Leadership & Administration

David Linnevers
Director of Operations
Over two decades of experience in working in higher education administration and admissions at institutions such as UCLA Medical School.
Edward Njoo
Director of Research & Development
Experienced organic chemist, educator, scientist, and Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University. Co-author on multiple peer-reviewed papers in biochemistry, chemical biology, and organic synthesis.

Ankur Gupta
Director of Educational Outreach
Graduate of U.C. Berkeley, current M.D. candidate at Louisville. Experienced molecular and cell biologist passionate about translational science and biomedical education.
Phil Mui
Board Member
Phil Mui, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President of Technology in Salesforce, and of the Office of the CTO. He received his S.B., M.Eng., and Ph.D. from MIT, and an M.Phil as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford.

Jimmy Qian
Director of Admissions
Current M.D. candidate at Stanford Medical School, several years of research experience in theoretical systems biology. Holds an M.S. in Chemistry, B.A. in Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Robert Downing
Chair of CS & Engineering
Four decades of experience in the high-tech and data systems industry (3COM, IBM, etc.) and as a professor and instructor at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Avery Kruger
Director of Communications
Ecologist and marine wildlife scientist with extensive research experience in ecology, evolution, and marine biology. Avery has previously been editor in chief of our student journal.
Sahar Jahanikia
Chair, Biological & Life Sciences
Experienced neuroimaging researcher and data analyst with knowledge in Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroimaging, Behavioral Sciences, Design Thinking, and Bioinformatics.
OCF Board of Directors

Joni Jen
Board President
Educator and founder of Olive Children Foundation with over a decade of experience in education and in community service in the Fremont and greater East Bay Area.

Tammy Long
Board Member
Tammy holds a Master's of Education from CSU East Bay and a Master's in Christian Formation from North Park Seminary.
Research Investigators
Robert Downing
Data Science, Machine Learning, Applied Engineering, & Astrophysics
Four decades of experience in the high-tech and data systems industry (3COM, IBM, etc.) and as a professor and instructor at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Sahar Jahanikia
Neuroimaging, Bioinformatics
Experienced neuroimaging researcher and data analyst with knowledge in Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuroimaging, Behavioral Sciences, Design Thinking, and Bioinformatics. Extensive experience in designing, collecting, and analyzing state of art neuroimaging studies using all forms of modality (fMRI, NIRS, EEG, simultaneous EEG-fMRI). Co-author of multiple neuroimaging research papers.
Clinton Cunha
Bioinformatics
Clinton has a Masters in Bioinformatics (University of Guelph) and a Masters of Science in Cellular and Molecular Medicine (University of Ottawa). He also has an Honors Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences (Carnegie Mellon University). His main areas of focus include Bioinformatics, Data Analysis, Python programming, Biology, Science, Cancer Research and ESL. Professionally, Clinton is a qualified Bioinformatician/Biologist/Instructor.
Larry McMahan
Quantum Physics
Dr. McMahan holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from Rice, and has four decades of experience in industry (Hewlett-Packard) and in academia as a professor.
Martin Kushnerov
Computational & Structural Biophysics
Martin received his MSc in Medical Genetics and Genomics at University of Glasgow and BS in Human Biology at UC San Diego. His main area of focus is in genetic and epigenetic regulation in biological systems, with previous experience studying viral genetics and genomics. His research group at ASDRP works on the interface of data-based genomics and genetics.
Neelima Sangeneni
Physical & Electrochemistry
Dr. Sangeneni holds a PhD in nanomaterial chemistry, and has been involved in several successful startups in the Bay Area. The Sangeneni Lab at ASDRP works on the interface of physical chemistry & nanomaterials engineering.
Pragati Dharmale
Electrical Engineering
Prof. Pragati Dharmale has 14 years of academia / industry research experience and received her M. Eng in Digital electronics and M.S. in computer science from Southern New Hampshire University, NH. Her research interest includes application of EEG analysis with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as STEM based applications designed for Raspberry PI with Python programming.
Akira Yamamoto
Biomaterials Engineering
Akira received his M.Sc. from Shinsyu University in Materials Engineering and has served as the Director of Materials Science & Engineering at BioPharmX prior to coming to ASDRP. The Yamamoto group at ASDRP performs research in biomaterials engineering.
Suresh Subramaniam
Data Science
Seasoned executive and data scientist with experience in managing large operations and applying data science to solve business problems.
Joseph Laurienzo
Applied Mathematics
Joseph holds an M.S. in applied physics from Case Western University, and is an ambitious scientist interested in using mathematical models to understand physical and biological phenomena.
Bharat Poudyal
Biotechnology & Agronomy
Dr. Poudyal, a native of Nepal, received his PhD in Agronomy from the University of Hebei and MS degree from the University of Edinburgh. He is interested in the convergence of plant cell culture, community-based agriculture, and science-informed plant biology that enables new developments in human health.
Zane Chen
Chemistry
Dr. Chen completed his PhD in Biochemistry at Oregon Health Sciences University with a thesis: Regulation of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I gene expression in vivo. He received his MD from Qingdao Medical College. He has done his Post-Doc at Oregon Health Sciences University.
Vasudha Salgotra
Biology & Chemistry
Vasudha Salgotra is a research professional with a background in analytical chemistry and pharmacy. She has years of experience in supporting preclinical activities in drug development and delivery for small and large biologics. Her professional journey includes designing and validating plate-based immunoassays (ELISAs) and other bioanalytical techniques.
Dr. John Wang
Principal Scientist; Molecular & Cell Biology
Dr. John Wang received his PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from Indiana University, and following that was a postdoctoral reserach fellow at Stanford Medical School in Oncology. Following this, Dr. Wang has been a leader in modern cancer immunotherapy, and has served as the chief scientific officer of a leading biotech company. Dr. Wang and his colleagues have previously placed multiple candidates, including most recently an interleukin-15 construct, into human clinical trials with the FDA.
Edward Njoo
Organic & Medicinal Chemistry
Experienced organic chemist, educator, scientist, Stanford PhD chemist. Co-author on multiple peer-reviewed papers in biochemistry, chemical biology, and organic synthesis.
Phil Mui
Computer Science
Phil Mui, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President of Technology in Salesforce, and of the Office of the CTO. He received his S.B., M.Eng., and Ph.D. from MIT, and an M.Phil as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford.
Omar Amer
Civil Engineering
Dr. Amer holds a PhD in civil engineering from Clemson University and is interested in developing next-generation green materials for carbon-sequestration.
Harman Brah
Computational & Structural Biophysics
Experienced biochemist at UCSD Medicine; former scientist at UCSF who specializes in computational biochemistry & drug discovery. Oversees admissions process.

