Arturo is an undergraduate student pursuing a career in Mechanical Engineering. He graduated from San Diego City College (class of 2021) with an Associates degree in Pre-Engineering. He will be transferring to the University of California Merced in Mechanical Engineering to pursue his B.S. degree. Since 2018 he was employed by CREATE CSSI at the UC San Diego as a STEM outreach ambassador, responsible for bringing culturally relevant pedagogy in STEM to underrepresented communities in the greater area of San Diego. He plans to continue his education to receive a doctoral degree and hopes to join the Space Exploration workforce by building and designing launch systems or spacecraft.

ORCID: 0000-0001-6342-1476

Mentor: Yubin Huang
Safety tour: 31 May 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Reagan  is a UCSD undergraduate Chemistry major (class of 2022), who participated in the 2020 SSSiN (coronavirus edition). She is participating in the 2021 SSSiN as a Mentor, with a research focus on porous Si films and particles as catalytic materials.
ORCID: 0000-0002-6377-2775
Safety tour: 3 Nov 2020
Etch test: 4 Dec 2020
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Ana Raquel is a PhD student at the University of Minho, School of Medicine in Portugal under the supervision of Dr. Fátima Baltazar and Dr. Isabel Neves from the same university, and Dr. Manuel Bañobre-López from the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory. She received her M.S in Chemical Analysis and Characterization Techniques (2017) at the University of Minho, Portugal. In the 2021 SSSiN, Ana Raquel will investigate drug delivery systems based on porous silicon nanoparticles, with emphasis on cancer therapy.
ORCID: 0000-0002-3464-6980
Mentor: Qinglin Yang
Safety tour: 28 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Madeline is an undergraduate Molecular and Cell Biology major at UC San Diego (class of 2023). She has prior research experience investigating predictive biomarkers for gastric and colorectal cancer, and she has previously worked as a student assistant in the Nano3 facility. Her interests include developing methods for nanosurgery involving nanoparticles for biomedical applications.
ORCID: 0000-0002-0133-2192
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Jiuk is an incoming PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at UC San Diego. She is participating in the SSSiN remotely. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a B.A. in Chemistry. Before coming to UC San Diego, she worked as a researcher at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Her research interests include surface chemistry, bio-inspired materials, and photonic materials for medical and environmental applications.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9810-8869
Mentor: N/A (online participant)
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Oscar is an undergraduate student at the University of San Diego who will be participating in SSSiN through the UCSD MRSEC RIMSE program. He is working on nanoparticles as PET contrast agents.
ORCID: 0000-0001-8922-4438
Mentor: Gabrielle Balistreri
Safety tour: 17 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Claire graduated from Pacific Ridge School in 2021. Educated in Shanghai and Singapore, she participated in the remote version of the 2020 SSSiN, and is joining the 2021 SSSiN as a Mentor. She is interested in investigating porous silicon-based scaffolds for delivery of synthetic nucleic acid therapeutics.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2999-4291
Safety tour: 5 April 2021
Etch test: 5 April 2021
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Hannah is a junior at Del Norte High School (class of 2022). She will be participating in the 2021 SSSiN, interested in investigating chemical modifications to porous silicon-based nanoparticles to improve delivery of synthetic nucleic acid therapeutics.
ORCID: 0000-0002-1413-8698
Mentor: Claire Chen
Safety tour: 27 May 2021
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Victor is an undergraduate Chemical Engineering student at UCSD (class of 2023) who participated in the 2021 Spring Break RIMSE introductory program. He is participating in the 2021 SSSiN under the sponsorship of the UCSD TRELS program. Victor is interested in the use of semiconductor quantum dots for encryption and security applications, with a focus on encapsulating protein payloads into mesoporous silicon nanoparticles.
ORCID: 0000-0001-7731-0195
Mentor: Yi-Sheng Lu
Safety tour: 22 Mar 2021
Etch test: 22 Mar 2021
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Ulises is an undergraduate student of nanoengineering at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO) in Guadelajara, Mexico. With prior research experience in detection and mitigation of soil and water pollutants caused by industrial activity, agricultural chemical effluents, or improper disposal of heavy metal and arsenic wastes, Ulises plans to investigate sensing applications of silicon nanomaterials.
