Student Achievements

BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING GRADUATE STUDENT ALEXANDER (OLEK) PISERA IS ONE OF 30 GRADUATE STUDENTS NATIONWIDE NAMED A 2022 PAUL & DAISY SOROS FELLOWS.

The Soros Fellowships for New Americans is a merit-based graduate school program for immigrants and children of immigrants. Fellows are selected for their potential to make significant contributions to the United States and receive up to $90,000 in funding to support their graduate studies.

Pisera is interested in the application and development of new technologies specifically enabled by developments in DNA synthesis and screening. He is building a synthetic biological system that could allow for discovery of antibodies against classes of mammalian cell surface proteins that have been inaccessible with current technologies.

“Synthetic biology is a field that requires extremely precise experimentation and patience,” said Pisera. “Success in building a system combining parts from different species requires stacking a series of carefully derived truths. In the end, a well-built system can provide an impossibly precise and useful medicine or research tool that can change the world.”

“I am proud to win this fellowship and join a community of immigrants and children of immigrants who are making a place for themselves in the U.S.,” said Pisera, who is the second graduate student at UCI to win a Soros Fellowship. KAREN LOPEZ, A BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING DOCTORAL STUDENT, WAS SELECTED FOR THE LATINO EXCELLENCE AND ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. Cosponsored by UCI’s Latinx Resource Center and the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the award honors one graduate student for research excellence and academic achievement from each of the university’s schools. Lopez was recognized, along with all the other winners, at the Latino Excellence Achievement Dinner last March. A first-generation Latina, Lopez is the first in her family to enroll in a graduate degree program and the first woman in her family to study engineering. She earned a bachelor’s degree from San Jose State University in 2020. Lopez combines science, engineering and mentoring to tackle cancer therapy’s fundamental problems. In her first year as a graduate student, Lopez took an active role in the BME Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, with the goal of improving the mental health of her fellow graduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The LEAD banquet opened my eyes to the power of the Latinx community at UCI. It was exhilarating to witness the collective pride of being a part of this community and to be able to share it with my immigrant parents, who celebrated this achievement with me,” said Lopez.

THE UCI GRADUATE DIVISION AWARDED A DISSERTATION FELLOWSHIP TO BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING GRADUATE STUDENT AUSTIN LEFEBVRE. The award is for doctoral or master’s degree students in their final year of graduate education, allowing them to forgo nonresearch-related employment and to concentrate on completing their dissertation or thesis.

Lefebvre’s research focuses on understanding how cellular metabolism affects the spread of cancer and is working towards unveiling important therapeutic vulnerabilities that can be leveraged to specifically target metastatic cancer cells and prevent the spread and recurrence of even the most aggressive cancers.

“It is already known just how dysregulated the metabolism becomes in primary tumor cells, but these processes during tumor invasion, and at secondary sites are still not well understood,” said Lefebvre. For his research, he is using a method to nondestructively and nonobtrusively monitor subcellular metabolic shifts within individual cancer cells in scaffolds made of materials with compositions and densities similar to native tissue.

“I felt absolutely honored to have received this award,” said Lefebvre. “My research wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my wonderful mentor, and the brilliant ideas and help from my collaborators and lab mates.” NINAZ VALISHARIFABAD RECEIVED THE 2021 MAXINE E. NEVIN LEIDER SCHOLARSHIP IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERS CATEGORY. After graduating from UCI’s undergraduate biomedical engineering program in 2020, Valisharifabad is continuing her studies as a graduate student. Her main interest is the way the heart and brain function together. “I love it, honestly,” she said. “If we figure out how these two function, then we can solve a lot of problems. It’s going to be really helpful because, right now, the understanding is limited.” Her interest in biomedical engineering comes from her grandfather, who passed away three years ago after a long fight against the aftermath of a surgery gone wrong. “And so that was the time I said, ‘I wish I could do something for him,’” Valisharifabad recalled. “He had the ability to talk, smile, laugh, all as usual. But he couldn’t walk anymore, and he quickly lost his confidence and later on became depressed.” Valisharifabad was saddened by this lack of confidence and depression, and she decided to do something. In her time as an undergraduate, she took a course with Christine King, BME assistant professor of teaching. During the course, they built a wheelchair designed to help developing countries access a cheaper wheelchair with more functionality. BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATE LESLIE RANGEL IS ONE OF FOUR UCI MATHEMATICS, ENGINEERING, SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT (MESA) STUDENT LEADERS WHO CONNECTED WITH INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS IN SILICON VALLEY DURING AN INVITE-ONLY STEM CONFERENCE LAST WINTER.

MESA’s Student Leadership Conference brought together hand-picked engineering and computer science students with industry to develop the next generation of STEM leaders. Unlike job fairs or speaker-only conferences, MESA student leaders had the unique opportunity to interact one-on-one and in small groups with company executives, engineers and recruiters. Students participated in mock interviews, communications, team building, emotional intelligence and financial literacy workshops. Many students often leave the conference with internship offers that lead to full-time employment.

“The MESA Student Leadership Conference provided an incredible opportunity for me to gain invaluable career development skills and network with leading industry professionals to kick-start my STEM career,” said Rangel.

The MESA program, with its 51-year history, guides diverse students from underrepresented backgrounds into STEM education and careers.