Home Navigating Your Degree Oral Defense Dates Oral Defense Dates Omar Abed Program: Ind Interdept Degree Prog Dissertation Title: Cytokine Muteins and Targeted Depots for Selective and Localized Regulatory T Cell Expansion Date: 3 Aug 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: NCRC B10 – SOUTH ATRIUM, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/91065082569 PW:TREGIL2 Chair: James J Moon and James J Moon Tara Lonsdorf Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Climatic and Topographic Controls on Meteoric Waters of the North American Cordillera: New Insights from Stable Isotopes Date: 3 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NORTH UNIVERSITY BUILDING, 2540; ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/9732938548?OMN=96072879053 Chair: Nathan A Niemi Xiaping Li Program: Engineering Education Research Dissertation Title: Exploring Course Engagement among Engineering College Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: The Roles of Instructional Practices and GenAI Date: 4 Aug 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: THE LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER JOHNSON ROOMS (3RD FLOOR); ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/94300480181 Chair: Cindy Finelli Charlotte Boucher Program: Political Science Dissertation Title: Negotiated Citizenship: Managed Relations with a Violent State Date: 5 Aug 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: WALKER, HAVEN HALL Chair: Rob Mickey Lucy Smith Program: English & Women's and Gender S Dissertation Title: Date: 5 Aug 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/97576556916 Chair: Mary C Kelley and Mary C Kelley and Mary C Kelley and Jason Randolph Young and Jason Randolph Young and Jason Randolph Young Lucy Smith Program: History & Women's & Gender Stu Dissertation Title: Circulation, Economy, and Meaning of Teeth in George Washington's America Date: 5 Aug 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/97576556916 Chair: Mary C Kelley and Mary C Kelley and Mary C Kelley and Jason Randolph Young and Jason Randolph Young and Jason Randolph Young Woohyeon Baek Program: Materials Science & Engin Dissertation Title: Size-dependent Thermodynamic and Nucleation-kinetic Insights in Material Formations Date: 6 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: DOW 2166 Chair: Wenhao Sun Shailaja Humane Program: Applied Physics Dissertation Title: Advancing Inertial Confinement Fusion through Bayesian Optimization and Multi-physics Simulations Date: 6 Aug 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: COOLEY BAER ROOM Chair: Carolyn Christine Kuranz Joao De Barro Cavalcanti Program: Aerospace Engineering Dissertation Title: Resource-Aware Adaptive Model Predictive Control for Maneuver Load Alleviation of Flexible and Very Flexible Aircraft Date: 6 Aug 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: 1044 FXB (UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92892873542 PC: 1044 FXB (UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92892873542 PC: MPC4ASE) Chair: Carlos E S Cesnik and Ilya Kolmanovsky Emma Portugal Program: Linguistics Dissertation Title: Variation in the Perception and Production of Dialect Vowels in Gava?, Armenia Date: 7 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92655057956 Chair: Savithry Namboodiripad Gabriella Bruno Program: Nuc Eng & Radiol Sciences Dissertation Title: Quantifying the Impact of Image Complexity and Human Perception on Irradiation-Induced Cavity Characterization Through Crowd-Sourcing Date: 10 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: 2906 COOLEY WITHIN COOLEY BUILDING AT 2355 BONISTEEL BLVD Chair: Kevin Geoffrey Field Katie Nissen Program: Political Science Dissertation Title: Future Tense: Optimism, Pessimism, and the Politics of Climate Change and Artificial Intelligence Date: 10 Aug 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: PREFUNCTION ROOM, HAVEN HALL (FLOOR 5) Chair: Iain Guthrie Osgood Azhar Dyussekenova Program: Slavic Lang & Literature Dissertation Title: Unvirgin Steppe: The Queer Ecologies of Central Asian Postcolonial Cultural Production Date: 10 Aug 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: ROOM MLB 3308; ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92996540989 (CODE 0810) Chair: Olga Maiorova Jian Guan Program: Molecular, Cell & Dev Biology Dissertation Title: Investigating the Roles of Biomolecular Condensates in Bacterial Stress Response Date: 11 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: LSA BSB 5150 Chair: Ursula H Jakob Guoxuan Ma Program: Biostatistics Dissertation Title: Date: 11 Aug 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH II (M4034) Chair: Jian Kang Jiakun Guan Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Multiscale Computational Models of Antibodies and Antibody Drug Conjugates for