Select Page

Home » Discover Rackham » Student Spotlights

Student Spotlights

Student Spotlight: Zuowei Wang

For every 10 minutes U-M students spend studying, they spend 4 minutes distracted by their phones and other media. They have company; students in China are similarly distracted says Zuowei Wang, a fourth year doctoral student in Education and Psychology. Zuowei ’s...

Student Spotlight: Patrick Harlin

When asked what is the favorite piece of music he’s written, he smiles and says, “Hopefully the one I compose next. You have a sense there’s more you can always do with a piece, and I take that energy and put it into the next one.” Hailing from the Pacific Northwest,...

Student Spotlight: Olga Shalev

Olga earned her bachelor's and master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science from the Technion, Israeli Institute of Technology. She served as a lieutenant in the Israeli navy and after graduation worked for seven years as the chief engineer at...

Student Spotlight: Frank Kwarcinski

Frank’s research involves using small molecule compounds to answer essential questions about cell growth and proliferation. More specifically, he studies the development of kinase inhibitors as both a potential cancer therapeutic and a probe to better describe...

Student Spotlight: Shweta Ramdas

Shweta is from India and completed her undergraduate degree in nearby Singapore. “It was close to home and a great school for science. I knew I wanted to go to grad school and study genetics, and I was reading papers from researchers at Michigan. It made sense to come...

Student Spotlight: Colin Zarzycki

Colin has been interested in hurricanes and cyclones since he was a kid. When it came time for graduate school, he knew he wanted to study weather and cyclones. While his department represents only one third of the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences program, this...

Student Spotlight: Jacki Antonovich

As we walk through the building to find a quiet place to talk, Jackie reminisces about time spent in Rackham as a part of the Summer Institute before officially beginning her graduate studies. “I spent a lot of time on the fourth floor that summer. This building is so...

Student Spotlight: Sherri Cook

Sherri’s dissertation examines the fields of waste management and water management, using environmental biotechnology models to answer important questions. Specifically, one aspect of her research focuses on how to best dispose of unused pharmaceuticals, examining the...

Student Spotlight: Yilan Zhang

“U.S. bridges were designed to serve for 50 years. Most of them were built 50-60 years ago.” Uh oh. Since many of the bridges are passing their useable service time, Yilan’s research on how we can effectively monitor the structural health of bridges is particularly...

Student Spotlight: Lauren Reed

Lauren’s dissertation focuses on “digital dating abuse,” which is repeated patterns of abusive dating behaviors using the Internet or cell phones. She is looking specifically at the gender dynamics of behaviors, motivations, experiences and consequences of digital...