Dissertations

Dissertations: March 22, 2021

March 22, 2021

DISSERTATIONS DEFENDED

Biological Sciences

  • Agarwal, Ipsita. Disentangling mutation and selection in patterns of genetic variation in humans. Sponsor: Molly Przeworski.
  • Alloy, Alexandre. Identifying novel and leukemic subtypes by systems biology and machine learning. Sponsor: Andrea Califano.

Business

  • Padilla, Nicolas. Essays on the use of probabilistic machine learning for estimating customer preferences with limited information. Sponsor: Oded Netzer.
  • Sliman, Malek Ben. Essays on network analysis with applications to seeding and art valuation. Sponsors: Kamel Jedidi and Rajeev Kohli.

Chemistry

  • Russell, Jake. Controlling the performance of modular materials. Sponsor: Xavier Roy.

Communications

  • Watkins, Elizabeth. The polysemia of recognition: Facial recognition in algorithmic management. Sponsor: David Stark.

Computer Science

  • Li, Shih-Wei. Building secure and verifiable commodity hypervisors. Sponsors: Steven Bellovin and Jason Nieh.

History

  • Monroe, William. The trials of Pope Formosus. Sponsor: Robert Somerville.
  • Ng Tam, Yung Hua. A transpacific Caribbean: Chinese migration, U.S. imperialism, and the making of modern Colombia. Sponsor: Mae Ngai.

Microbiology, Immunology, and Infection

  • Madley, Rachel. Human T-cell negative selection in health and disease. Sponsor: Megan Sykes.

Music (DMA)

  • Yulsman, Samuel. Hypergestures and social aesthetics in Aaron Cassidy's The Wreck of Former Boundaries. Sponsor: George Lewis.

Operations Research

  • Li, Fengpei. Stochastic methods in optimization and machine learning. Sponsor: Henry Lam.

Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine

  • Sprinzen, Lisa. Histone modifications in isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 R132H mutated glioma and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells. Sponsor: Peter Canoll.
  • Wang, Xiaobin. The role of CtIP in lymphocyte development and lymphomagenesis. Sponsor: Shan Zha.

Psychology

  • Sisco, Matthew. The effects of personal experiences on climate risk mitigation behaviors. Sponsor: Niall Bolger.

Social Work

  • Wang, Yi. Disparities in child development by parental education. Sponsor: Jane Waldfogel.

TC / Counseling Psychology

  • Alsaidi, Sarah. Arming targets, allies, and bystanders in the face of microaggressions: A qualitative examination of microintervention response strategies and their efficacy. Sponsor: Laura Smith.
  • Calle, Cassandra. Not legally belonging at home: Sense of belonging among Latinx, DACA recipient university students. Sponsor: Marie Miville.
  • Glaeser, Elizabeth. The group made me a better parent: The impact of multifamily group services on the parents of transgender and gender expansive children. Sponsor: Melanie Brewster.

TC / History and Education

  • Rodriguez, Alexa. The paradox of education and empire: U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic, 1916-1924. Sponsor: Cally Waite.

TC / Social-Organizational Psychology

  • Gipson, Asha. The dual effects of stereotype threat and power on negotiation behavior and affect. Sponsor: Peter Coleman.

DISSERTATION PROPOSALS FILED

Art History and Archaeology

  • Onabanjo, Oluremi. Agudas as Afro-Brazilians: Imaging an Atlantic community between São Salvador and Lagos.
  • Zivkovic, Alex. Ambient empire: Ecologies, colonies, and dreamworlds in Paris, 1860-1940.

Biomedical Engineering

  • Perkins, Sean. Leveraging the geometry of neural activity in motor cortex to build better decode algorithms.

Computer Science

  • Bayat, Niloofar. Network economics and policies.
  • Hassan, Mohamed. Hardware-software co-design for practical memory safety.

Earth and Environmental Sciences

  • O'Mara, Nicholas. Monsoons, wildfires, and savannas: Drivers of climate and ecosystem change in Northwest Africa during the past one million years.

Economics

  • Burya, Anastasia. Flattening of the Phillips Curve: Significance of small firms.
  • Gwee, Yi Jie. Essays on the spatial distribution of economic activities.

Economics

  • Teoh, Hong Ken. Essays in macroeconomics and finance.
  • Wong, Yu Fu. Essays in economic theory.

Germanic Languages

  • Rhodes, Hazel. Tracing transgender feeling in sexual modernity: Gender and queer affinities between early 20th-century literature & science.

Italian

  • Antonini, Claudia. The poet Machiavelli: Rethinking politics, love, and laughter.