Contreras Research Lab

Alumni

Former Graduate Students

  • Trevor Simmons Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2024).
  • Sean Engels Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2024). Sean now works as a Senior Scientist in Data Rich Experimentation at Merck West Point.
  • Matsuri Rojano Nisimura Ph.D. Biochemistry (2023). Matsuri now works as a postdoctoral researcher at Parc de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (PRBB) in Barcelona, Spain.
  • Philip Sweet Ph.D. Cell and Molecular Biology (2023). Phil now works as a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA Ames.
  • Jo Villa Ph.D. Molecular Biology (2021). Jo now works as a Bioinformatician at KOTAI Biotechnologies, Inc.
  • Angela Chen Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2021). Angela works as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Hailing Jin at the University of California, Riverside
  • Abigail Leistra Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2020). Abigail works as a research scientist at Manus Bio
  • Mark Sherman Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2020). Mark works as an Innovation Postdoctoral Fellow at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR)
  • Juan C. Gonzalez-Rivera Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2020). Juan works as a scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb
  • Katie Haning Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2018)
  • Chen-Hsun Tsai Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2017). Chen is a research scientist at Resolution Bio
  • Kevin Baldridge Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2017)
    Kevin is now a postdoctoral researcher in Daniel J. Leahy lab in the department of molecular biosciences at UT Austin.
  • Bianca Williams Master’s degree recipient (2016)
  • Paul Amador M.S. Microbiology (2016)
    Paul is now a research associate at Molecular Templates.
  • Seung Hee Cho Ph.D. Molecular Biology (2016)
    Seung Hee is now working in Samsung Institute of Technology in Korea.
  • Grant Gelderman Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2016)
    Grant is pursuing a postdoc position in Dr. Brynildsen’s lab in Princeton University.
  • Steven Sowa Ph.D. Microbiology (2016)
    Steve currently works as a scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
  • Jorge Vazquez-Anderson Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2016)
    Jorge is currently working as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group in Dallas.
  • Justin Janovsky Justin is now working at Clinical Pathology Laboratories in Austin.

Former Postdoctoral Fellows

  • Mia Mihailovic Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2021)
  • Runhua Han Han is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba.
  • Aparna Anantharaman
  • Shyla Narasimhachar Postdoctoral Associate

Former Undergraduate Students

  • Stavros Pafilis Stavros is now working at Merck West Point.
  • Janssen Fang Janssen is now pursuing a career in medicine.
  • Anna Stankes Anna is now pursuing a career in medicine.
  • Josie Ruzek Josie is pursuing Medical Dosimetry School.
  • Lily Hoefner Lily is currently working as a research assistant before pursuing graduate school in the Fall of 2024.
  • Tatiana Julien Tatiana will be attending medical school in the Fall of 2024.
  • Joon Kim Joon is currently pursuing a career as a physician.
  • Krishna Anand Krishna is now attending Texas A&M, pursuing a Masters in Engineering and a Medical Degree.
  • Gabriela Franco
  • Natalia Gonzalez
  • Sung Jung
  • Sanjna Sandeep
  • Sukhjit Singh
  • Jessie Jiang
  • Katie O’Connor Katie is now a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego.
  • Isabella Joseph Isabella is now an engineer at Applied Materials.
  • Nithya Anirudhan Nithya is now a Naval Reactors Engineer at US Navy.
  • Meg Arnold Meg is now working at Bloomberg L.P. as a software engineer.
  • Emmalie Berkovsky Emmalie is a medical student at the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School.
  • Reena Bhikha Reena is now working at Merck in Austin.
  • Arijit Bhuyan Arijit is now working in Houston at Quorum Business Solutions.
  • Trystan Blake Trystan is attending medical school at Rocky Vista University.
  • Cameron Blome Cameron is currently working as a teacher at Del Valle High School.
  • Aishwarya Buvanendiran Aishu is attending medical school at Texas A&M College of Medicine.
  • Eunique Byrd Eunique is continuing her undergrad studies in biology at Florida Memorial University.
  • Aanandh Chandrasekar Aanandh is continuing his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
  • Brendan Chou Brendan is attending medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
  • David Castro David is continuing his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
  • Chelsea Clark Chelsea is pursuing a doctoral degree at Rice University.
  • Kyler Cook Kyler is currently a business technology analyst at Deloitte Consulting.
  • Amiya Cunningham Amiya is continuing her studies in biochemistry at the East Carolina University.
  • Peter Dailey Peter is a medical student attending the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.
  • Ricardo de la Peña Ricardo is pursuing a doctoral degree at Stanford University.
  • Kaitlin Dunn Kaitlin is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
  • Victoria Fry Victoria is an Energy Investment Banking Analyst at Jefferies LLC in Houston.
  • Emily Fung Emily is currently attending medical school at UT Health Science Center in San Antonio.
  • Jesus GarciaJesus continues his studies in the University of Texas at El Paso.
  • Jorge Gomez Medellin Jorge is pursuing a graduate degree at the University of Chicago.
  • Nishant Gupta Nishant is currently a software developer at Bloomberg L.P.
  • Taylor Hatridge Taylor is now pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech.
  • Trey Henninger Trey is now a process engineer at BASF Corporation.
  • Daniel Herrera Daniel is now a Software Engineer at IBM in Austin.
  • Elroi KibretElroi is continuing her undergraduate studies at California State University Long Beach.
  • Sunjna Kohli Sunjna is continuing her undergraduate studies in biomedical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
  • Louis Kirkley Louis is continuing his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
  • Roy Lei Roy is attending medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • Rick Liao Rick is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Washington.
  • Sarah Lipp Sarah is attending medical school at Indiana University.
  • Tomas MattesonTomas is working as tutor in Austin.
  • Alex Moon-Walker Alex is pursuing a Ph.D. in Virology at Harvard University.
  • Rohan Murthy Rohan is continuing his education at the University of Texas at Austin.
  • Areen Pitaktong Areen is a medical student at Texas A&M College of Medicine.
  • Matt Pribadi Matt is currently an applications engineer at Exxon Mobil.
  • Shiv Saha Shiv currently works at LiquidPower Specialty Products Inc. as a technical service engineer. 
  • Ramon Sandigan Ramon is a continuous improvement engineer at Axiall Corporation.
  • Ru Schaefferkoetter Ru currently works as a production engineer with BP America.
  • Emily Schmitz Emily is continuing her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at UT and is planning to pursue graduate studies in environmental engineering.
  • Bobi Simonsen Bobi is a Contact Engineer with ExxonMobil in Baytown, TX.
  • Anirudh Sivakumar Anirudh is pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech/Emory University with NSF Graduate Fellowship.
  • John Graves is currently pursuing his masters degree at University of Hawaii-Hilo.
  • Anusha Sivakumar Anusha is now working as an application lab chemist at BASF Colors and Effects.
  • John Sung John is currently a medical student at Texas A&M College of Medicine.
  • Michael Trombold Michael is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.
  • Respina Vaezian Respina is working at PepsiCo as an R&D associate engineer.
  • Praveen Vimalathas Praveen is a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital.
  • Jamie C. Chuvalo-Abraham is a research scientist in pharmaceuticals/formulation.
  • Matthew Law is pursuing his MD at UTHealth McGovern Medical School.
  • Bridget Lee is now pursuing her bachelor’s degree in computer science and molecular biology at MIT.
  • McKenzie Stouffer is working as an O2 Chemical Engineer at 3M.
  • John Ye is now pursuing a Master’s of Science in Medical Sciences at the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center.