Doctoral Degree Candidates

Saad Zuhair Mohammed Ali, Chemistry

ADVISOR: Matthew Brichacek, Associate Professor of Chemistry

DISSERTATION: Stereoselective Synthesis of Pseudosaccharide Derivative and Bisphosphoramidate Core of EM2487

Mohammadreza Movahhedi, Mechanical Engineering

ADVISOR: Xudong Zheng, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering

DISSERTATION: Numerical Modeling of Vocal Control and Patient-Specific Surgical Planning of Type 1 Thyroplasty

Sonia Naderi, Electrical and Computer Engineering

ADVISOR: Ali Abedi, Associate Vice President for Research and Director of the Center for Undergraduate Research, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

DISSERTATION: Low Cost and Reliable Wireless Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring

An Thuy Nguyen, ♦ History

CO-ADVISORS: Michael Lang, Associate Professor of History; Elizabeth McKillen, Professor Emerita of History

DISSERTATION: Third Force: South Vietnamese Urban Opposition to the Nixon Doctrine in Asia (1969–1973)

Shivangi Pande, Biomedical Sciences

CO-ADVISORS: Robert Frieseil, Senior Scientist and Director of the Center for Molecular Medicine; Sergey Ryzhov, Co-Director of Myocardial Biology and Heart Failure Research Lab

DISSERTATION: Interleukin-17 Receptor D Promotes Endothelial Cell Activation and Leukocyte Infiltration During Inflammation Without Affecting Atherosclerotic Plaque Formation

Duwage Charitha Perera, Chemistry

ADVISOR: Jayendran Rasaiah, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry

DISSERTATION: Quantum Mechanical Studies of Water Splitting Reaction with (ZnO)3 Nanoclusters as Catalysts

Dominic Buchanan Piacentini, ♦ Anthropology and Environmental Policy

ADVISOR: Christine Beitl, Associate Professor of Anthropology

DISSERTATION: Gathering Understories: Issues of Access in the Allegheny Highlands

Shyam R. Pokhrel, Chemistry

ADVISOR: Bruce Mitchell, Professor of Chemistry

DISSERTATION: Synthesis of Biologically Active Phosphine Gold (I) Thiolate Complexes and Studies of Their Redox Activities

Mariusz Potocki, Earth and Climate Sciences

ADVISOR: Paul Mayewski, Director and Professor of Climate Change Institute

DISSERTATION: Glaciochemical Investigations in Three Southern Hemisphere Mountain Sites

David G. Ray, Forest Resources

CO-ADVISORS: Shawn Fraver, Associate Professor of Forest Ecology; Robert Seymour, Curtis Hutchins Professor Emeritus of Forest Resources

DISSERTATION: Quantitative Silviculture of Northern Conifers

Katie McCann Roberts, Education

ADVISOR: Janet Fairman, Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Maine Educational Policy Research Institute

DISSERTATION: Borderline Grading Decisions: The Factors that Influence the Choices of High School Physical Science Teachers

Gabrielle Sherman, Forest Resources

ADVISOR: Adam Daigneault, Associate Professor of Forest Policy and Economics

DISSERTATION: Socio-Economic Resilience of Natural Resource Dependent Communities

Bo Ra Song, Earth and Climate Sciences

CO-ADVISORS: Scott Johnson, Professor of Structure Geology; Peter Koons, Professor Emeritus of Earth and Climate Sciences and Climate Change Institute

DISSERTATION: Microstructural Analysis for Dynamic Pulverization and Asymmetric Damage at the Base of Seismogenic Strike-Slip Faults

Alyssa Rae Soucy, Ecology and Environmental Sciences

CO-ADVISORS: Sandra De Urioste-Stone, Associate Professor of Nature-based Tourism and Assistant Vice President for Research; Parinaz Rahinzadeh-Baigiran, Assistant Professor of Remote Sensing of Natural Resources

DISSERTATION: Exploring the Importance of Values, Place, and Perceptions in Conservation DecisionMaking in Maine: A Mixed Methods Approach

Ashley Nicole Soucy, ♦ Biomedical Sciences

ADVISOR: Lucy Liaw, Faculty Scientist III of the Center for Molecular Medicine

DISSERTATION: Global Rab27a Null Mutation Regulates Vasoreactivity in Mice

Frankie Mags St. Amand, Interdisciplinary Studies

CO-ADVISORS: Daniel Sandweiss, Professor of Anthropology and Quaternary and Climate Studies; Alice Kelley, Assistant Research Professor of Climate Change Institute

DISSERTATION: Archaeological Bivalves as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (Enso) Proxies

Caitlin Patricia Stieber Ellis, Biomedical Sciences

ADVISOR: Lucy Liaw, Faculty Scientist III of the Center for Molecular Medicine

DISSERTATION: Perivascular Adipose Changes in Cardiovascular Disease

Cassandre Rose Stirpe, ♦

Earth and Climate Sciences

ADVISOR: Katherine Allen, Associate Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences

DISSERTATION: The Upper Ocean at the End of an Ice Age: Using Proxies in Benthic Foraminifera to Investigate Intermediate Water Changes During the Last Glacial Termination

Peter Douglas Strand, Earth and Climate Sciences

CO-ADVISORS: Aaron Putnam, Associate Professor School of Earth and Climate Sciences; George Denton, Libra Professor and Distinguished Maine Professor, School of Earth and Climate Sciences

DISSERTATION: A Bi-Hemispheric Perspective on the Last Glacial Maximum and Termination Using 10Be Surface-Exposure Chronologies from an Interhemispheric Asia-Zealandia Transect

♦ Most Outstanding Doctoral Student