Gayathri Renganathan
Medicinal Biochemistry
Gayathri obtained her M.Pharm at Anna University and has served as a lecturer in Inorganic & Analytical Chemistry, and in her area of expertise, medicinal biochemistry.
Connor Adams
Ocean Science
Connor is a graduate of U.C. Santa Cruz with an M.S. in ocean science and a B.S. in environmental science. His research experience includes fisheries management of Belize’s spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), and aggression/fecundity in mangrove rivulus fish (Kryptolebias marmoratus).
Raymond Chen
Analytical Chemistry
Raymond is a former scientist at Thermo Scientific and at Twist Biosciences. The Chen lab at ASDRP uses high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to determine stability of pharmaceutical entities.
Tracy Zhang
Cancer Biology & Oncology
Dr. Zhang holds a PhD in biomedical sciences and has coauthored over twenty publications in precision oncology and molecular cancer biology.
Michael Amadi
Biotechnology & Synthetic Biology
Former UCSF scientist and founder of Jikoro Sciences, Michael is a scientist who is interested in the interface of biotechnology and synthetic biology. The Amadi lab at ASDRP works on projects related to genomics, metabolomics, and biotechnology/bioengineering.
Prabhjeet Kaur
Microbiology & Genetics
Prof. Prabhjeet Kaur graduated from CSU Bakersfield with an MS in Microbiology and a BS in Biology with an emphasis in Microbiology. She has been a full-time Microbiology Instructor at COS Visalia. She have been teaching college level biology courses for the last 5 years, and is currently an adjunct Anatomy Professor at EVC San Jose. Her thesis research included work on Coccidioides immitis, the causative agent of valley fever in the Northwestern Mojave Desert, and the Kaur lab here at ASDRP is interested in a variety of ecological-microbiological scientific questions.
Viktoriia Liu
Chemistry
Experienced computational chemist with knowledge in ML/computer vision, bioinformatics, robotics, and structural biology. She received her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from UC Riverside.

Joey Pazzi
Chemistry
Joey's current research interests include economical point of care diagnostics, the development of synthetic cells, and facilitating membrane fusion reactions with cells

Chris DeGrendele
Applied Mathematics & Advanced Supercomputing/ Computational Aerosciences
Chris DeGrendele is a computation scientist who is working on his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at the University of California Santa Cruz. He is currently a researcher at NASA Ames Research Center in the Advanced Supercomputing Division - Computational Aerosciences Branch.
Dr. Valens Nteziyaremye
Principal Scientist; Engineering
Dr. Valens Nteziyaremye was born in Kigali, Rwanda. In 2008 he was selected among the top students in science in Rwanda and received the Rwandan Presidential scholarship to study at the University of Arkansas at Little, USA in Systems Engineering Mechanical from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
He received his PhD and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida where he worked on the interface of surface engineering for biomedical devices.
He has worked for Intel, Tokyo Electron (TEL) and Lam Research Corporation.
Staff & Facility Managers
Former Faculty Advisors

Kavya Tallapaka
Cancer Biology

Nardeen Mikhail
Microbiology

Karishma Johnson
Data Science and Ecology

Asmita Dani
Electrical Engineering, RF Physics

Nicholas Papano
Computer Science and Engineering

Avery Kruger
Ecology and Evolution

Scott Clark
Organic Chemistry

Carly Truong
Molecular Neuroscience

Ankur Gupta
Molecular and Cell Biology

Calvin Leung
Quantum Mechanics and Physics

Sam Fendell
Machine Learning, Software