Grand Challenges Initiative
Our People
» Meet the GCI Team
Dr. Javier Espeleta
Co-Director of the Grand Challenges Initiative
jespeleta@chapman.edu
Dr. Espeleta is a clinical associate professor of biological sciences and began as the co-director of the Grand Challenges Initiative in 2023. Espeleta has more than 20 years of experience leading international organizations at the interface of science, conservation, and education. He has previously served as the director of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Costa Rican study abroad program, the executive director of the Tropical Science Center, and the associate director of the University of Arizona’s Biosphere II. He is passionate about training the next generation of leaders in science and engineering; he has developed undergraduate and graduate curriculum on themes including agroecology, crop management, and global health. Espeleta is broadly trained as a plant physiological ecologist and holds a Ph.D. in plant biology from the University of Georgia, a M.Sc. in horticultural science from University of Florida and an B.Sc. in phytotechnology from the University of Costa Rica.
Dr. Tom Piechota
Co-Director of the Grand Challenges Initiative
piechota@chapman.edu
Dr. Piechota’s research interests center around the investigation of climate impacts on regional water resources and society using high resolution climate data/information, forecasting of water supply under changing climate conditions, drought and flood impacts in urban stormwater in urban environments, use of remote sensing data and geographic information systems for improved evaluation of hydrology and water systems.
Jess Van Antwerp
Administrative Coordinator
vanantwerp@chapman.edu
Ms. Van Antwerp manages the logistics for the Grand Challenges Initiative, supporting student and faculty success. She has a BFA in musical theatre with a focus on short form improvisation. She is a pet mother to the cutest kitten and dog, Harry and Winston.
Current Fellows
Every Grand Challenges Initiative team is mentored by a Postdoctoral Fellow. Our fellows are world-class early-career teacher-scholars. They come from diverse research backgrounds, ranging from cancer genetics to atmospheric chemistry.
What the Fellows all have in common is a desire to share their passion for science and engineering with students. GCI student teams are assigned a fellow at the beginning of each semester.
Dr. Miranda Aiken
maiken@chapman.eduDr. Aiken is a biogeochemist researching the release of toxic, naturally-occurring soil metals into our groundwater. Her work is highly-interdisciplinary and investigates metal release from individual soil aggregates, all the way up to entire groundwater basins. The goal of her work is to understand the mineral, chemical, and biological controls of metal release and how human activity may impact water quality in the long-term. Ask her about manganese (a personal favorite), chromium, or arsenic! Dr. Aiken holds a Ph.D. from University of California, Riverside.
Dr. Hector Camarillo Abad
camarill@chapman.eduDr. Camarillo Abad’s research focuses on new interactions aimed at improving human activities. The interaction occurs between users and intelligent systems through wearable devices. During his Ph.D. he developed haptic-based interactions for dance-related applications. His specific interests include human-computer interaction, wearables, ubiquitous and assistive technology, sensing devices, nonverbal communication through technology, motor skills, and sensor-based classification. He holds a Ph.D. in Intelligent Systems from Universidad de las Américas Puebla in Mexico.
Dr. E. Daniel Cardenas-Vasquez
cardenasvasquez@chapman.eduDr. Cárdenas-Vásquez was born in Moyobamba, Perú. He holds a Bachelor’s in chemical engineering from Universidad Nacional Pedro Ruiz Gallo (UNPRG), in Lambayeque, Perú, and a PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from North Carolina State University, where he conducted research about new functional materials using colloids and hydrogels for biomedical applications as well as exploring novel nucleation prediction methods using computational tools for drug discovery and other pharmaceuticals applications. Additionally, he has a keen interest in the ethics of science, specifically at the interface of organized religious entities and genetically modified foods (GMOs). On the side, he drinks lots of (specialty) coffee while trying to model in-silico its pour over extraction mechanism.
Dr. Kamal Diki
diki@chapman.eduDr. Diki obtained his Ph.D. in Mathematical Models and Methods in Engineering from Politecnico di Milano where he was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow of the Istituto Nazionale di Alta Matematica (INdAM). His research interest is in (hyper)-complex analysis and operator theory with potential applications in quantum mechanics and time-frequency analysis. Recently, Dr. Diki started exploring new research directions in theoretical machine learning (ML), with particular interest in neural networks (NN) and support vector machines (SVMs). His research in this area consists of investigating new algorithms for NN and developing further properties of some RBF kernels used in SVMs.
Dr. Desiree Forsythe
dforsythe@chapman.eduDr. Forsythe (she/her) has a background in both the biological sciences and education. She is a STEM education researcher and focuses on how to disrupt oppressions in the sciences through the use of critical, feminist, and queer theorizations. Dr. Forsythe has several lines of research including how those with privileged identities in STEM work at incorporating social justice into pedagogical and professional practice and how STEM students with marginalized identities experience and navigate STEM environments (such as classrooms, advising, office hours, etc.). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island.
