Bios

professors

Dr. Debbie Senesky, Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Electrical Engineering,

Stanford University

Debbie G. Senesky is an Associate Professor at Stanford University in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department and the Electrical Engineering Department. In addition, she is the Principal Investigator of the EXtreme Environment Microsystems Laboratory (XLab) and co-Founder of start-up Astral Materials. Her research interests include the advancement of microelectronics for extreme environments (e.g., space exploration and nuclear reactors) and synthesis of nanomaterials in prolonged microgravity environments aboard the International Space Station (ISS). She received the B.S. degree (2001) in mechanical engineering from the University of Southern California. She received the M.S. degree (2004) and Ph.D. degree (2007) in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Prof. Senesky is the Site Director of nnci@stanford and the Chair of Stanford's Community of Shared Research Platforms (C-ShaRP), In recognition of her research, she received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2025, Emerging Leader Abie Award from AnitaB.org in 2018, Early Faculty Career Award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2012, Gabilan Faculty Fellowship Award in 2012, and Sloan Ph.D. Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2004.

Prof. Senesky's career path and research have been featured by Scientific American, Seeker, People Behind the Science podcast, The Future of Everything radio show, Space.com, and NPR's Tell Me More program. More information about Prof. Senesky can be found at https://xlab.stanford.edu and on Instagram (@astrodebs).

Dr. Hawa Racine Thiam, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, Microbiology and Immunology,

Stanford University

Hawa Racine Thiam is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Microbiology and Immunology and Sarafan ChEM-H Institute Scholar at Stanford University. Her lab combines biophysics, cell Biology and Immunology to investigate the cellular biophysical mechanisms of innate immune cell functions with a current focus on NETosis; an intriguing process during which neutrophils respond to danger signals (e.g., pathogens) by releasing their chromatin to the extracellular environment where it can trap and neutralize pathogens but also worsen inflammation. Hawa Racine’s long-term goal is to combine the knowledge generated by studying the cellular biophysics of immune cell functions, together with engineering principles to manipulate, predict and re-design innate immune cells and improve human health.

Hawa Racine earned her high school diploma in Senegal, her B.S in Physics and M.S in Physics for Biological systems from Paris Diderot University, then her Ph. D in Biophysics working with Dr. Matthieu Piel at Institut Curie where she developed microfabricated devices and discovered a novel function of branched actin networks in squeezing the nucleus during immune cell migration under confinement. She then joined Dr. Clare Waterman’s lab at the NHLBI/NIH where she combined high-resolution microscopy and quantitative cell biology approaches to reveal the cellular mechanism of NETosis, opening a new avenue for understanding this extreme cell behavior.

Dr. Khalid Osman, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University

Dr. Khalid K. Osman is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University and a Center Fellow (by courtesy) at the Woods Institute for the Environment, with faculty affiliations at the King Center for Global Development and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. He earned his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. His research focuses on advancing equity and justice in infrastructure systems through community-engaged, mixed-methods research. Centering water and sanitation, his work develops measurable frameworks for water equity and socio-technical solutions to sanitation challenges, particularly in historically marginalized communities. He partners closely with community-based organizations to ensure local priorities and lived experiences shape research design and outcomes. At Osman Lab, he leads efforts to co-create just and climate-resilient infrastructure solutions.

Dr. Leslie Gilliard-AbdulAziz, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Stanford University

Dr. Kandis Leslie Gilliard-AbdulAziz is an Assistant Professor in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California, where she holds the Pasquale & Adelina Early Career Chair and leads the Sustainable Catalysis and Materials Lab. Her research focuses on the design of structured catalytic materials and reactor architectures for low-carbon chemical and energy systems, with emphasis on multifunctional materials, transport-controlled reactivity, and reactor-relevant performance. She integrates materials synthesis, advanced characterization, and reactor-scale testing to elucidate structure–function relationships in complex reactive environments. Her early-career honors include the NSF CAREER Award, DOE Early Career Research Award, and Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.

Dr. Alvine Kamaha, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy,

University of California Los Angeles

Alvine Kamaha is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she holds the inaugural Keith and Cecilia Terasaki Endowed Chair in the Physical Sciences. She is the 2024 recipient of the Edward A. Bouchet Award from the American Physical Society and has received additional honors from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (Cottrell Scholar Award), as well as from the University of California system.

Professor Kamaha’s research focuses on experimental astroparticle physics, particularly the direct detection of dark matter, the unseen matter that constitutes a substantial fraction of the Universe. She earned her Ph.D. from Queen's University in Canada, working within the SNOLAB research group on the PICASSO bubble-chamber experiment. She subsequently held a postdoctoral position on the NEWS-G spherical proportional counter experiment, followed by a second postdoctoral appointment at the University at Albany, where she held leadership roles during the construction of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Time Projection Chamber, a U.S. flagship dark matter experiment.

At UCLA, Professor Kamaha continues her leading contributions to LZ, focusing on enhancing the experiment’s sensitivity to primary dark matter candidates while exploring new opportunities to search for rare physics processes beyond the Standard Model enabled by LZ’s increased sensitivity. She is also establishing a research and development facility at UCLA dedicated to the thorough calibration of key aspects of xenon detector microphysics, which will benefit both current and future dark matter experiments.

Ajay Kshatriya M.S., Chief Executive Officer of Aizen Therapeutics,

Operating Partner at Wilson Hill Ventures

Currently, Ajay is the Chief Executive Officer of Aizen Therapeutics, an AI-native biotechnology company pioneering oral peptides to transform the lives of patients and families burdened by chronic immune disorders. He also serves as an Operating Partner at Wilson Hill Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm, where he invests in science-based startups emerging from the California Institute of Technology. Previously, Ajay founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Biota, a pioneer in environmental genomics, that achieved 8-digit revenue and was acquired by the industrial biotech leader, Novozymes (NZYM) in 2021. Biota scaled a University-based microbiome data platform into a genomics diagnostics business that created $400M in economic value and saved 1.2B gallons of water for 20+ industrial companies. Prior to founding Biota, Ajay was an associate in a $100M seed fund spun out from Mohr Davidow Ventures, XSeed Capital, that formed companies from science innovations emerging from Stanford and Berkeley. Ajay began his career at the world-leading biotechnology pioneer Genentech, where he held various positions in product operations, including two product core teams in early stage oncology.

Ajay holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley, an M.S. in engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Berkeley-Haas School of Business. He is an active member in Life Science Cares, a non-profit addressing economic and educational empowerment, and was previously a member of YPO, a global organization for CEOs. Ajay resides in San Diego with his wife Krista and two children.

postdoctoral researchers

graduate students

Gilbert Bahati, PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology

I am a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and part of the AMBER Lab, advised by Dr. Aaron D. Ames. My research is focused on perception-based safety and nonlinear control for robotic systems. I am particularly interested in leveraging tools from applied analysis and partial differential equations to address challenges in real-world autonomy that arise from perception-driven tasks, and validating these methods on hardware across various robotic platforms (e.g., humanoids, quadrupeds, drones etc).

Myles Sherman, PhD Candidate in Physics, California Institute of Technology

Myles Sherman is a 5th-year PhD Candidate studying Physics at Caltech. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering with an additional major in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2021. Myles now conducts his research with the DSA-110 radio observatory under Professor Vikram Ravi. His work focuses on deciphering the polarization properties of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and investigating their connections to magnetars and other neutron stars.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse