OCF Fellows

Huanyu Zhang is a PhD student in the Finance program at Olin Business School. He graduated from Haverford College in 2021 with a BA in Mathematics, magna cum laude. Drawn increasingly to questions that could be settled with data rather than proof alone, he completed an M.S. in Statistics at the University of Chicago in […]

Kayla Weber is a PhD student in the department of Nursing Science. Her research focuses on maternal and infant health outcomes and advancing health equity. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from Indiana University and a Master of Science in Nursing from Saint Louis University. Kayla has more than a decade of […]

Alena Wadzinske is a PhD student in the Computational and Systems Biology program within the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. She earned her bachelor’s degrees in biology and data science at the University of St. Thomas, where her research focused on analyzing bacterial genomes for novel antibiotic resistance genes. At WashU, in the laboratory […]

Elise Turner is a PhD student in the Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program in the Molecular Microbiology Department. She earned her B.S. in Biology from Howard University in 2024, where her undergraduate research examined how a regulatory protein linked to a virulence factor affects mRNA stability in S. aureus. She then attended the Vanderbilt […]

Claire Throckmorton is a PhD student in the department of Energy, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering. She received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2024, with a second major in Earth and Planetary Sciences. As an undergraduate, she became interested in the nexus of these two disciplines, which led her to the Environmental […]

Carleigh Stein is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology, focused on Biological Anthropology. She obtained a BS in Biology from Texas State University in 2019 followed by a MS in Biology in 2022 at the University of North Texas, focused on population genetics and speciation. She then worked on disease ecology studies as […]

Anna Spracklin is a PhD student in the Movement Science Program within the Department of Physical Therapy. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Minnesota in biomedical engineering. There, she performed research in shoulder biomechanics and modeling, which inspired her to pursue physical therapy and research. This led Anna to Northwestern University […]

Jenika Towana Scott is a PhD student in Social Work at the Brown School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and global studies, Magna Cum Laude, from Rutgers University in 2022, and her Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan in 2023, where she concentrated on Global Social Work, Policy, Research, […]

Nick Schimp is a PhD candidate in the Institute of Materials Science & Engineering. He graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry & Biology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and an M.S. in Analytical Chemistry from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Nick has extensive R&D experience in the chemical industry in both synthesis and characterization of […]

Ankeeta Saseetharran is a PhD student in the Bursky School of Public Health. She received her MPH in Epidemiology with a certificate in Social Determinants of Health from Emory University, and her BS in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from UC San Diego. Prior to starting her PhD program at WashU, she worked as a public […]

Marjori Russo is a PhD student in the Molecular Cell Biology program within the Roy and Diana Vagelos Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS). Marjori graduated from Illinois College in 2023 with a degree in Biology and Health Sciences. After graduating, she joined the Cell Biology and Physiology department at WashU as a technician […]

Ryan Rohrbach is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science. He graduated from the University at Buffalo in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Studies. His research interests primarily include using applied mathematics to study how authoritarian governments and backsliding democracies design political institutions, the use of formal modeling […]

Phuc Nguyen is a PhD student in Computational and Systems Biology in the Department of Genetics, School of Medicine. Previously, he obtained his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering, with a minor in Computer Science, from the University of Cincinnati. His research interests are in developing machine learning methods to study gene regulation and epigenetics in […]

Gavin Newberry is a doctoral student in Public Health Sciences at the Bursky School of Public Health and a Graduate Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine. He earned his master’s degree in Epidemiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he developed a passion for applying a public health […]

Amy Miyahara is a PhD student in the Psychological and Brain Sciences department. She graduated from Stanford University with a BA in psychology and a minor in education, where she completed an honors thesis investigating children’s beliefs about social mobility. She then served as a lab manager at the University of Notre Dame, where she […]

Sarah Mayo is a PhD student in the English and American Literature program, studying Modernist poetry and prose. She received an BA from the University of California, Irvine in 2020 and an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Davis in 2023. She was a 2023-4 Fulbright Fellow in Athens, Greece, where she […]

Anna Gunelson is a Neuroscience PhD student within the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. She graduated from Gonzaga University with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a research concentration. After graduating, she interned with the Dup15q Alliance, a nonprofit organization supporting individuals and families impacted by Dup15q syndrome. Through this experience, she developed […]

Elizabeth Buzbee is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering. She began her undergraduate education at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where she studied Physics, and then came to WashU to study Biomedical Engineering through the dual- degree program. She continued at WashU to earn her MS in Biomedical Engineering and is now pursuing her […]

Lee Benzinger is a PhD student in the Sociology department. They graduated with a BA from Williams College in 2024, where they double majored in Anthropology and Religion. As an undergraduate, their Honors Thesis was an ethnographic and interview-based study focused on the relationship between gender and agency in a rural Fundamentalist church in a […]

Yanrun Zhou is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at McKelvey School of Engineering. She received her BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Connecticut and her MS in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. Her interdisciplinary training bridges molecular and cellular biology with engineering principles, providing a foundation for […]