ORCID: 0000-0003-1040-8176
Mentor: Gabrielle Balistreri
Safety tour: 21 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Nathan is a high school student (class of 2024) at Canyon Crest Academy. He enjoys physics and is interested in learning about the applications of nanotechnology in cancer bioimaging among other areas.
ORCID: 0000-0001-5051-5924
Mentor: Claire Chen
Safety tour: 14 Jun 2021
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Bailly is an undergraduate student of Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston (class of 2022). He is participating in the SSSiN via the UCSD MRSEC REU program, interested in environmental science of nanotechnology. Bailly plans to pursue an M.S in material science after graduation.
ORCID: 0000-0002-3160-7038
Mentor: Reagan Beers
Safety tour: 24 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Yazmin is an incoming PhD student in the Bioengineering program at UCSD. She graduated in May 2021 from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering. Her prior research experience focused on enzyme-loaded protein nanoparticles as drug delivery vehicles and she is excited to explore drug delivery with porous silicon nanoparticles.
ORCID: 0000-0003-3802-246X
Mentor: Mehdi Nasr
Safety tour: 24 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Dr. Mei-Lin Ho is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Soochow University in Taipei, Taiwan. Her research is based on the study of luminescent or colorimetric probes, e.g. transition metal complexes and nanoparticles, for sensing. Recently, her research aims to develop new sensing materials and methods for healthcare. She will be visiting the lab from November, 2021 to August, 2022, and she participates in the 2021 SSSiN.
ORCID: 0000-0001-6315-1832
Mentor: N/A (online participant)
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Yubin is an M.S. student in the Materials Science and Engineering at UCSD. He completed his undergraduate studies at UC Santa Barbara, where he studied porous silicon carbide materials for catalyst immobilization with Prof. Galen Stucky. Yubin worked for a local biosensor company, researching enzyme stabilization, polymer coating, and in-vitro data analysis for the development of minimally invasive enzymatic continuous glucose monitoring sensors (CGMs) for diabetic patients. He participated in the 2020 SSSiN and will serve as a Mentor in the 2021 SSSiN. His thesis focuses on porous silicon nanomaterials for enzyme immobilization.
ORCID:  0000-0001-7049-8877
Safety tour: 6 Jan 2021
Etch test: 12 Jan 2021
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Sachel is a high school junior at Canyon Crest Academy. She is interested in biology and chemistry and is participating in the Summer School for Silicon Nanotechnology as a UCSD MRSEC RIMSE trainee.
ORCID: 0000-0001-9766-824X
Mentor: Claire Chen
Safety tour:  21 Jun 2021
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Madison is an incoming PhD student UCSD's Department of Bioengineering. She graduated from California State University Long Beach, in December 2020, with a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering. Her previous research experience focused on tissue engineering and biomaterials development. She is participating in 2021 SSSiN, interested in engineering nanoplatforms to deliver therapeutics.
ORCID: 0000-0001-8739-9293
Mentor: Jonathan Zuidema
Safety tour: 24 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Neusha graduated from Francis Parker High School in 2020. She participated in the remote version of the 2020 SSSiN and will be participating in the 2021 program as a Mentor.
ORCID: 0000-0002-5441-2559
Mentor: Mehdi Nasr
Safety tour: 22 Jul 2020
Etch test: 27 Oct, 2020
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Jonathan is an undergraduate student (class of 2024) at UCSD, majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Materials Science. He is participating in the 2021 SSSiN within context of the SDNI REU program. He is interested in dynamic modeling of nanomaterials in biological systems, properties of nanomaterials, and applications of porous silicon nanomaterials.
ORCID: 0000-0002-2358-9853
Mentor: Yubin Huang
Safety tour: 31 May 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Ella is an undergraduate student (class of 2021) at UCSD majoring in Biochemistry/Chemistry with an interest in medical applications of nanomaterials. She participated in the 2020 SSSiN and she will be participating in the 2021 SSSiN as a Mentor. Her project focuses on improving the treatment of retinal diseases by delivering siRNA-based therapeutics to the back of the eye.
