Current Scholars

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Nica Alimzhanov has spent the past three summers working full-time in Dr. Artzi's lab (HMS, MGB, Wyss), contributing to projects that advance the understanding of tissue-biomaterial interactions and therapeutic delivery. Her work has included developing hydrogels to localize chemotherapy, manufacturing novel microneedles for painless and sustained drug administration, and formulating nanoparticles to deliver CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing machinery for genetic disorders. She also published a review article in the International Journal of High School Research (IJHSR) on microneedles and their biomedical applications.

In high school, Nica served as Secretary of the National Honor Society, Captain of the Swim and Dive Team, and Co-Founder of her school's Flag Committee, which created a permanent installation of 252 world flags to promote inclusivity. She was also active in her school's Science Olympiad team, worked as a mathematics tutor and a theater coordinator for a Russian Literature and Drama Studio. Nica was honored with the Daniel J. Calugar Foundation $10,000 Merit Scholarship and recognized as the Massachusetts Affiliate Winner of the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award. She was also selected to compete in the national round of the International German Olympics, where she was one of 16 participants selected from hundreds of U.S. students and achieved the highest B2 language proficiency level among all competitors.

At Dartmouth, Nica plans to study Biochemistry or Biomedical Engineering. In addition to her STEM classes, Nica is pursuing her passion for language by working as a drill instructor for the German department. She plans to join club water sports and explore various DOC subclubs. She is looking to pursue a PhD, MD, or MD/PhD with the goal of developing and translating new biomedical technologies into real patient outcomes.

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From Minneapolis, Minnesota, Finn is a prospective Mathematics major with a strong interest in the safe development of artificial intelligence. In high school, he was a Regeneron ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair) finalist, served as a lead programmer on his robotics team, and founded his school's Computer Science Club. During the summer, he worked as a youth sailing instructor, and is now a member of the Dartmouth Sailing Team. 

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In high school, Jack led the Gonzaga Peace Club, promoting Catholic social teaching, dialogue, advocacy, and service. He was an active member of local mutual aid organizations and food pantries in the DC area, working with the unhoused and local immigrant populations. He also plays saxophone and guitar, co-founded a cycling club, and helped lead a club focused on local environmental and water insecurity issues. Looking ahead, Jack plans to study Linguistics and Astronomy, with a focus on indigenous language preservation and dark energy research. Inspired by his family's Basque heritage, he hopes to work with organizations like the Endangered Language Project. His interest in cosmology fuels a long-term goal of contributing to research at observatories such as ALMA or the ELT.

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Before college, Roen was deeply involved in both the arts and academics. She served as principal oboist for the Santa Monica High School Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra from 2022 to 2025, earned a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo, and conducted independent research as a mentee at California State University Los Angeles. She also founded a free music mentoring program for younger students in her school system and launched the Conlang Cabal, a club dedicated to constructed languages, where she served as founder and president. At Dartmouth, Roen plans to explore the intersections of linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence, with a special interest in language preservation and the use of large language models in education. She is also drawn to music and memory research, particularly in support of Alzheimer's patients, inspired by personal experience.

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Patrick Shi plans to major in Computer Science and Biological Sciences with an interest in data science. He has published bioinformatics, having studied gene expression in cancer diagnosis, and was a Regeneron Science Talent Search scholar. He has additional interests in climate modeling and sociology, and he hopes to explore the integration of AI into the healthcare system from a public policy perspective. In his free time, Patrick enjoys traveling, playing the violin, and cooking.

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Dylan was valedictorian of his high school in Hopkinton, MA and has demonstrated leadership and passion in STEM through roles such as Science Fair Team Lead, Co-President of the Invention Club, and Co-Captain of the Robotics Team. Dylan is also a member of the National Honor Society, the Robotics National Honor Society, and is a lifetime fellow of the American Junior Academy of Sciences (AJAS). He has performed independent research in the environmental engineering, biomedical engineering, and sociology fields and hopes to continue innovating at Dartmouth. He has also been honored as a Henry David Thoreau Scholar in addition to being a Hanlon Scholar, with his most prized achievements including holding two U.S. patents and earning the 3rd Place Prize in the Earth and Environmental Sciences category at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in 2023. In addition to his interest in STEM, Dylan's interdisciplinary passions include product development, project management, and sociology. While he is unsure of his prospective major, he hopes to combine his love for the environment, social psychology, and STEM to create meaningful and effective change.

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 Having spent years engaging in medical and social volunteering across multiple continents, Timmie Artan '28 (she/her) is passionate about accessible, globally informed healthcare. She serves as Strategic Partnerships & External Relations Manager at Mary Global Health, a nonprofit building mobile micro-clinics that expand care access for last-mile patients in Ghana and Vermont. She recently advanced MGH through entrepreneurship competitions at Dartmouth's Magnuson Center and the Dartmouth Innovation Accelerator for Digital Health, where her team was selected as a finalist. On campus, she is pursuing intensive policy research and will deliver formal testimony in New Hampshire and Vermont statehouses this term. She hopes to continue bridging clinical care, structural change, and policy in her future career.