Dr. Daniel Gardner
dgardner@chapman.eduDr. Gardner is an interdisciplinary scholar, with a background in informatics, human-computer interaction, information sciences and security, social science, and media studies. He studies how the cultural values and systems of authority that manifest in the design of digital games and media can influence or inhibit our experiences. Specifically, his work has looked at how authentication interfaces, physical interfaces, and virtual avatar/character creation systems can govern access to digital games, media, and other domains. His research helps better illustrate the values and structures of power underlying everyday digital technologies. Dr. Gardner holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Ariane Jong-Levinger
jonglevinger@chapman.eduDr. Jong-Levinger is an environmental engineer with a background in environmental science (she earned her B.S. in Environmental Science & Policy from Chapman University in 2016). Ari studies how the interactions between wildfire, storms, and flood management infrastructure influence post-fire floods and debris flows. The goal of her work is to co-produce useful knowledge about the impact of climate change on flood risk and water resources with stakeholders to support efforts to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change in Southern California. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of California, Irvine.
Dr. Lucas Krusinski
krusinski@chapman.eduDr. Krusinski is a food scientist with a background in nutritional sciences and chemistry. His work has two overarching themes: food nutrient density and food authentication. Dr. Krusinski's research focuses mainly on the effects of different cattle feeding strategies on the nutritional profile and the gene expression of grass-finished beef. He has expertise in fatty acid analysis and profiling of secondary compounds such as polyphenols found in meat and plants. His findings are directly applicable to consumers and producers by helping them make more informed choices. Dr. Krusinski obtained his Ph.D. in Food Science from Michigan State University.
Dr. Nana Baah Pepra-Ameyaw
pepraame@chapman.eduDr. Pepra-Ameyaw is a food scientist, with a background in chemistry. His research involves studying the interactions between polyphenol compounds and major food components like carbohydrates and proteins. These interactions have applications in the development of novel food products and processes. He holds a Ph.D. in Food Science from Michigan State University.
Dr. Nicole Schwartz
nicschwartz@chapman.eduDr. Schwartz is an evolutionary physiologist who uses an interdisciplinary approach to study the evolution of complex behavior (e.g., exercise). Her research examines a broad range of topics, including biomechanics, energetics, and early-life effects. More recently, she has started to investigate other behaviors (e.g., parental care), and the role that hormones and the endocrine system may play in mediating integrated responses to behavioral selection. The goal of her work is to examine behavior as a collection of co-evolving sub-organismal traits, and the influence that genetic background, environmental factors, and their interaction, may have on organismal behavior. She holds a Ph.D. in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology from the University of California Riverside.
Dr. Indrajit Sen
isen@chapman.eduDr. Sen is a theoretical physicist who works in the foundations of quantum mechanics. His doctoral research focused on the question whether there exist alternatives to quantum nonlocality in a single-universe framework. His research interests include hidden-variable models that circumvent Bell's theorem, the relationship between quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, and experimental and theoretical methods to differentiate various classes of hidden-variable models. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from Clemson University.
Dr. Gabriela Shirkey
shirkey@chapman.eduDr. Shirkey is geographer and landscape ecologist interested in the relationship between land use, land cover, and ecosystem processes. Her work evaluates human-nature relationships and their variation across spatiotemporal scales, applying socioecological system approach. In her research, she asks how land management and land use vary spatially and whether we can capture its intensity. Dr. Shirkey completed her undergraduate degree at Michigan Technological University and her graduate degree from Michigan State University. Her goal is to evaluate climate mitigation strategies and inform stakeholders, policymakers, and her community on the complexity between society and the biophysical environment.
Previous Fellows
Dr. Carter Berry
Current Position: Research Assistant Professor, Wake Forest University
GCI Fellow 2017-2020
Dr. Robert de Bruijn
Current Position: Lecturer, Biology, Tufts University
GCI Fellow 2018-2020
Dr. Cristhiano Duarte Silva
Current Position: Postdoctoral Research Associate, Leeds University
GCI Fellow 2018-2020
Dr. José Raúl González Alonso
Current Position: Data Science Manager at Neustar, Inc.
GCI Fellow 2017-2019
Dr. Brenna Gormally
Current Position: Associate Director of Project Based Learning, Seventh College, University of California, San Diego
GCI Fellow 2020 - 2021
Dr. Aaron Harrison
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Austin College
GCI Fellow 2018-2021
Dr. Brian Hoover
Current Position: Principle Investigator, Farallon Institute
GCI Fellow 2019-2022
Dr. Charlene McCord
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Marine Biology, California State University, Dominguez Hills
GCI Fellow 2017-2019
Dr. Crystal Ng
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Biology, Los Angeles Pierce College
GCI Fellow 2019-2020
Dr. Kenjiro Quides
Current Position: Assistant Professor of Teaching, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Davis
GCI Fellow 2019-2022
Dr. Anne Sonnenschein
Current Position: Senior Bioinformatics Scientist, Tempus Labs
GCI Fellow 2017-2019
Dr. Mario Stipcic
Current Position: Preceptor of Mathematics, Harvard University
GCI Fellow 2021-2023
Dr. Zachary Thammavongsy
Current Position: Instructor of Chemistry, Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University
GCI Fellow 2019-2022
Dr. Shana Welles
Current Position: Academic Coordinator, University of California, Riverside
GCI Fellow 2017-2020
Dr. Bingjie Zhang
Current Position: Postdoctoral Chemist, Behr Paint Company
GCI Fellow 2019-2022