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Personnel

Michael Keidar

Michael Keidar

Principal Investigator

Dr. Michael Keidar is A. James Clark Professor of Engineering. His research concerns advanced spacecraft propulsion, plasma-based nanotechnology, and plasma medicine. He has authored over 240 journal articles and author of textbook “Plasma Engineering: from Aerospace and Nano and Bio technology” (Elsevier, March 2013). He received 2017 Davidson award in plasma physics. In 2016 he was elected AIAA National Capital Section Engineer of the Year and in 2017 he received AIAA Engineer of the Year award for his work on micropropulsion resulted in successful launch of nanosatellite with thrusters developed by his laboratory. Many of his papers have been featured on the cover of high impact journals and his research has been covered by various media outlets. Prof. Keidar serves as an AIP Advances academic editor, Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions in Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences and member of editorial board of half dozen of journals. He is Fellow of APS and Associate Fellow of AIAA.

Irina Schweigert

Irina Schweigert

Research Scientist

Irina Schweigert is a research scientist at MpNL and the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics SB RAS in Novosibirsk, Russia. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in physics from the Novosibirsk State University in 1981. She also received a Ph.D. in physics and mathematics in 1990. She has authored more than 90 scientific papers in major peer-reviewed journals, with over 70 first authorship in these publications. Her current research activity includes multidimensional simulations of all types of discharge plasmas in magnetic fields with kinetic effects. She is the creator and principal developer of 2D3V Particle-in-cell Monte Carlo algorithm code and 1D and 2D combined fluid codes (PIC+fluid) for discharge plasma simulations.

Li Lin

Li Lin

Research Scientist

Li Lin completed his Ph. D. program at the end of 2019 at GWU and was a postdoctoral researcher at MpNL from Jan. 2020 to Jan. 2023. His research interests are low- temperature plasma physics and chemistry, especially the chemical pathway networks and adaptive control of the plasmas that are applied to biomedical and environmental science such as selective cancer therapies, microorganism deactivations, and air purifications. Li is also working on interdisciplinary topics such as combining machine learning technologies and neuromorphic concepts with numerical simulations and plasma diagnostics, such as optical emission spectroscopy for UV-VIS, Fourier-transform spectroscopy for infrared, Rayleigh microwave scattering, laser Michelson interferometer, and a high-speed camera. Li also provides hardware support for his colleagues in MpNL, such as developing new plasma generators. Li is currently serving for several academic journals including as an editorial board member of Scientific Reports, a topic editor of MDPI Catalysts, and a review editor of Frontiers in Physics, etc. Li also received the “trusted reviewer” and “outstanding reviewer” status from the Institute of Physics (IOP). Li is a member and chaired conference sessions of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS) and the American Physical Society (APS).
 Denis B. Zolotukhin

Denis B. Zolotukhin

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Denis B. Zolotukhin is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The George Washington University, and Senior Researcher and Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radioelectronics in Russia. In 2016, he received his PhD under the supervision of Professor Efim M. Oks at the Institute of High Current Electronics in the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His research interests include plasma-cathode electron and ion sources, particle beam- and plasma-surface interactions, plasma diagnostics, plasma chemistry, deposition of coatings, and plasma propulsion. Denis is a co-author of more than 75 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, including 32 articles in which he has first authorship (as of September 2021). He is a recipient of several prestigious scholarships of President of Russian Federation. in 2019, he became a Laureate of Award of the Russian Government in science and technology for young scientists.

Alex Horkowitz

Alex Horkowitz

PhD Student

Alex Horkowitz is a Ph.D. candidate studying plasma medicine in MpNL starting January 2021. He received his B.S. in Biology from Baylor University and M.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology from San Diego State University. His M.S. Thesis project investigated the impact of acetylcholine secreting T-cells on the inflammatory switch from viral clearance to tissue repair during influenza infection of the lungs. He most recently worked in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, a non-profit research institute in San Diego, developing and optimizing assays for high-throughput pharmaceutical compound screening. In MpNL, Alex is investigating cellular mechanisms involved in selective anti-cancer effects of cold atmospheric plasma treatment.

Sungrae Kim

Sungrae Kim

PhD Student

Sungrae received his Master’s degree in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from The George Washington University. His research was focused on design of air-breathing hall-effect thrusters. As a PhD student, Sungrae is continuing his research of air-breathing hall-effect thrusters that could one day be used in the Martian atmosphere.

