Post-doctoral Fellows

  • Vishakha Thacker

  • Siba Bhattacharya

  • Kiran Kondabagil

  • Qin Li

  • Sathish Shivachandra

  • Marthandan Mahalingam

  • Zhang Zhihong

  • Pan Tao

  • Istiaq Tanfis Alam

  • Mohammad Zahidul Islam

  • Jingen Zhu

Ph.D. Graduates

1994

  • Nida Yap (Distinction)

  • Agnes Saunders (Distinction)

1996

  • Gerald Leffers (Distinction)

2001

  • Frank Rentas

2002

  • Michael Mitchell (Distinction)

2006

  • Abdulrahman Al-Zahrani

  • Taheri Sathaliyawala

2007

  • Bonnie Draper (Distinction)

  • Mary Kearney

2009

  • Manjira Ghosh Kumar

  • Shylaja Hedge

2010

  • Song Gao (Distinction)

2012

  • Vishal Kottadiel (Distinction)

  • Lindsay Wieczorek (Distinction)

2013

  • Guofen Gao (Distinction)

2014

  • Victor Padilla-Sanchez

2016

  • Wadad Alsalmi (Distinction)

  • Li Dai (Distinction)

2019

  • Wei-Chun Tang

  • Elizabeth Anderson (Distinction)

  • Brittani Barrows (Distinction)

2020

  • Swati Jain (Distinction)

  • Himanshu Batra (Distinction)

Master’s Graduates

1991

  • Rebecca Chmelik

1997

  • Lara Abu-Shilbayeh

  • Jennifer Jiang

2001

  • Daniel Kuebler

  • Pingjia Lin

Undergraduate Students

  • Amy Robichaux

  • Megan O’Brien

  • Katie Goetzinger

  • Noreen Kelly

  • Karoly Viragh

  • Erin O’Donnell

  • Megan Jamiolkowski

  • Siying Lin

  • Jennifer Mondle

  • Daniel Beck

Awards for Student Research

1996

  • Amy Robichaux* – Barry Goldwater Science Scholarship

  • Amy Robichaux* – American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship

1997

  • Megan O’Brien* – American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship

  • Gerald Leffers – Michael Pelczar Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Washington, D.C.

2000

  • Katie Goetzinger* – American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship

2001

  • Katie Goetzinger* – American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship

  • Katie Goetzinger* – Barry Goldwater Science Scholarship

2002

  • Katie Goetzinger* – Academic Excellence Award

  • Michael Mitchell – BT DeCicco Excellence in Graduate Research Award

2004

  • Noreen Kelly* – American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship

2005

  • Noreen Kelly* – Academic Excellence Award

2006

  • Erin O’Donnell* – American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship

2007

  • Erin O’Donnell* – American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship

  • Bonnie Draper – BT DeCicco Excellence in Graduate Research Award

2008

  • Erin O’Donnell* – Academic Excellence Award

  • Mary Kearney – BT DeCicco Excellence in Graduate Research Award

2009

  • Megan Jamiolkowski* – Barry Goldwater Science Scholarship

  • Jennifer Wang – High School Student, Regional Finalist in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology

2010

  • Song Gao – BT DeCicco Graduate Research Excellence Award

2011

  • Vishal Kottadiel – BT DeCicco Graduate Research Excellence Award

2012

  • Guofen Gao – BT DeCicco Graduate Research Excellence Award

2013

  • Wei-Chun Tang – RM Nardone Teaching Excellence Award

2014

  • Wadad AlSalmi – BT DeCicco Graduate Research Excellence Award

2015

  • Dai Li – BT DeCicco Graduate Research Excellence Award

  • Swati Jain – RM Nardone Teaching Excellence Award

2016

  • Siying Lin* – American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellowship

  • Siying Lin* – Best Poster Presentation Award at the 25th International Phage and Virus Assembly Conference

2019

  • Himanshu Batra – BT DeCicco Graduate Research Excellence Award

  • Swati Jain – BT DeCicco Graduate Research Excellence Award

2021

  • Jarin Mourosi – Graduate Research Award, American Association of University Women & Cosmos Foundation

2024

  • Jarin Mourosi - Outstanding Poster Award, American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy

*Undergraduate Research

American Society of Microbiology Undergraduate Research Awardees

1996 – Amy Robichaux, Obtained M.D. Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University.

2001 & 2002 – Katherine Goetzinger, Obtained M.D. at the University of Maryland Medical School.

  • Publication: Goetzinger, K. and Rao, V.B. (2003) Defining the ATPase center of bacteriophage T4 DNA packaging machine: requirement for a catalytic glutamate in the large terminase subunit gp17. J. Mol. Biol. 331, 139-154.

2003 – Noreen Kelly, Obtained M.D. at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey.

  • Publication: Al-Zahrani, A. S., Kondabagil K., Gao, S., Kelly, N., Ghosh-Kumar, M. and Rao, V. B. (2009). The small terminase, gp16, of bacteriophage T4 is a regulator of the DNA packaging motor. J. Biol. Chem. 284:24490-24500.

2006 & 2007 – Erin O’Donnell, Obtained M.D. at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.

  • Publication: Li, Q., Fokine, A., O’Donnell, E., Rao, V. B., Rossmann, M. R. (2010). The structure of the small outer capsid protein, Soc: a clamp for stabilizing capsids of T4-like phages. J. Mol. Biol. 395:728-41.

2016 – Siying Lin, M.D. Ph.D. at Northwestern University.

  • Publication: Lin, S., Alam, T. I., Kottadiel, V., VanGessel, C. J., Tang, W-C., Chemla, Y. R. and Rao, V. B. (2017) Altering the speed of a DNA packaging motor from bacteriophage T4. Nucleic Acids Research 45(19):11437-11448.

2020 – Jennifer Mondle, University of Maryland, College Park, MD.