ. of Louisiana Lafayette.
Kelly Rooker, Ph.D. in Math, 2017. Advisor: Sergey Gavrilets. Researcher, Advanced Physics Lab
René Salinas, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2003. Advisor: Louis Gross. Professor, Appalachian State Univ.
Sammi Schwab, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution, 2018. Advisor: Nina Fefferman. Science Teacher, Rutgers Preparatory School
Brittany Stephenson, Ph.D. in Mathematics with a concentration in Mathematical Ecology (co-advised), 2018. Advisor: Judy Day. Asst. Professor, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Lewis Univ., Romeoville, IL
Government
Mark Bevelhimer, Ph.D. in Ecology, 1990. Advisor: Louis Gross. Oak Ridge National Lab
Brad Greening, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution, 2014. Advisor: Nina Fefferman. Health Scientist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Betsy Heines, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2017. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Mathematical Statistician, U.S. Dept. of Justice
Rebecca Pettit, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2018. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. U.S. Dept. of Defense
Nathan Louis Pollesch, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2016. Advisor: Louis Gross. EPA- Duluth
Larry Pounds, Ph.D. in Ecology, 1995. Advisor: Louis Gross. Retired
Justin N Vaughn, Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology, 2011. Advisor: Albrecht von Arnim. Computational Biologist, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Athens, GA
Jing Zhou, Ph.D. in Life Science/Genome Science and Technology, 2017. Advisor: Jeremy Smith. Postdoctoral Fellow, NIH, Bethesda, MD
Industry
Jenn Bosco, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology, Masters in statistics, 2017. Advisor: Brian O'Meara. Pratt & Whitney
Ming Chen, Ph.D. in Life Science/Genome Science and Technology, 2019. Advisor: Meg Staton. Data Scientist, Cryoocyte, Inc, Atlanta GA
Ashley DeNegre, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution, November 2015. Advisor: Nina Fefferman. Asst. Medical Director, Ogilvy Health
Edgar Duéñez-Guzmán, Ph.D. in Computer Science, 2010. Advisor: Sergey Gavrilets. Senior Research Engineer at DeepMind, UK
Mustafa Elmas, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2018. Advisor: V. Alexiades. Asurion, Nashvile TN
Benjamin Ernest, Ph.D. in Life Science/Genome Science and Technology, 2016. Advisor: Albrecht von Arnim. Bioinformatics Specialist, Digicon Corporation, DC
Min Liang, Ph.D. in Mathematics, 1998. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Software Developer at Intel Math Kernel Library, Intel Corporation, Austin TX
Katie Massana, Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology, Masters in statistics, 2017. Advisor: Brian O'Meara. SAS Institute, Inc.
Austin Milt, Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 2015. Advisor: Paul Armsworth. Software Engineer, Pandora
Paul Mlynarczyk, Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 2018. Advisor: Steve Abel. Corning Inc.
Aaron Prescott, Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 2017. Advisor: Steve Abel. ExxonMobil Research and Engineering
Roland Schulz, Ph.D. in Life Science/Genome Science and Technology, 2015. Advisor: Jeremy Smith. Computer Software Engineer, Intel, Portland, OR
Peng Zhong. Ph.D. in Mathematics, 2011. Advisor: Suzanne Lenhart. Actuary in Chicago
NIMBioS
1122 Volunteer Blvd., Suite 106
University of Tennessee
Knoxville,
TN 37996-3410
PH: (865) 974-9334
FAX: (865) 974-9461
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