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Ayodamope Fawole

Ayodamope Fawole is a second-year graduate student in Global Health at the Duke Global Health Institute. He has a bachelor’s degree in Dental Surgery from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He has worked as a clinician and recently as a disease surveillance expert at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. He is interested in health systems strengthening, health economics, and health policy. His thesis research employs mathematical modeling methods to forecast the health and economic benefits of a mental health and life skills intervention designed for adolescents and young people living with HIV in Tanzania.

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Serra Gullu

Serra Gullu is currently pursuing her Master of Arts in Analytical Political Economy at Duke University. Her research centers on the historical emergence of the real estate market in Ottoman Istanbul, seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the socio-economic situations during that time. Believing in the power of small actions to create change, Serra was a member of Duke Interdisciplinary Social Innovators (DISI), which provides pro bono consulting services to social organizations in Durham and beyond. She is a Turkish native and received her B.A in Economics & International Studies with a minor in Finance at Sabanci University before coming to Duke. In her free time, Serra enjoys cooking and reading.

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J. Spencer Hauck, Ph.D.

J. Spencer Hauck, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral associate in the Duke Pathology Department. Spencer received his Ph.D. in molecular biology by studying muscle disease at The Ohio State University. He currently investigates metabolism in prostate cancer with the goal of identifying novel enzymes to target that are increased in cancer. His work aims to change the treatment of prostate cancer. Spencer has contributed to ten research publications, and he has been awarded four fellowships including an Early Investigator Award through the Department of Defense. Spencer plans to pursue a career in industry or consulting after his time at Duke

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Pratik Kashyap

Pratik Kashyap, Ph.D. is a data scientist with ten years of quantitative research experience in the field of statistical signal processing and mathematical optimization theory. His primary areas of interest are medical imaging, inverse problems, Bayesian inference statistics, time series modelling, child psychiatry, infant neurodevelopment, and artificial intelligence. He has eight years of academic service experience in software maintenance; curriculum development coupled with teaching and mentoring university students of all levels; and nine years of leadership experience, including community outreach, campus engagement, career and social event programming, committee/team management, university-level policy advocacy and implementation.

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Anahad Kaur

Anahad Kaur is a graduate student in the interdisciplinary Graduate Liberal Studies program. She studies marketing and psychology, and her research focuses on understanding Trans Para Social relationships and their impact on consumer behavior. Anahad is currently working as a freelancing Social Media Manager and Brand Advisor. Previously, she worked as an Entrepreneur Development Associate for StartUp JGU as part of the student advisory team. She is also enrolled in the Duke innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate program and hopes to use both the certificate program and ELI to sharpen her skills so that she can pursue her goal of starting her own venture.

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Veronique Koch

Véronique Koch is an Emmy-award-winning science filmmaker. She has a background in marine biology, but she transitioned to filmmaking after graduate school to work for the Discovery Channel, PBS, and Sesame Street. Currently, she is the Senior Science Video Producer at Duke University, making videos to promote the science at Duke and managing the @dukeresearch Instagram account. Véronique entered the master’s program in Graduate Liberal Studies in 2022 with the intention of learning more about filmmaking and science communication. Véronique enjoys spending time with her two boys outside work and school, walking her dog in the woods, and road cycling.

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Maheen Sheikh, M.B.B.S.

Maheen Sheikh, M.B.B.S. is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Pediatric Medical Genetics at Duke University School of Medicine. Her professional interests include pediatric gastroenterology and global health. She received her medical degree from the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, where she continued her training as a clinical research fellow in Pediatrics, with a research focus on child nutrition, infectious disease, and fetomaternal health in low-resource settings. At Duke, her research focuses on understanding the natural history of hepatic glycogen storage diseases. In her free time, Maheen enjoys baking, traveling, and playing the ukulele.

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Pooja Singh

Pooja Singh is a second-year student pursuing a Master of Science in Global Health. Her research endeavors center on understanding the predictors of sexual and reproductive health among orphaned adolescent girls in five low- and middle-income countries. Additionally, Pooja is researching the use of technology among female community health volunteers in managing non-communicable diseases in Nepal through Bass Connection in partnership with local organizations. A visual artist at heart, Pooja is passionate about data and storytelling in all its forms. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, reading, watching movies, gardening, journaling, hiking, and spending time in nature.

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Brittany Smith

Brittany Smith is a third-year Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. As a Connecticut native, she received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Connecticut in 2020 before coming to Duke. As a member of the Franklin group, Brittany works on developing printed electronics with a focus on transistor and sensing applications. She has been an active member of the ECE advocacy for student engagement (EASE) and materials research society (MRS) at Duke. Outside the lab, Brittany enjoys a good book, paddleboarding, and binge-watching her favorite TV shows.

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Rich Stureborg

Rickard (Rich) Stureborg is a third-year Computer Science Ph.D. student at Duke University. His research is focused on vaccine misinformation and high-difficulty, high-subjectivity tasks in NLP and is co-advised by Jun Yang and Bhuwan Dhingra. Rich is co-president of Duke Advanced-Degree Consulting Club (DACC), a consulting organization that provides pro-bono technical and management consulting for businesses across the United States. He is also active in the Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) and helped to negotiate the recent Ph.D. stipend increase as part of the Ph.D. Stipend Task Force. Rich spends his free time building things, breaking things, and trying to put things he has broken back together again before anyone notices.

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Yudong Sun

Yudong Sun is a Ph.D. candidate in Biochemistry. He is interested in the interplay between dietary nutrients and cellular metabolism and how it might ultimately influence physiology. Yudong studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received a B.S. in Computer Sciences and Molecular Biology. A curious human being who is still not sure about his professional path, he is constantly learning and exploring.

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Brooke Wagner, Ph.D.

Brooke Wagner, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Population Health Sciences in collaboration with the Duke Center for Childhood Obesity Research. Brooke completed her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota with a focus in physical activity and health promotion. Her current research focuses on the role of physical activity in childhood obesity treatment and prevention, and improving physical activity behaviors among this population. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors running, exploring new hiking trails with her dog, and checking out new local coffee shops.

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Chengyu Wu

Chengyu Wu is a second-year master’s student in the Economics and Computation program. She is interested in deep learning, applications of machine learning in finance, and utilizing data science methods to drive business insights. She has been working as a Data Science intern in several leading tech companies. During her last internship at Capital One, she implemented distributed ML pipelines and built valuation models. She received her B.S. in Economics from Jinan University in 2016. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, hiking, and photography. After graduation, she aspires to leverage her data science skills and finance knowledge in the fintech industry.

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Yue Zhou

Yue Zhou is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry. Before joining Duke, she received her bachelor's degrees in both Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Nankai University and Tianjin University in China. At Duke, she joined the Warren lab, where she uses ultrafast laser microscopy to identify historical pigments in cultural heritage objects and analyze their degradation mechanisms. During her Ph.D., she served as the co-president of Duke Chinese and Students and Scholars Association and a member of the Duke Student Alumni Board. In her free time, Yue enjoys reading, hiking, cooking, and exploring local restaurants.