Sanjeev Adhikari
Adhikari is a doctoral candidate in civil engineering at Michigan Technological University. He earned his master's degree in structural engineering, and worked as a lecturer in Nepal at Tribhuvan University. Sanjeev's research focuses on the micromechanical analysis of asphalt mixture using X-ray tomography technique. Micromechanics-based Discrete Element Modeling (MDEM) is used to simulate the mechanical properties of asphalt concrete. The mechanical properties of asphalt cement and mixtures such as resilient modulus, dynamic modulus, and creep stiffness are also simulated. The resilient modulus, dynamic modulus, and creep stiffness are used to predict rutting, fatigue cracking, and low temperature cracking of asphalt concrete. Adhikari's mentor is Balasingam Muhunthan.
Muhammad Ibrahim Khan
Khan earned his B.S. in mechanical engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2002, and worked as a research scholar at the National University of Singapore for two years where he received a degree in mechanical engineering. In 2005, he came to the U.S., and received an MS in electrical engineering, and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at UC, Riverside. Muhammad will join Intel Corporation in Hillsboro, Oregon. His research interests include template-directed fabrication of nanomaterials and nanostructures, specifically nanowires, for applications in the fields of nanoelectronics, drug delivery and alternative fuel/energy. His future research goal is to develop nanowire based ultra-fast, very low power digital logic technology, tiny chemical and biological sensors deploying new nanoengineered functional materials. Khan has taught courses in system dynamics and control, engineering graphics and design, dynamics and fluid mechanics. He has authored over 10 manuscripts, and one patent disclosure, and is in the process of founding the nanotech company, Nanowire, Inc.
Bridget Diamond Welch
Welch is a doctoral candidate in sociology at Iowa State University. Her main areas of interest include the social psychology of self and identity, emotions, networks, race, gender, and research methods. Her dissertation addresses factors affecting Latino/a business success in new destinations. Additional current work includes a study of real-life interacting groups--a network analysis of a Latino/a business--and a paper, with Dr. Alicia Caston, on the relationship between emotion and cognition.
Irene Begaye-Jones
Begaye-Jones is a doctoral student in curriculum and instruction at Northern Arizona University. Irene’s dissertation research examines the cross cultural differences in Navajo adolescents’ written narrative structures when English is a second language. Irene earned a baccalaureate degree in elementary education and a master’s in educational psychology from Brigham Young University. She holds certifications in school counseling, special education, and English language learning. She has taught special ed and counseling at the K-12 and community college levels, and teaches courses in special education for NAU as an adjunct distance learning instructor.
Kamesha S. Spates
Spates is a doctoral candidate in sociology at Texas A&M University. She holds a BA from Northern Illinois University, and an MS from Texas A&M University. Kamesha’s research interests include race and ethnic relations, gender, social deviance, and criminology. Her dissertation project explores the statistical disparities of suicide rates among blacks and whites in the U.S., and, in particular, the consistently low suicide rates of African American women. Kamesha also focuses her efforts on recruitment and retention of underrepresented doctoral students at Texas A&M University as the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Program Coordinator.
Melba Vélez
Vélez is a doctoral candidate in communications at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned her BA and MA in Rhetorical Studies from Purdue University. Her areas of emphasis are communication ethics and environmental communication in the U.S. and the Caribbean. She also studies Latin-American/Caribbean/Latina-o philosophy and intellectual history. Her dissertation examines the ways in which the long-term success of conservation efforts depend upon fundamental shifts in cultural values, in aesthetic and moral communication, and in shared understandings of how the individual fits into social and ecological communities. She has taught courses in Advanced Research Writing, Fundamentals of Speech Communication, Spanish Level II, Oral and Written Communication, and popular culture. She currently serves as student representative for the National Communication Association Environmental Communication Division.
Sean Goliday
Goliday is currently a doctoral candidate in sociology
at Howard University. He was born and raised in St.
Louis, Missouri, and received his BA in criminal
justice and MA in sociology from the University of
Missouri, St. Louis. Sean has worked in various
capacities as a research assistant, teaching assistant,
and instructor of record in sociology. In his
dissertation he examines the role of perceived
discrimination in Black-White differences in political
participation.
His research interests include quantitative techniques,
political sociology, criminology, urban sociology, and
race and ethnicity.
Shahryar “Shar” Samy
Samy is a doctoral candidate in atmospheric sciences at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. He holds a bachelor's in chemistry from the University of Montana, and a master's in geography from the University of Colorado. His research focuses on the atmospheric transformations and chemical speciation of primary emissions in the atmosphere. Evaluating the physical and chemical characteristics of the secondary products from these emissions will enhance our understanding of important atmospheric processes that impact climate, visibility, and health. Teaching environmental science and continuing his research in atmospheric chemistry will occupy much of Shar's time in the near future. However, exploring the great outdoors is his favorite perennial activity.
Stacey Cohen
Cohen is a doctoral candidate in literature at Howard University in Washington D.C. She received her bachelor's in psychology and English with a minor in political science from Stony Brook University, and a MA in English from Brooklyn College. She began her teaching career in New York City at Harvey Milk High School. She has taught at Brooklyn College and Kingsborough College in New York, and at Howard University. Her research interests include feminist and womanist studies, gender studies, transnationalism, hybridity, and women of color American writers.
Xyanthe Neider
Neider is a Ph.D. Candidate at Washington State University in Higher Education Administration and Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education. In her dissertation research Xyan explores how globalization is changing the face of diversity in U.S. higher education. An interest that has emerged from her work is how groups have been constructed as trouble in the current socio-political climate in the West. Although she these issues from a “Western” perspective, her hope is to open the spaces in which complicated conversations can occur. This will allow scholars and practitioners to engage in reflections that challenge systems of power and oppression that inherently exist in the institutions where they work and conduct their research.
Zakiya Adair
Adair is a Ph.D. student in the department of Women Studies at the University of Washington. Her areas of interest include transnational and global identities, race, class and gender, and women's 20th century social and cultural history. Specifically, she focuses on African American women entertainers performing abroad in Paris, France, and London, England, between WWI and WWII. Zakiya was born and raised in San Jose, California. She attended San Jose State University where she earned a B.A. in African American studies with a minor in philosophy. Zakiya was a McNair scholar at San Jose State University and for the past four years has worked as an advisor for the University of Washington EIP/McNair Scholars program.
What one former Summer Doctoral Fellow said about the program at WSU:
The program allowed me to finish my literature review, and meet two mentors from the College of Ed. It was great to receive various perspectives and opinions from others. I was also able to network with other disciplines, build community, and discuss solutions perspectives. Now, I see faculty and other summer doctorate fellows at conferences.
Barb Johnson, Ph.D.