Faculty Mentor: Lisa Marsch (Psychiatry)

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Angel Avila '28 (he/him) is pursuing a B.E. in Bioengineering and a B.A. in Engineering Modified with Biology. Since arriving at Dartmouth, Angel has sought opportunities that combine engineering, biology, and hands-on research. He joined the Thayer Machine Shop during his first fall term, where he learned precision machining, helped maintain and repair equipment, and has served as a Teaching Assistant supporting engineering coursework.

Angel's research journey began in the Goods Lab at the Thayer School of Engineering, where he used computational methods to study reproductive cell development through single-cell and spatial transcriptomic analyses. He later joined the Orellana Lab at the Geisel School of Medicine, contributing to the development of tools for CRISPR-based genomic screens investigating tRNA quality control. 

As a Hanlon Scholar, Angel is now developing a high-throughput platform for the production and purification of therapeutic transfer RNAs (tRNAs). His project combines synthetic biology, molecular engineering, automation, and analytical chemistry to engineer yeast capable of producing customized tRNAs with defined modification profiles and to build an automated purification workflow for creating a searchable therapeutic tRNA library. He hopes this platform will expand the accessibility of tRNA-based therapeutics and accelerate research into diseases linked to tRNA dysfunction.

Outside the lab, Angel enjoys Brazilian jiu-jitsu, mentoring students through engineering courses, and exploring new ways to integrate engineering principles with molecular biology to solve challenging bioengineering problems.

Faculty Mentor: Esteban Orellana (BIO)

Mark Ghiu '28 (he/him) is a Dartmouth Book Award Winner who has pursued research opportunities in math and physics through St. John's Prep, including on quantum loop gravity. Since starting at Dartmouth, he has worked with the Formula One team and joined Club Soccer. Currently, Mark is part of the Multifunctional Integrated NeuroElectronics (MINE) lab, led by Professor Hui Fang, where he is working on a high-speed insertion device for the ROSE probe. He aspires to become an Aerospace Engineer or pursue graduate studies in Physics.

Faculty Mentor: Hui Fang (ENGS)

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Evan Khym '28 (he/him) is a History major and Human-Centered Design minor. He began his Dartmouth research in his freshman year with the Sustainable Transitions Lab. He mapped out American energy usage charts and considered how incoming data center contracts might affect them. He also analyzed past corporate and residential energy usage and why those habits have shifted over the decades. He then spent that summer in Taiwan, researching corporate ESG initiatives and inefficiencies in local grid policies. He visited energy plants in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and interviewed locals about delayed execution of green policies. His Hanlon Scholars project continues his interest in the grid and the future of energy. He seeks to explore how modern day energy contracts in Africa should be approached. Given Africa's extensive colonial history and the fact that European countries are spearheading current energy negotiations, he hopes to identify ways to fairly evaluate those contracts. He will take a history-first approach to studying the intersection of emerging markets and colonialism, focusing primarily on Italy's contemporary Mattei Plan.

Outside of the scholars program, Evan is mainly involved in the Dartmouth Investment and Philanthropy Program (DIPP). In DIPP, he is a member of the Investment Committee, covering Industrials, Power, and Utilities stocks. Beyond academics, Evan loves to run, golf, watch movies, and play squash. After graduation, he plans on finding a role that blends financial markets and the energy sector.

Faculty Mentor: Bethany Moreton (HIST)

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Lamine Sao '28 (he/him) comes from The American School in London, where he conducted research on applying machine learning to drone imagery and remote sensing to assess forest health. He is a jazz musician and joined the Jazz Band on campus. Lamine has been assisting a professor with a 3D printing project and is excited to pursue Engineering at Dartmouth. Recently, he conducted research at the Trust Lab focused on cybersecurity to develop a tool to identify vulnerabilities in web servers. 

Faculty Mentor: Laura Ray (ENGS)

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Coming from San Francisco, California, Summer (she/her) is a cognitive science major with an interest in business, healthcare, and philosophy. Whether it's the mountains of Marin or the birch forests of the Upper Valley, Summer loves getting outdoors and can't get enough of hiking, camping, and backpacking. This past summer, Summer worked as a Strategy and Operations intern for Claimable, a healthcare startup that leverages AI to help patients appeal health insurance denials and unlock access to life-changing treatments. At Dartmouth, she plays for women's club hockey, analyzes investment opportunities for DIPP, leads consulting teams with the DCSI, and is currently working to build a healthtech startup with a friend that aims to make wellness purchases more financially accessible.

Faculty Mentor: Johnathan Phillips

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Nicholas Booth '27 from Dalton, PA, is an Economics major with a strong interest in policy and economic development. On campus, he is a Teaching Assistant in the Economics Department, a member of Fed Challenge, co-chair of the Political Economy Project, and an avid cross-country skier. He has received numerous independent research grants, allowing him to explore topics from sustainable energy in Sweden to the ethics of Peruvian agriculture. Last summer, Nicholas interned in Kosovo at The Riinvest Institute, an economic policy and development think-tank. For his Hanlon Project, Nicholas is studying addiction, gambling, and financial insecurity. Most recently, he has begun working with Economics Professor Bruce Sacerdote, his project mentor, as a research assistant. Before Dartmouth, Nicholas was class president, captain of his track team, and a Coca-Cola Scholar. In his free time, he enjoys reading, running, and traveling.