Cancer and Infectious Disease Therapeutic Design Date: 12 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NCRC B28 1004E Chair: Greg Michael Thurber Brittany Ribeiro Brown Program: Social Work & Psychology Dissertation Title: "It?s Nothing to Lose but My Chains?: Intersectional Stigma, Mental Health, and Mental Healthcare Among Black Sexual Minority Emerging Adults Date: 12 Aug 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92045722939?PWD=CKRMGFEX5J1PTDRDOIO14S2VDVVABQ.1 Chair: Lucretia M Ward and Daphne C Watkins Harkirat Singh Arora Program: Biomedical Engineering Dissertation Title: Mechanism-Aware Machine Learning Models for Prioritizing Drug Candidates Based on Potency and Organ-Specific Toxicity Date: 12 Aug 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: NCRC BUILDING 10, RESEARCH AUDITORIUM (HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/96206638297, PASSCODE: MEDICINE) Chair: Sriram Chandrasekaran Omkar Roy Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Experimental and Computational Analysis of Rheology – Processing Relationships in Direct Ink Writing and Meltblowing Date: 12 Aug 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: NCRC B32- BUILDING 32 AUDITORIUM (1501) Chair: Ronald G Larson Zach Croft Program: Applied Physics Dissertation Title: Phase-field Approaches for Modeling and Quantifying Microstructure Evolution in Structural Materials Date: 13 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: 340 WEST HALL Chair: Elizabeth Ann Holm and Vanessa Sih Bill Chen Program: Astronomy & Astrophysics Dissertation Title: Modeling the Lifecycle of Star Clusters Date: 13 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: WEST HALL 411 Chair: Oleg Y Gnedin Nishant Shah Program: Pharmaceutical Sciences Dissertation Title: Development of Methods to Understand Post-Deposition Behavior in Inhaled Drug Delivery Date: 14 Aug 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: NCRC BUILDING 18 ROOM 104 Chair: Ashlee Dawn Brunaugh Joshua Lidtke-O'Callaghan Program: Nursing Dissertation Title: Barriers and Facilitators to Telemedicine Uptake by Gender-Affirming Care Providers Date: 14 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: 426 N INGALLS ST., ROOM 1240 Chair: Erin Kahle and Jody Rae Lori Contact Academic Records and Dissertations Hours: Academic Records and Dissertations is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The office is closed Saturdays and Sundays and on the following holidays: Thanksgiving (Thursday and the following Friday), Christmas through New Year’s, Memorial Day, Independence Day (July 4), and Labor Day. Location 0120 Rackham Building 915 East Washington Street Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070 Contact Phone: 734.763.0171 Fax: 734.936.3335 Email: [email protected]
Omar Abed Program: Ind Interdept Degree Prog Dissertation Title: Cytokine Muteins and Targeted Depots for Selective and Localized Regulatory T Cell Expansion Date: 3 Aug 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: NCRC B10 – SOUTH ATRIUM, HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/91065082569 PW:TREGIL2 Chair: James J Moon and James J Moon
Tara Lonsdorf Program: Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertation Title: Climatic and Topographic Controls on Meteoric Waters of the North American Cordillera: New Insights from Stable Isotopes Date: 3 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NORTH UNIVERSITY BUILDING, 2540; ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/9732938548?OMN=96072879053 Chair: Nathan A Niemi
Xiaping Li Program: Engineering Education Research Dissertation Title: Exploring Course Engagement among Engineering College Students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: The Roles of Instructional Practices and GenAI Date: 4 Aug 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: THE LURIE ENGINEERING CENTER JOHNSON ROOMS (3RD FLOOR); ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/94300480181 Chair: Cindy Finelli
Charlotte Boucher Program: Political Science Dissertation Title: Negotiated Citizenship: Managed Relations with a Violent State Date: 5 Aug 2026 Time: 10:30 a.m. Location: WALKER, HAVEN HALL Chair: Rob Mickey
Lucy Smith Program: English & Women's and Gender S Dissertation Title: Date: 5 Aug 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/97576556916 Chair: Mary C Kelley and Mary C Kelley and Mary C Kelley and Jason Randolph Young and Jason Randolph Young and Jason Randolph Young
Lucy Smith Program: History & Women's & Gender Stu Dissertation Title: Circulation, Economy, and Meaning of Teeth in George Washington's America Date: 5 Aug 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/97576556916 Chair: Mary C Kelley and Mary C Kelley and Mary C Kelley and Jason Randolph Young and Jason Randolph Young and Jason Randolph Young