Vikas Soni

Vikas Soni

PhD Student

Vikas is a Ph.D. candidate studying plasma medicine in vitro and in vivo. Vikas graduated with a master’s degree in biochemistry, cellular & molecular biology from Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) with an excellence-in-science internship award, best research award and the best poster of the 2014-2015 academic calendar year. Also at GUMC, Vikas studied the molecular mechanism of neuro-degeneration, pathological basis of cancer and structural biology . There, he obtained excellence awards for his thesis and project on the pathological basis of cancer and structural biology of KRAS proteins in pancreatic cancer. After graduating, Vikas continued his research on a high-profile project at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health. He also worked at GUMC and was a key person on a collaborative project between GUMC, MIT, and a biotechnology company named Trevigen. For this project, he developed a high-throughput assay to detect DNA damage in skin cancer types like melanoma and basal cell carcinoma and was responsible for obtaining grants for the organization. After gaining some experience, he started his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts and topped the university with honors and a GPA of 4.0. He is now continuing his Ph.D. under Dr. Keidar investigating mechanisms to make plasma adaptive to treat different types of cancer.

Anmol Taploo

Anmol Taploo

PhD Student

Anmol is a Ph.D. student in Micropropulsion Nanotechnology Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at George Washington University. He completed a Masters of Science in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with specialization in fluid mechanics and thermal sciences at George Washington University in 2019. He achieved a Bachelor of Technology degree in aerospace engineering from SRM University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India in 2016. He is currently working on air-breathing plasma propulsion and its applications. During his undergraduate studies, Anmol published and presented research papers in the field of aerospace engineering in Indian journals and conferences such as SAE Aerotech Congress (2015, 2019), 8th symposium of Aerothermodynamics (European Space Agency, 2015) and 102nd Indian Science Congress. Anmol was the technical lead in undergraduate projects such as SRM SPACE Probe and Team Cruzonic. His senior design project topic was on the topic of turbulent intensity and drag measurements using hot-wire constant temperature anemometer. During his Masters at GWU, Anmol worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for MOSAIC Concentrated Photovoltaic Solar cells program in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a project funded by ARPA-E (Department of Energy). Anmol also worked on a mini-thesis on the topic "Parametric Study of Various modes of failure for CPV solar cells Array".

Ho-Suk Choi

Ho-Suk Choi

Professor (visiting)

Prof. Ho-Suk Choi is a visiting scholar at MpNL from Sept. 1, 2021, to Aug. 31, 2022, and a professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Chungnam National University, Korea. After receiving a B.S. from Yonsei University, he received an M.S. from KAIST. He also received a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, USA, in 1995. He is focusing on nano-energy research using plasma technology dealing with nanomaterials and nanodevices used in energy harvesting, conversion, storage, utilization, etc. He received various awards including the 2014 NRF Best Research Award. So far, he has authored more than 225 peer-reviewed articles, 1 book chapter, and 31 registered patents including 4 international patents.

    Therese Suaris (Ph.D, 2011), “Dynamic mission modeling and simulations: application of micro-vacuum arc thrusters and frozen orbits”, now at NASA Goddard Space Center

    Jarrod Fenstermacher (Ph.D, 2011), “Cryo-focusing Pyrolysis Gas Chemistry and the Influence of the Plasma Environment”,  now at Applied Physics Laboratory

    Madhusudham Kundrapu (Ph.D, 2011), “Modeling and Simulation of Ablation-Controlled Plasmas”, now at TechX Corporation

    Lubos Brieda (Ph.D, 2012), “Multi-scale simulation of Hall thrusters”, now at NASA Goddard Space Center and PIC-C LLC

    Olga Volotskova (Ph.D, 2012), “Biomedical application of cold atmospheric plasmas: cell response”, now at New York University

    Jian Li (Ph.D, 2012), “Synthesis, diagnostics and application of carbon nanostructures in arc discharge”, now at Globalfoundries Inc.

