I’jaaz Sultaan Muhammad is a second-year doctoral student whose current research constitutes biomedical engineering in pharmacokinetics, specifically as it pertains to drug delivery. 

As someone who has been homeschooled all the way through twelfth grade, Muhammad’s first exposure to public school—at Health Career Opportunity’s  pre-college engineering program—prompted his love of helping and mentoring other people.

He explains, “each of my mentees have gone on to do something significant in their lives; to work at NASA, start their own business, become a university scholar…” He says, “they all do what they want to do, and the thought…that maybe I could have helped them to get there…it’s my greatest reward.” 

Muhammad’s academic record deserves its own kind of appraisal. He knows four languages, and has been a Rowe, LSAMP, McNair, and Bridge to the Doctorate Scholar, as well as an active member of the Student Association of Graduate Engineers, the Graduate Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, and Engineering Ambassadors. 

As an e-board member of John Lof Leadership Academy, Muhammad holds the title of Parliamentarian. Within that role, he interviews graduate students prior to induction, and is responsible for advising and directing members under the organization’s various rules and regulations.

JLLA has assisted the development of his “echo-social skills,” or ability to network. While people are always saying that “network gives you net worth,” they never know where to go from there, and he believes John Lof has helped in “filling that gap,” or connecting a person’s network to their net worth. 

Muhammad’s general advice is to always keep your gratitude. He says, “it can be hard…and that’s why we remind ourselves to be grateful for the little things. That’s how you go to war with depression. Count your blessings, not because they could be easily taken away, but because you are experiencing them now.”

Michael Reisert is a fourth-year PhD student conducting materials research with an emphasis in electrochemistry and energy systems. He is the VP of John Lof, where he organizes general body and e-board meetings, oversees Mind Garden, and assists with executive responsibilities. 

Currently, his research examines solid oxide electrochemical systems as a means of advancing energy storage, energy conversion and fuel utilization. His focus on dual atmosphere corrosion of stainless steel interconnects assesses the anomalous oxidation of iron and degradation of metallic components in fuel cell systems. Through experimentation, computational studies and simulation analysis, Reisert’s investigation of dual atmosphere corrosion allows us to better understand the role of hydrogen in material degradation within these systems. 

Going forward, Reisert hopes to partition his love of research into an industry-based position. He loves working with clean energy and believes that the hydrogen economy is a viable route for future transitions from fossil fuels. 

As a second-year member of John Lof, Reisert stresses the importance of collaboration as an engineer student: “It’s very lacking in the whole curriculum…working with others, and the ability to develop more advanced leadership skills.” 

In particular, the Academy has improved his ability of articulation, which is one of the more significant—yet neglected—aspects of the field. Reisert maintains that this ability makes the information more accessible to everyone, not just engineers. He says, “I want more people to understand what I’m trying to do, and why I’m trying to do it.”   

Giovanna Fusco is a second year civil engineering PhD candidate, as well as Public Relations Director of John Lof Leadership Academy. 

Currently, she is working to develop resilience mechanisms for residential buildings under hurricane loads. By calculating the different components of hurricane wear and translating those into a virtual reality model, Fusco can determine which parts of the architecture will fail, and use this information to develop a rounded risk assessment. 

She has also streamlined a user input system, which allows individuals to identify parts of their own building. This allows her to input case-specific information, invariably giving the model analysis greater precision and accuracy. 

This type of work is super applicable given the recent expansion of inclement, tempestuous weather resulting from climate change. Fusco’s experience within the field has advanced her knowledge of coding languages as well as her love of research.

In a deeper reflection of the field, Fusco said, “you don’t even realize it, but civil engineering encompasses things we use every single day—like buildings and transportation—so…technically, we can’t get anywhere without it.”

Since joining John Lof almost two years ago, Fusco has developed stronger speaking and presentation skills as a student-researcher. Through the guidance of the Academy, she has truly grown her confidence.  

