Current Graduate Fellows

Catherine Biano – Psychology

Previous Degree: New York University

Catherine Bianco is a Ph.D. student in psychology studying infant development in naturalistic settings. Bianco’s research captures the complexity of real-world infant learning by integrating head-mounted eye-tracking, granular behavioral coding techniques, and computational modeling. This suite of methods exposes meaningful opportunities for learning in the chaos of daily life. She is particularly interested in how differences in day-to-day learning opportunities influence the developmental trajectories of infants with neurodevelopmental conditions or delays.

Chasitie Brown – Art History

Previous Degree: Southern Methodist University; Tulane University

Chasitie Brown is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Art History and Center for Latin American Visual Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She studies modern and contemporary Cuban art, focusing on race, gender, and diaspora. Other research interests include exhibition histories and histories of Latin American migration in Spain, particularly that of the Canary Islands, through a lens of race. 

Her dissertation examines the three-part exhibition series Queloides (1997-2012) that focused on questions of racial identity in post-soviet Cuba. Staged in Cuba and the United States with affiliate shows in Spain, she argues that the series served as a transnational network between the series participants (artists, curators, and art critics) to articulate new imaginings of Blackness that privileged the sociological and affective embodiments of race. She has collaborated closely with curators and art critics in noted institutions in Havana such as the Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales and Fototeca de Cuba in her field and archival research.  

Emma Duke – English

Previous Degree: Yale University, University of Cambridge

Emma Marie Duke is a PhD student in English literature at UT-Austin. Her recent work focuses on long-eighteenth-century British literature and the history of the book. She connects books with bodies, exploring the ways early women writers used the printed word to take up space in a patriarchal world. As a PhD student she plans to expand this research, delving into the archives at the Harry Ransom Center. Emma is also a bookbinder, a poet, and a writing coach. She believes in academic writing that is clear and accessible, breaking down traditional barriers: anyone who loves literature should be able to join the literary conversation.

Nicholas Jaworski – Anthropology

Previous Degree: Miami University Oxford

Nico's research interest focuses on non-human primate group coordination and decision-making, specifically in woolly monkeys. In particular he is interested in how predation events impact individual behavior and group dynamics in lowland woolly monkeys at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in Amazonian Ecuador. He is also interested in examining how daily group travel paths and activity budgets vary in response to "landscapes of fear" which are areas of perceived predation risk in the home ranges of non-human primates.

Wantae Kim – Chemical Engineering

Previous Degree: Seoul National University

Wantae Kim is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas at Austin studying Chemical Engineering.  His study focuses on mechanistic study on enzymes that synthesize unique natural products in living organisms.  This is important from the perspective of chemistry, since understanding how enzymes efficiently produce complex chemicals can simplify pre-existing chemical processes and reduce industrial waste.  His work uses a variety of structural biology techniques such as X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM to visually understand enzymatic mechanisms.  His enzyme structural studies further provide hints to enzyme engineering projects that will potentially impact industry and medicinal applications. 

Zelly Martin – Journalism and Media

Previous Degree: University of Texas at Austin, Southwestern University

Zelly Martin, a PhD candidate in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin, studies information manipulation on emerging platforms. Her dissertation examines the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories by the anti-abortion movement in the United States after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from communication studies and feminist scholars, she developed the concept of "embodied propaganda," to describe information which draws upon the values, history, and experiences of marginalized communities to manipulate opinion and usurp democracy.

Emma Palmer – Civil Engineering

Previous Degree: Duke University

Emma Palmer is a Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Austin in the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering program within the Cockrell School of Engineering. She is exploring the interactions between soil microbiome metabolic activity and geochemical cycles. Her dissertation focuses on understanding fundamental mechanisms used by natural and synthetic mixed-species communities of bacteria to remotely access and reduce solid-phase iron minerals. Because geochemical cycles are intimately related, this research has implications for soil carbon stabilization, nutrient availability, and groundwater contaminant remediation.

Alexis Richmond – Educational Psychology – Human Development

Previous Degree: Vanderbilt University

Alexis Richmond, a Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Austin, studies how to encourage and assist students in using effective learning strategies. She is particularly interested in understanding the situational contexts, both in and out of the formal school setting, that can promote the use of effective strategies. Alexis ultimately hopes that by reducing common barriers that students face while learning, all students will have the tools needed to maximize their potential. 

Emma Ryan – Biochemistry

Previous Degree: Adelphi University

Emma Ryan is a Ph.D. student in the Biochemistry Graduate Program who is interested in developing vaccines and monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics to prevent and treat infectious diseases. She aims to study the small, proteinaceous structures that different pathogens leverage to establish infection.  Emma also wants to understand how our own proteins, our antibodies, interact with these pathogenic structures and the complex immune network to protect us from disease. She hopes to synthesize structural biology techniques and an understanding of human immunology - from antigen processing down to B-cell repertoire analysis - to engineer proteins that can best protect individuals from disease.

Karin Kuhnen Vervuurt – Government

Previous Degree: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, University of Brasília 

Karin Vervuurt is a PhD student in the Government Department at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on political behavior, with a particular emphasis on public opinion, political psychology, and gender. She is particularly interested in how emotions influence individuals' engagement with political misinformation and conspiracy theories, aiming to explore effective strategies for correcting misinformation. Karin's interest in political psychology stems from a desire to understand the complex dynamics between emotions and political decision-making, especially in an era where misinformation shapes public discourse.

Qing Yao – Linguistics

Previous Degree: University of California, Santa Barbara

Qing’s research interests lie in computational linguistics and psycholinguistics, specifically in how large language models and other computational models can inform our understanding of the cognitive processes involved in language. Qing is currently investigating whether these models can capture certain human language production preferences and the underlying mechanisms behind acquiring such preferences.

Yanbing Zhou – Kinesiology

Previous Degree: Beijing Sport University

Yanbing Zhou is a Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Austin, College of Education, studying Kinesiology in the Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory. His research interest involves physical activity and health promotion, vascular aging that manifests as the stiffness of large elastic artery and vascular endothelial dysfunction. Ultimately, to develop strategies to promote healthier aging and prevent cardiovascular diseases by maintaining or improving vascular function through lifestyle modifications.