Woohyeon Baek Program: Materials Science & Engin Dissertation Title: Size-dependent Thermodynamic and Nucleation-kinetic Insights in Material Formations Date: 6 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: DOW 2166 Chair: Wenhao Sun
Shailaja Humane Program: Applied Physics Dissertation Title: Advancing Inertial Confinement Fusion through Bayesian Optimization and Multi-physics Simulations Date: 6 Aug 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: COOLEY BAER ROOM Chair: Carolyn Christine Kuranz
Joao De Barro Cavalcanti Program: Aerospace Engineering Dissertation Title: Resource-Aware Adaptive Model Predictive Control for Maneuver Load Alleviation of Flexible and Very Flexible Aircraft Date: 6 Aug 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: 1044 FXB (UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92892873542 PC: 1044 FXB (UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92892873542 PC: MPC4ASE) Chair: Carlos E S Cesnik and Ilya Kolmanovsky
Emma Portugal Program: Linguistics Dissertation Title: Variation in the Perception and Production of Dialect Vowels in Gava?, Armenia Date: 7 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92655057956 Chair: Savithry Namboodiripad
Gabriella Bruno Program: Nuc Eng & Radiol Sciences Dissertation Title: Quantifying the Impact of Image Complexity and Human Perception on Irradiation-Induced Cavity Characterization Through Crowd-Sourcing Date: 10 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: 2906 COOLEY WITHIN COOLEY BUILDING AT 2355 BONISTEEL BLVD Chair: Kevin Geoffrey Field
Katie Nissen Program: Political Science Dissertation Title: Future Tense: Optimism, Pessimism, and the Politics of Climate Change and Artificial Intelligence Date: 10 Aug 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: PREFUNCTION ROOM, HAVEN HALL (FLOOR 5) Chair: Iain Guthrie Osgood
Azhar Dyussekenova Program: Slavic Lang & Literature Dissertation Title: Unvirgin Steppe: The Queer Ecologies of Central Asian Postcolonial Cultural Production Date: 10 Aug 2026 Time: 2:00 p.m. Location: ROOM MLB 3308; ZOOM: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92996540989 (CODE 0810) Chair: Olga Maiorova
Jian Guan Program: Molecular, Cell & Dev Biology Dissertation Title: Investigating the Roles of Biomolecular Condensates in Bacterial Stress Response Date: 11 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: LSA BSB 5150 Chair: Ursula H Jakob
Guoxuan Ma Program: Biostatistics Dissertation Title: Date: 11 Aug 2026 Time: 1:00 p.m. Location: SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH II (M4034) Chair: Jian Kang
Jiakun Guan Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Multiscale Computational Models of Antibodies and Antibody Drug Conjugates for Cancer and Infectious Disease Therapeutic Design Date: 12 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: NCRC B28 1004E Chair: Greg Michael Thurber
Brittany Ribeiro Brown Program: Social Work & Psychology Dissertation Title: "It?s Nothing to Lose but My Chains?: Intersectional Stigma, Mental Health, and Mental Healthcare Among Black Sexual Minority Emerging Adults Date: 12 Aug 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/92045722939?PWD=CKRMGFEX5J1PTDRDOIO14S2VDVVABQ.1 Chair: Lucretia M Ward and Daphne C Watkins
Harkirat Singh Arora Program: Biomedical Engineering Dissertation Title: Mechanism-Aware Machine Learning Models for Prioritizing Drug Candidates Based on Potency and Organ-Specific Toxicity Date: 12 Aug 2026 Time: 11:00 a.m. Location: NCRC BUILDING 10, RESEARCH AUDITORIUM (HTTPS://UMICH.ZOOM.US/J/96206638297, PASSCODE: MEDICINE) Chair: Sriram Chandrasekaran
Omkar Roy Program: Chemical Engineering Dissertation Title: Experimental and Computational Analysis of Rheology – Processing Relationships in Direct Ink Writing and Meltblowing Date: 12 Aug 2026 Time: 12:00 p.m. Location: NCRC B32- BUILDING 32 AUDITORIUM (1501) Chair: Ronald G Larson
Zach Croft Program: Applied Physics Dissertation Title: Phase-field Approaches for Modeling and Quantifying Microstructure Evolution in Structural Materials Date: 13 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: 340 WEST HALL Chair: Elizabeth Ann Holm and Vanessa Sih
Bill Chen Program: Astronomy & Astrophysics Dissertation Title: Modeling the Lifecycle of Star Clusters Date: 13 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: WEST HALL 411 Chair: Oleg Y Gnedin
Nishant Shah Program: Pharmaceutical Sciences Dissertation Title: Development of Methods to Understand Post-Deposition Behavior in Inhaled Drug Delivery Date: 14 Aug 2026 Time: 9:00 a.m. Location: NCRC BUILDING 18 ROOM 104 Chair: Ashlee Dawn Brunaugh
Joshua Lidtke-O'Callaghan Program: Nursing Dissertation Title: Barriers and Facilitators to Telemedicine Uptake by Gender-Affirming Care Providers Date: 14 Aug 2026 Time: 10:00 a.m. Location: 426 N INGALLS ST., ROOM 1240 Chair: Erin Kahle and Jody Rae Lori
