Principal Investigator
Benedetto Marelli
Paul M. Cook Career Development Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests:
biomaterials, self-assembly, food security, food safety, agriculture, regenerative medicine, additive manufacturing and emerging technologies
Education:
- B.Eng. Biomedical Engineering 2005, Politecnico di Milano
- M.Sc. Biomedical Engineering, 2008, Politecnico di Milano
- Ph.D. Materials Engineering, 2011, McGill University
- Postdoctoral Scholar, 2012-2015, Silklab, Tufts University
Graduate Students
Zeina Barghouti
Research Interests: sustainable agriculture, plant microbiology, microbe preservation, biomaterials
- B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 2021, Texas A&M University at Qatar
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 2023-present
Cameryn Burnette
Research interests: Biomaterials, sustainable agriculture, microbe preservation
-BS Civil Engineering, 2022, Howard University
-MMsc Global Affairs, 2024, Tsinghua University
-2024 Friesecke Fellowship Awardee
Jessica Cui
Research interests: sustainable agriculture, food security, plant nanobiotechnology
-B.S.E. Civil & Environmental Engineering, 2024, Princeton University
Max Kalinowski
Research Interests: Biomaterials, protein engineering, self-assembly, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, alternative proteins
- B.Eng. Biomedical Engineering, 2021, University of Massachusetts, Lowell
Postdocs
Dr. Bradley D. Frank
Research Interest: Adaptive Materials, biomaterials, active systems, sustainable agriculture
- B.Sc. Materials Science and Engineering, 2017, University of California, Merced
- M.Sc. Polymer Science, 2019, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt Universität Berlin, , Technische Universität Berlin, Universität Potsdam
- Dr. rer. nat. Materials Science, 2023, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Granting: Universität Potsdam)
Dr. Yue Hu
Research Interests: Biomaterials, Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine, Nanobiotechnology, Assembly of biopolymers
- B.S. Chemistry, 2015, University of Science and Technology of China
- Ph.D. Chemistry, 2021, Brown University
Dr. Meng Li
USDA NIFA Postdoc Fellow
Research Interests: biopolymers, active soft matter, micromachines, device fabrication
- B.Eng. Biomedical Engineering, 2013, Southeast University, China
- M.Sc. Advanced Materials, 2015, University of Ulm, Germany
- Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering, 2020, Tufts University, USA
- Humboldt Postdoc Fellow, 2020-2022, Physical Intelligence, Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, Germany
Dr. Giorgio Rizzo
Research Interests: Biomaterials, Assembly of biopolymers, Hierarchical Structures, Molecular Dynamics, Sustainable Agriculture, Environment.
- B. Chemistry, 2015, University of Palermo, Italy
- M.Sc. Chemistry, 2017, University of Palermo, Italy
- Ph.D. Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, 2021, University of Bari, Italy
- Post-doctoral Fellow, 2021-2022, University of Bari, Italy
.png)
Dr. Yilin Zhang
Research Interests: plant nano-biotechnology, biomaterials, synthetic polymer chemistry, sustainable agriculture.
- B.Eng. Environmental Engineering 2016, Beihang University
- M.Sc. Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2017, Carnegie Mellon University
- Ph.D. Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2021, Carnegie Mellon University
- Postdoctoral Associate, 09/2021-07/2022, Lowry group, Carnegie Mellon University
Research Scientist
Alumni
Dr. Doyoon Kim
Food security and nano fabrication
Dr. Augustine Zvinavashe
Seed coating technologies
_JPG.jpg)
Dr. Federica Rigoldi
Machine learning, peptide design, molecular dynamics
Colleen Wolfe
Underwater fish vaccination
Dr. Yunteng Cao
Sustainable materials, Precision agriculture & medicine, and Mechanics, design & manufacturing
Dr. Hui Sun
Biomaterials, Nanotechnology, Protein Engineering, Bottom-up Assembly of Biomacromolecules, Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security
Dr. Muchun Liu
Biomaterials, responsive transformation, non-invasive assembly, hierarchical architectures, 2D nanochannels, actuation, agriculture, biomedicine, and environment
Jad Raad
Sustainable biopolymers, polymer processing, polymer characterization, nanotechnology
Dr. Yagmur Yegin
Biopolymers, Nanotechnology, Sustainability, Food Waste, Food Safety, Food Security, Bacterial Antifouling Coatings, Multifunctional Drug Delivery Systems
Capstone
Timothy Roberts
CEE - Capstone
William Popov
CEE - Capstone
Augustine Zvinavashe
CEE - Capstone
UROP
Shannon Wing
CEE
Emily Soice
CEE
Mohammed AlDajani
MechE
Visiting Students Alumni
Haruka Sakurai
MSci Chemistry '22, Imperial College London
Biomaterial fabrication, Bioactive hydrogels
Hiking, Baking Bread, Singing Disney songs, reading about cellular agriculture
Elisabetta Ruggeri
Visiting Master Student - Politecnico di Milano
Julie Laurent
Visiting Master Student - EPFL
Giulia Piervenanzi
Visiting Master Student - Politecnico di Milano
Anita Mollo
Visiting Master Student - Politecnico di Milano
Benedetta Petracca
Visiting Master Student - Politecnico di Milano
Nicola Contessi
Visiting PhD student - Rocca Fellow - Politecnico di Milano