Reset

Faculty

brooksabel-headshot
Brooks Abel
Areas of Interest:

Brooks Abel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and staff scientist in the Materials Science Division at LBL. He received a B. S. in Polymer Science and a Ph.D. (2016) in Polymer Science and Engineering (NSF Graduate Fellowship) from the University of Southern Mississippi. His Ph.D. work under the advisement of Prof. Charles McCormick focused on synthesizing stimuli-responsive water-soluble polymers using controlled radical polymerization methods for applications such as drug delivery and water remediation. Following his graduate studies, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Geoffrey Coates at Cornell University (2017-2021) where he developed bifunctional Lewis acid catalysts for the alternating ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides to synthesize well-defined polyesters. While at Cornell, he also developed a new living cationic ring-opening polymerization of cyclic acetals, enabling the synthesis of high molecular weight polyacetals thermoplastics capable of near-quantitative chemical recycling back to monomer. His independent research interests lie in the areas of sustainable polymer organic chemistry, ionic polymerizations, catalysis, polymer stereocontrol, and polymer recycling.

Nils was formerly a member of the academic research staff as part of the Criddle-lab at Stanford University. For CUBES he is developing microbial cell factories that convert C1-carbons into high-performance polymers that can serve as materials for consumables and durable goods. He is also an Analog Astronaut, demonstrating biomanufacturing capabilities in the field (at a Space Exploration Analog and Simulation Habitat), as a proving ground for Mars. Will join University of Florida as assistant professor.

Bruce Bugbee headshot
Bruce Bugbee
Areas of Interest:

Bruce Bugbee is Professor in the Department of Plants, Soils, and Climate at Utah State University. He received his PhD from Penn State University and his MS from the University of California at Davis. He joined the faculty at Utah State University in 1981.
  
Dr. Bugbee uses controlled environments to examine plant-environment interactions. His research has included phytoremediation, algal biofuels, photobiology, and plant water relations. His career has been guided by the idea that teaching is the highest form of understanding. He has mentored 33 graduate students, eight of whom are now on the faculty at other universities. He was awarded the Utah Governor's Medal for Science in 2012, the D. Wynne Thorne lifetime research achievement award in 2016, and the Distinguished alumni award from Penn State University in 2017.   He recently gave a TEDx talk titled, “Turning water into food.”  
 

Amore A. Menezes headshot
Amor A. Menezes

Amor Menezes is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. He is the Science Principal Investigator of the five-year, multi-university, Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space (CUBES), a NASA Space Technology Research Institute in biomanufacturing for deep space exploration. He also leads the Systems Design and Integration Division of CUBES.

Dr. Menezes' research interests are in dynamical systems theory and control, with applications to the fields of systems biology and synthetic biology. He is an IEEE Senior Member. He was a 2015 Emerging Leader in Biosecurity and a 2015 fellow of the Synthetic Biology Leadership Excellence Accelerator Program.

He was an Associate Project Scientist in the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at the University of California, Berkeley from 2016 to 2017, and a QB3 Postdoctoral Scholar from 2011 to 2016. He was a Research Fellow between 2010 and 2011 in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he received a Ph.D. as an NSERC Post-Graduate Scholar and Michigan Teaching Fellow in 2010, and a Master of Science in Engineering as a Milo E. Oliphant Fellow in 2006. He graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2005 with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering with Distinction, Dean's Honors (top 10%), and the Sandford Fleming Co-op Medal.

Somen Nandi is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Managing Director of Global HealthShare® initiative at the University of California, Davis.
 
Dr. Nandi has been working on molecular breeding technology to produce the heterologous proteins in different platforms for past 18 years. He has extensive experience on the application of bioprocess engineering technologies to produce recombinant proteins (including human therapeutic proteins and enzymes) using seeds, whole plants, harvested tissues or cells grown in vitro in bioreactors as hosts, improve efficacy of target molecule by enzymatic glycan modification and performing techno-economic analyses. This multidisciplinary effort led to the development of five products, now in the market and two molecules in human clinical trials. He is interested in translational research and continually strives to develop processes that are scalable, cost effective, and meet quality specifications and regulatory requirements. Somen leads large multifaceted programs and is experienced teaching and mentoring both in developing and developed countries, including managing teams with diverse expertise, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds. Somen’s research efforts in CUBES are to produce therapeutic proteins and food via optimization of plant metabolic engineering and in limited resource environment like Mars.