ORCID: 0000-0003-4450-0798
Mentor: Joel Grondek
Safety tour: 21 Jul 2020
Etch test: 09 Oct 2020
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Rachel is an undergraduate (class of 2023) Biochemistry/Chemistry student at UC San Diego. She participated in the 2021 Spring Break Undergraduate Research Experience, the "mini RIMSE" program, and she is participating in the 2021 SSSiN MRSEC RIMSE summer school. She is interested in exploring the uses of silicon nanotechnology as antibacterial therapeutics-delivery platforms.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2861-164X
Mentor: Neusha Kharrati
Safety tour: 17 Mar 2021
Etch test: 22 Mar 2021
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Daria is an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Russian Language. She will be participating in the SSSiN via the UC San Diego MRSEC REU program. She plans to pursue a medical degree after college, and is interested in drug-delivery research.
ORCID: 0000-0002-9023-7292
Mentor: Jon Zuidema
Safety tour: 22 May 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Seth is an undergraduate student (class of 2024) in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at UCSD. His interests include structures and materials, and bioinspired design. His research experience includes a project on the bending and torsion mechanics of bird feathers, under the direction of Prof. Marc Meyers from the Nanoengineering department. Seth participated in the 2021 Spring Break Undergraduate Research Experience "mini RIMSE" program and is participating as a Mentor in the 2021 SSSiN.
ORCID: 0000-0002-2588-3693
Safety tour: 22 Mar 2021
Etch test: 23 Mar 2021
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Francisco  is a student at Cabrillo College, transferring to a four-year university in 2021. His interest lies in bioelectronics--specifically neural interfaces.
ORCID: 0000-0002-8963-3191
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Rachel is an undergraduate Biochemical Engineering student, Meyerhoff Scholar (M’31), HHMI Research Scholar, and NIGMS/NIH U RISE Scholar at the University of Maryland Baltimore (class of 2023). She previously worked in Dr. Kaf Dzirasa’s Psychiatric Neuroengineering Lab at Duke University studying anhedonia in mice by using sucrose preference testing. Rachel will be participating in the 2021 SSSiN, focusing on nano-enabled drug delivery therapeutics for breast cancer.
ORCID: 0000-0002-5600-3871
Mentor: Ruhan Fan
Safety tour: 22 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Ju Ying is an upcoming PhD student in the Materials Science and Engineering department at UCSD, joining Vazquez Mena Group in Fall 2021. She obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Caltech in 2012 and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University in 2019. She previously worked as a materials engineer, where she developed fabrication protocols for constructing superconducting nanowire single photon detectors. Her interest is in synthesis and processing of nanomaterials and harnessing their electronic and optical properties.
ORCID: 0000-0002-6683-5452
Mentor: Eason Lu
Safety tour: 28 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Gabriella is an M.S. Student in the UC San Diego Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, with a focus on inorganic chemistry. She received her B.S. degree in Chemistry from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Her undergraduate research focused on folding-based DNA biosensors. Prior to joining UC San Diego, Gabriella worked in the Drug Delivery Division at 3M.
ORCID: 0000-0003-1304-9404
Mentor: Sanahan Vijayakumar
Safety tour: 28 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Lauren is pursuing a Ph.D. in Nanoengineering at UC San Diego in the Kwon Lab. She is interested in engineering nanomaterials for targeted therapeutic delivery to treat traumatic brain injury and diseases of the central nervous system.
ORCID: 0000-0001-8641-0577
Mentor: Mehdi Nasr
Safety tour: 22 May 2021
Etch test: 30 Jun 2021
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Jason is a first year PhD student in Dr. Ester Kwon's group, in the Department of Bioengineering at UCSD. He received his B.S. degree in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is interested in exploring nanomaterials as targeted therapeutics to treat traumatic brain injury.
ORCID: 0000-0003-4422-4850
Mentor: Mehdi Nasr
Safety tour: 22 May 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Helen is an entering Ph.D. student in the UCSD Materials Science and Engineering department, who will join the Sailor Group in Fall 2021. She obtained her B.S. in Biochemistry from California State University Long Beach in 2016. She has previously worked as a topical formulations chemist, where she optimized drug delivery systems with various active ingredients. She is interested in silicon nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems, particularly their application in cancer treatment.
ORCID: 0000-0002-5510-3483
Mentor: Sanahan Vijayakumar
Safety tour: 17 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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Arthur is a third-year (class of 2023) nanoengineering student at UCSD. He is interested in the physical and chemical properties of porous silicon for applications in imaging and more.
ORCID: 0000-0002-2973-576X
Mentor: Eason Lu
Safety tour: 21 Jun 2021
Etch test: 29 Jun 2021
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