Personnel

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 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.

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 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 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 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 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".