    Taisen Zhuang (Ph.D, 2012), “Micro-cathode thrustrer for Cube satellite propulsion”, now at US Medical Innovations LLC

    Tabitha Smith (Ph.D, 2014), “Ablation Study of Tungsten-Based Nuclear Thermal Rocket Fuel”, now at Wright Patterson AFB

    David Scott (Ph. D, 2014), “Microwave diagnostics of atmospheric plasmas”, now at Westwood College, Lecturer

    Joseph Lukas (Ph. D, 2015), “Enhancing Micro-Cathode Arc Thruster (mCAT) Plasma Generation to Analyze Magnetic Field Angle Effects on Sheath Formation in Hall Thrusters”, now at Institute for Defense Analysis

    Joel Slotten (Ph. D, 2015), “Investigation of Orbital Debris: Mitigation, Removal, and Modeling the Debris Population”, Space Systems Engineer at SAIC

    Dayun Yan (Ph.D, 2016), The Application of Cold Plasma-Stimulated Medium in Cancer Treatment”, now post-doc at the George Washington University

    Xiaoqian Cheng (Ph.D, 2016), “Enhancing Cold Atmospheric Plasma Treatment Efficiency for Cancer Therapy”, now at USMI LLC

    George Teel (Ph.D, 2017), “uCat Thruster Characterization”

    Xiuqi Fang (Ph.D, 2017), “Synthesis and Diagnostic of Single and Multi-dimensional Nanomaterial in Arc Discharge Plasma”

    Zhitong Chen (Ph.D, 2017), “Development of new cold atmospheric plasma devices and approaches”

    Samantha Hurley (Ph.D, 2018), “Advancements to the Micro-Cathode Arc Thruster: Linear Actuator, Ablative Anode, and Modular Designs”

    Eda Gjika (Ph.D, 2019), “Thermal and non-thermal atmospheric plasmas in cancer treatment”, now scientist at FDA

    Li Lin (Ph.D, 2019), “Towards optimization and adaptive control of the cold atmospheric plasma jet”, now post-doc at George Washington University

    Jonathan Kolbeck (Ph.D, 2020), “Understanding plasma-initiated secondary discharge”, now research scientist at Applied Materials

    Luis Martinez (Ph.D, 2020), "Modeling of interactions between low- and high-pressure plasmas with materials", now research scientist at Northrop Grumman Corporation

    Zachary Switzer (M.S, 2021), "Development and Characterization of the Capacitive Power Processing Unit (CPPU) for the Micro-Cathode Arc Thruster", now at Magma Space

    Xiaoliang Yao (Ph. D 2022), The Application of the Plasma Discharge Tube and Cold Plasma in Cancer Treatment, now research scientist at ThermoFisher.

     Keir Daniels (Ph.D, 2023), Lifetime Investigations of Micro-Cathode and Matrix Arc Thrusters.

    Siva Ram Prasad Bandaru (Ph.D, 2023), Multi-stage vacuum arc thruster, Senior Engineer at Eaton Corporation.

     

    Dr. Alex Shashurin (post-doc, 2007-2011, research scientist, 2011-2015)

    Jinyue Geng (Ph.D student, China, November 2012-October 2013)

    Kirk Woellert (research associate, 2011-2013)

    Christian Karer (B.S. student, Germany, November 2012-February 2013)

    Nina Racek (Ph.D student, Slovenia, September 2013-March 2014)

    Dr. Ed Ratovitsky (September 2013-2015)

    Fumihiro Inoue (Ph.D student, Japan, September 2014-January 2015)

    Long Yu (Beihang University, October 2015-Oct 2016)

    Simon Delaire (Research Scientist, France, September 2015-February 2016)

    Shiqiang Zhang (Visiting Scientist, Eindhoven University of Technology, May-September 2016)

    Yuerou Zhang (Visiting Researcher, China, Summer 2016)

    Kosuke Enomoto (Visiting Researcher, Osaka Institute of Technology, 2017) 

    Wenjun Xu (visiting researcher, Xi’an Jiaotong University in China, 2018)

    Yuanwei Lyu (visiting researcher, China Scholarship Council, 2018)

    Andrea Klein (MD candidate, 2018-2019)

    Fan Lei (PhD student, China, 2019-2020)

    Dr. Manish Adhikari (post-doc, 2019-2020)

    Yi Liu (PhD student, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 2019-2021)

    Dr. Sabine Portal (post-doc, 2019-2020, research assistant, 2022)

    Dr. Carles Corbella (post-doc, 2018-2021)

    Dr. Dayun Yan (post-doc, 2017-2022)