Pfleger Lab Alumni

Former Postdoctoral Scholars

William Bothfeld

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar 2019-2023

Jeffrey Cameron

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar 2013-2015
RASEI Fellow and Assistant Professor at CU-Boulder

Matthew Copeland

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar 2012-2015
Senior Scientist at Procter & Gamble

Michael Engstrom

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar 2016-2019

Spencer Hoover

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar 2008-2010
Director of Process and Analytical Development
Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies at CCRM

Christopher Jones

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar 2013-2016
Staff Scientist, Washington Univ. in St. Louis

Rung-Yi Lai

Position title: Postdoctroal Scholar 2015-2017
Lecturer at Suranaree University of Technology

Andrew Markley

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar 2011-2016
Co Founder at Hoplark HopTea
Scientist at Think Bioscience

Qiang Yan

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar 2018-2022
Scientist at DSM

Former Graduate Students

Josh Abraham

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2024
Lecturer, MIT

Daniel Agnew

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2013
Global Head of Dia IP
Administration at Roche

Matthew Begemann

Position title: PhD Microbiology 2014
Associate Director, Molecular Technologies at Benson Hill Biosystems

Ryan Clark

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2017
Senior Scientist at Nimble Therapeutics

Austin Comer

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering - 2018
Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group

Taylor Cook

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2021
Organism Engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc.

William Cordell

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2023
Postdoctoral Fellow NREL

Dylan Courtney

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2022
Scientist at Genomatica

Joshua Dietrich

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2024

Francesca Gambacorta Gilman

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2022
Scientist at Synata Bio

Hui Geng

Position title: MS. Chemical Engineering 2021
Masters Student, Computer Science

Jonathan Greenhalgh

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2022
Scientist at CleanJoule

Nestor Hernandez

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2018
Scientist - Enzyme Engineering at Manus Bio

Michael Jindra

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2023
Scientist at LanzaTech

Travis Korosh

Position title: PhD Environmental Chemistry and Tech. 2017
Associate Director of Biology at ForeLight, Inc

Rebecca Lennen

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2012
Director of Strain Engineering at Lygos

Christopher Mehrer

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2019
Sr. Fermentation Engineer at Genomatica

Daniel Mendez-Perez

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2014
Scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb

Gina (Gordon) Newmann

Position title: PhD Microbiology 2018
Senior Director at Solis Agrosciences

James Papadopoulos

Position title: MS. Chemical Engineering 2019

Mark Politz

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2016
Scientist Benson Hill Biosystems

Jackie Rand Long

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2017
Associate Director, Fermentation at Affinivax

Maya Venkataraman

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2024
Senior Scientist at Procter & Gamble

J. Tyler Youngquist

Position title: PhD Chemical Engineering 2013
Scientist at The J.M. Smucker Company

Recent Former Undergraduates and Visiting Scientists

Aditya Ailiani

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Sulaiman Al Kindi

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Justin Baerwald

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Kevin Behnke

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Sirinada Chanthachaiwat

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Xuanqi Chen

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Ava Clark

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Elliot Dunnwald

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Maelia Dziedzic

Position title: BS Chemical Engineering 2024
PhD student CU-Boulder

Thomas Graupmann

Position title: BS Microbiology 2024
Lab technician at General Mills

Abigail Kassmir

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Ryan Kong

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Madeline Kuckuk

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Prakriti Lahiri

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Jacey Lee

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Shao-Ting Lin

Position title: Post-Bac Research Assistant

Qianna Loomis

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Turner Luke

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Brian Nies

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Lorchan O'Sullivan

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Rebecca Oleniczak

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Marc Olson

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Jibin Park

Position title: VISITING SCIENTIST

Devin Schultz

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Maggie Smith

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Kacey Stewart

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Ashley Welper

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Deanna Wilson

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

Ke Xu

Position title: Undergraduate Researcher

More Distant Former Undergraduates

  • Alex Steiner – Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Victoria Alber
  • Nate Bennett
  • Elizabeth Ciborowski
  • Matthew Dysthe
  • Derek Jacobs
  • Haoxiang Lyu
  • Laura McGinley
  • Oscar Londono
  • Jordan Lange
  • Karolina Myrda
  • Monica Dorda
  • Helian Vunk
  • K’Yal Bannister
  • Richard Mikel
  • Austin Rottinghaus
  • Alex Carlos
  • Ryan Clarke
  • Charles Johnson
  • Josh Rose
  • Haley Schoenberger
  • Martin Schumacher
  • Wendi Sun
  • Erin Zess
  • Josh Thiede, 2013 – University of Minnesota, PhD in Biochemistry
  • Joseph Villanueva (REU, 2012)
  • George Degen (REU, 2012)
  • Nicole Sonnert (REU, 2012)
  • Zachariah Harris (REU, 2012)
  • Eric Walters (BS, 2012) – University of California-Davis, PhD in Microbiology
  • Amanda Stevermer (BS, 2012)
  • Mary Sagstetter (BS, 2012)
  • Michael Zaiken
  • Michael Luc
  • Victor Orler (BS, 2012) – Eisenmann
  • Nico Herman (BS, 2012) – University of California-Berkeley, PhD in Chemical Engineering
  • Max Kruziki (BS, 2011) – University of Minnesota, PhD in Chemical Engineering
  • Samuel Porter
  • Carlos J.M. Martinez (REU, 2011)
  • Megan Elseheimer
  • Amy Claas (BS, 2011) – LyondellBassell
  • Jon Goodman (BS, 2011) – Iowa State, PhD in Chemical Engineering
  • Scott Patnode (BS, 2011) – Hydrite
  • Cody Wenzel (BS, 2011) – Dow-Chemical
  • Jae Ahn (BS, 2011) – Halliburton
  • Emily Schmitt (BS, 2011) – Minnesota, PhD in Biochemistry
  • Scott Walhovd (BS, 2011) – Bemis
  • Keith Olson (IBS-SRP, 2010)
  • Kritika Kumar (Khorana Scholars Program)
  • Joe Lubin (BS, 2011)
  • Igor Luzhansky
  • Joe Field (BS, 2011) – BP
  • Suman Gunasekaran (High School) – Harvard University
  • Gina Lewin (IBS-SRP, 2010) – UW-Madison, PhD in Microbiology
  • Ashley Paulick (BS, 2010)
  • Amy Brownson (BS, 2010) – Bemis
  • Sixing Liang (BS, 2009)
  • Anna Meilke (BS, 2009) – Nestle
  • Handara Utomo (BS, 2009) – Aquarius Maritime
  • Phil Angart (BS, 2009) – Michigan State, PhD in Chemical Engineering
  • Asif Rahman (BS, 2009) – Utah State, PhD in Synthetic Biology

Former Visiting Scientists

  • Wasti Nurani
  • Thomas Raines