Group Members

Principal Investigator

Susan C. Roberts

Sue is an associate professor in department of chemical engineering. She also holds position as the director of the UMass Amherst Institute for Cellular Engineering (ICE). She obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1992 and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 1998.

Email: sroberts [at] ecs.umass.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current Ph.D. students

Kham Vongpaseuth

Kham completed his B.S. in Biology at The College of New Jersey, his M.Sc. in Botany at University College Dublin, Ireland, and is currently finishing up his PhD in Plant Biology at UMass - Amherst. He joined the Roberts Lab in 2004, following a desire to work in a non-model system and develop that system from the ground up. Kham's current focus is to develop novel gene characterization systems for novel genes related to paclitaxel metabolism that have been cloned out of Taxus.

Kham is getting a bit antsy to move onto industry after spending 7+ years in graduate school (M.Sc. + Ph.D.). But he keeps sane by playing ice hockey, hiking, and engaging in landscape photography.

Email: goalieindublin [at] hotmail.com

Vishal Gaurav

Vishal completed his B.S. (Dual Degree) in Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, India, with a minor degree in Business and Finance. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in the department of chemical engineering. He joined the Roberts lab in 2006. His research focus is on developing flow cytometric and cell sorting tools for characterization of plant cell cultures at single cell level. His work will help develop bioprocesses to unravel the inherent heterogeneity and production variability in Taxus cell cultures, and enhance the production of the anti-cancer agent, paclitaxel.

Vishal’s pastimes include playing tennis, badminton, swimming, travelling, and watching TV and net surfing. Vishal spent 3 months at Procter & Gamble Global Biotech, Cincinnati, OH in the summer of 2008. This experience helped him develop a penchant for a biotech/pharmaceutical industry job after graduation.

Email: vgaurav [at] ecs.umass.edu

Martin E. Kolewe

Marty completed his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. After college, he worked for 3 years as a process control engineer for Amgen in the start up of their BioNext manufacturing facility. He joined the Roberts lab in 2007 to study heterogeneity in plant cell culture, and is currently co-advised by Mike Henson. He enjoys staying active by running and playing tennis (and rugby when his body cooperates), playing the guitar and piano, and traveling, whenever he can get away from the lab. He is undecided as to whether to return to a high paying job in the biotech industry or to remain within the friendly confines of academia once he completes his PhD.

Email: mkolewe [at] ecs.umass.edu

Rohan A. Patil

Rohan completed his B.S. in Chemical engineering at University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India. He joined Roberts Lab in 2008. The general aim of Rohan’s research is to better understand the heterogeneity in plant cell cultures, with a focus on elucidating the relationship between cell populations and paclitaxel accumulation in culture. He is presently working on the application of molecular approaches to characterize and manipulate Taxus metabolism in distinct cell subpopulations.

Email: patil [at] ecs.umass.edu

Whitney L. Stoppel

Whitney completed her BS in Chemical Engineering with minors in Mathematics and Cell & Molecular Biology at Tulane University in New Orleans in the spring of 2008. Following a "Research Experience for Undergraduates" (REU) program in Cellular Engineering at UMass in 2007, Whitney chose to attend graduate school at UMass and continuing to work with the Roberts Group. She joined the Roberts lab in the fall of 2008, and is working on pancreatic islet cell encapsulation along with the help of the Bhatia Group in the Chemical Engineering department at UMass Amherst and the Schneyer Group at the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute in Springfield, MA.

Email: wstoppel [at] ecs.umass.edu