Several students are on campus conducting summer research as part of the 2025 Notre Dame Nanoscience and Technology (NDnano) Undergraduate Research Fellowship (NURF) program. The students, listed below, are engaged in projects led by NDnano affiliated faculty.

The summer researchers are students at Notre Dame, Kenyon College, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and Sun Yat-sen University. Funding for the students is provided by NDnano, the Woodward Family Endowment for Excellence in NDnano Undergraduate Research, and other faculty grants and funds.

Learn more about their research on July 23 by attending the Summer Research Symposium at Jordan Hall. The event will showcase the projects of students in many of the undergraduate research programs taking place at Notre Dame this summer.

For more information about summer 2026 research opportunities with NDnano, please visit the NDnano website in early January.

2025 NDnano Undergraduate Research Fellowship Recipients

Fellowship recipient: Mary Kate Carroll, Notre Dame
Project: Synthesis of kagome lattice magnets
Faculty mentor: Professor Nirmal Ghimire (Physics)

Fellowship recipient: Megan Caserio, Notre Dame
Project: Biocompatible membrane coated nanoelectrode for long-term antibiotic measurements
Faculty mentors: Professor Kaiyu Fu (Chemistry) and Professor William Phillip (CBE)

Fellowship recipient: Gergely Czehlár, Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Project: Pursuing superconductivity in p-doped transition metal dichalcogenides
Mentors: Professor László Forró, Dr. Bence Márkus, and Dr. Anna Nyáry

Fellowship recipient: Ryan Davey, Notre Dame
Project: Core-shell nanoparticles for targeted therapy against metastatic breast cancer cells in vitro and in vivo
Faculty mentors: Professor Prakash Nallathamby (AME) and Professor Erin Howe (Rosalind Franklin College of Medicine and Sciences)

Fellowship recipient: Stefany Gutierrez Galvis, Notre Dame
Project: Investigating the floating body effect in 3D dynamic random access memory
Faculty mentor: Professor Kai Ni (EE)

Fellowship recipient: Minjae Kim, Notre Dame
Project: Fabrication of ferroelectric superconductor Josephson junction
Faculty mentors: Professor Kai Ni (EE) and Professor Dafei Jin (Physics)

Fellowship recipient: Victor Lazkani, Notre Dame
Project: Development of electrochemical biosensors for continuous drug detection in 3D cell culture
Faculty mentors: Professor Kaiyu Fu (Chemistry) and Professor Yichun Wang (CBE)

Fellowship recipient: Tasnim Islam Orco, Kenyon College
Project: Circular beam semiconductor laser optimization and reliability
Faculty mentors: Professor Doug Hall (EE) and Professor Masaru Kuno (Chemistry)

Fellowship recipient: Guopeng Pan, Sun Yat-sen University
Project: Low-dimensional materials: Heterostructure assembly, nanofabrication and characterization
Faculty mentor: Professor Petr Stepanov (Physics)

Fellowship recipient: Hetvi Patel, Notre Dame
Project: Nanoparticle mediated reprogramming of cells to fight cancer
Faculty mentors: Professor Meenal Datta (AME) and Professor Ryan Roeder (AME)

Fellowship recipient: Peyton Reynolds, Notre Dame
Project: Time domain COMSOL simulations of infrared nanoantennas
Faculty mentors: Professor Gary Bernstein (EE), Professor Wolfgang Porod (EE), and Dr. Gergo Szakmany (EE)

Fellowship recipient: Kaitlin Ryan, Notre Dame
Project: Engineering biomimetic materials to control stem cell morphogenesis
Faculty mentor: Professor Donny Hanjaya-Putra (AME)

Fellowship recipient: Olivia Sayani, Notre Dame
Project: Phage-mimicking nanoparticles as broad spectrum antibacterials
Faculty mentor: Professor Prakash Nallathamby (AME)

Fellowship recipient: Madeline Schearer, Notre Dame
Project: Molecular control of hybrid bronzes for solar and energy-storage applications
Faculty mentor: Professor Adam Jaffe (Chemistry)

Fellowship recipient: Sándor Sipos, Budapest University of Technology and Economics
Project: Tailoring the magnetic properties of Mxenes
Mentors: Professor László Forró (Physics) and Dr. Bence Márkus (Physics)

Fellowship recipient: Vanessa Utama, Notre Dame
Project: Exhaled breath condensate enrichment by ABLE for electrochemical-based bioanalysis
Faculty mentor: Professor Kaiyu Fu (Chemistry) and Professor Jingcheng Ma (AME)

Fellowship recipient: Siyu Wei, Notre Dame
Project: Phage-mimicking nanoparticles as broad spectrum antibacterials
Faculty mentor: Professor Prakash Nallathamby (AME)

Fellowship recipient: Collin Wyant, Notre Dame
Project: Design, construction, and validation of a reaction chamber for the scalable synthesis of gold microplates for biosensing applications
Faculty mentor: Professor Svetlana Neretina (AME)

Originally published by NDnano Staff at nano.nd.edu on June 02, 2025.