Faculty Mentor: Bruce Sacerdote, ECON

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Tess Bruett '27, a History major and International Studies minor from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, plans to attend law school after graduation. She graduated as high school valedictorian, where she led her school's swim team, mock trial team, spanish club, and served as a Milwaukee County Youth Commissioner in local government. She was also a Herb Kohl Scholar and the recipient of her class's Outstanding Senior Award. She currently conducts research in the History Department, works at Rauner Special Collections Library, and is actively involved with the Dickey Center as a War Peace Fellow and Arctic Innovation Scholar. As a dedicated Arctic Innovation Scholar, she participated in the "Arctic Sustainable Transitions" trip to Iceland and will study the integration of women into Antarctic fieldwork during her term abroad in London. Tess is also a writer for The Dartmouth, a member of the Dartmouth Law Journal, and is the Assistant Director of the Dartmouth Center for Social Impact's Growing Change program. Outside of school, Tess enjoys staying active and getting outside, reading, and traveling. 

Faculty Mentors: Bruce Duthu, NAIS and Melody Burkins, ENVS

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Felipe Mendonça ('27) is a Government, Economics, and Latin American Studies triple major from São Paulo, Brazil. As a Hanlon Scholar, he is investigating participatory budgeting, a policy initiated in Brazil that enables citizens to actively participate in their municipalities' budgets by proposing and voting on projects to allocate government funding. His research aims to compare the failures and successes of two different locations, hoping to draw lessons and create concrete legislation to implement the policy in São Paulo. Recently, Felipe has interned in the US Congress, conducted research with Professors Pamela Voekel (LACS), DG Webster (ENVS), and Carlos Minchillo (LACS), and facilitated leadership bootcamps in the Latin American Leadership Academy. His interests outside of research are wide and include climbing, debate, gymnastics, drag art, reading, and much more. He served as president of the campus labor union, the Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth, alongside Dartmouth's Drag Group––House of Lewan, and the Brazilian Society for the 24-25 academic year. Felipe is passionate about organizing and activism with a focus on social justice and environmental action. He aims to return to Brazil and work in politics after pursuing a Master's degree. 

Faculty Mentors: Pamela Voekel, LACS and Lisa Baldez, GOVT

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Ben Stevenson grew up in Portland, Oregon, on the traditional and unceded land of the Clackamas and Kalapuya peoples. He organized for climate justice from a young age. Since coming to Dartmouth, Ben has worked on federal policy in Washington, DC and studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Havana, Cuba. At Dartmouth, he studies History and Spanish. 

Through a mix of oral history and audio storytelling, Ben will study and tell the story of the creeping dominance of financial landlords in US housing—and how tenants are organizing themselves in response. Ben's research connects the glittering towers of Wall Street with the reality of people across the United States, revealing how an economy dominated by finance shapes our daily lives. Above all, Ben hopes to illuminate how building economic and political power together can propel us beyond financialization to a more just, democratic economy.

Faculty Mentors: Bethany Moreton and Annelise Orleck, HIST

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Manoela Ferraz '27 (she/her) is a Cognitive Science major and Philosophy minor from Santa Maria, Brazil. Her Hanlon Scholars project explores what motivates people to change their minds regarding moral beliefs, focusing on the role of emotions, heuristics, and belief flexibility in this process. She hopes that the findings from this project can later inform the design tools that apply mechanisms of moral judgement shift to encourage people to partake in philanthropic actions or dialogue amidst intractable group conflict. Manoela has been a research assistant at PhilLab since her freshman year, and recently she has also started to work at Frankland Lab. On campus, she is involved with the Student Worker Collective at Dartmouth and has worked as a teaching assistant for the CS department, Drill instructor for Portuguese, and many other jobs! Outside of academics, Manoela loves to climb, run, hike, practice orienteering, crochet, play sudoku, and cook. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a PhD in Cognitive Science and, in the long run, contribute to the development of the field in her home country. 

Faculty Mentor: Jonathan Phillips, COGS

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Katie Wilson '27 (she/her) is a chemistry major and Chinese minor from Cincinnati, Ohio. Her Hanlon Scholars project asks how pharmaceutical research and development can use advanced computational tools to more efficiently discover life-saving drugs. Through engineering ferritin, a naturally occurring human protein, into a chemotherapy delivery system, she hopes to create a new framework for how drug discovery is done. But above all, she is passionate about chemistry, and helping other people to love chemistry, too. She has worked as an AmeriCorps member teaching middle school chemistry, Organic Chemistry 1 and 2 teaching assistant, and a chemistry private tutor. In addition to chemistry, Katie is also passionate about skiing, peak bagging, and cheering on The Ohio State Buckeyes. On campus, she is involved with Agape Christian Fellowship, the Women in Science Program, and the Dartmouth Outing Club.