Ayana Ghosh is a postdoctoral research associate at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. While she obtained her PhD this past summer, she continues to apply machine learning (ML) techniques to various materials science challenges in her research. 

During her PhD, Ghosh constructed traditional ML algorithm-based models in order to better understand the crystallization propensity of molecules as well as the electronic and magnetic properties of functional materials, which have direct usage in several pharmaceutical and technological applications. 

At the moment, Ghosh is engaged in developing ML frameworks with applications in automated experiments. This research attempts to bridge theory and computational data with real-life experimental data.  

She hopes to better understand the nuances of experimental research as combined with the particulars of theoretical and simulated data. The implications of this are large and could change our traditional perception of the sciences. 

As an international student (Ghosh grew up in West Bengal), she was considered ineligible for the bulk of fellowships provided, regardless of qualification or skill. Despite these obstacles, she received the John Tanaka Graduate Fellowship from Phi Kappa Phi for academic excellence and community engagement. While it is awarded irrespective of discipline, this scholarship is quantifiably exceptional in itself. 

Aside from several conference presentation and poster awards, Ghosh was also the proud recipient of the Brian D. Proffer Student Excellence Award, the Student Involvement and Leadership (SIL) Emerging, and other Volunteer-Service awards during her undergraduate career at The University of Michigan-Flint. 

In joining John Lof, Ghosh has had the opportunity to interact with people from diverse backgrounds as well as learn leadership and mentoring skills significant to any line of work. She finds that the JLLA leadership program has enhanced skills which “enable one to become significant within their field.” 

Douglas Hendrix is a PhD candidate who will graduate this May with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering. 

His current research works with high performance concrete. One such application for this material is the replacement of steel in traditional infrastructure. Through the even dispersion of nanosilica, the concrete is refined in strength and durability, allowing for greater corrosion resistance. 

Hendrix expounds this research in Behavior of Colloidal Nanosilica and Investigation Methods for Characterizing Nanoparticles in Concrete, two co-authored publications. 

He has been the recipient of several honors, the most recent being the GE Graduate Fellowship for Innovation, which enhanced his competency in communication and pedagogy. Though he has no intentions of becoming a professor, Hendrix maintains the concepts as being applicable to any industry position, within the field or outside of it. 

As a second-year JLLA student, he has discerned similarities within the student-led Academy, which allows for the development and maintenance of each members’ own workshop. 

Hendrix has also observed the benefits of John Lof as a student-researcher. In particular, he has found it to be a great “supplement to the soft skills which graduate programs typically gloss over.” The Academy aids in the advancement of technical writing, leadership and team-building skills for its student-members. 

Tori Danis is a second year PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering who conducts research in The McCutcheon Lab on 3D printed membranes for water treatment. She has responded to COVID-19 by administering NIOSH certified testing on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) materials.

As a member of the feedback skills committee, Danis says having the ability to help others grow with constructive feedback has helped her in her role as Teacher’s Assistant. The past year she has been a TA for a Senior Chemical Engineering lab, where she mentors two undergraduate students. Danis says mentoring others is one of her favorite aspects of her research.  

Danis’ time as a TA and JLLA member has made her realize she wants to pursue a career in academia and educate future engineers. Currently, Danis serves on JLLA’s E-Board as the activities director.

This fall Danis received the General Electric (GE) Graduate Fellowship allowing her to continue being a TA in a senior level chemical engineering course. She says both have been valuable in developing skills for a career in teaching future engineers, which she has been “passionate about since tutoring incoming undergraduate engineers for the BRIDGE program and 8th grade students interested in STEM through the  Pre-Engineering Program (PEP).”

Outside of JLLA, Danis is involved in the Chemical Engineering community at UConn. She is a member of ChEGSA (Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Association) which hosts professional and social events for the chemical engineering department . Danis has also joined the department’s Racial Justice & Equity Committee, to develop specific actions to take within the department toward anti-racism.