{"id":2412,"date":"2023-06-10T13:18:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T20:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/?page_id=2412"},"modified":"2023-08-21T13:08:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T17:08:45","slug":"alumni-highlights","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/alumni-highlights\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Highlights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Alumni Highlight: Yevgeny Rakita<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2761 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"166\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-682x1024.jpg 682w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-600x900.jpg 600w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-1100x1650.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-800x1200.jpg 800w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-1200x1800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/IMG_2001.jpg 1333w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 166px) 100vw, 166px\" \/><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Our next alumni highlight features our previous postdoctoral scientist, <a href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/people\/yevgeny-rakita-shlafstein\/\">Yevgeny Rakita<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Position in DCG: <\/strong>Postdoctoral Scholar (joint with Columbia University), 2021-2022<\/p>\n<p><strong>Current Role: <\/strong>Assistant Professor in Materials Engineering Department at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. It has been a fun place to explore new materials and lots of connections to real-world applications!<\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Yevgeny&#8217;s fondest memory of the DCG is working with an<\/span> out-of-the-box, forward-thinking group with deep roots in both classical and most advanced materials and characterization techniques.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Alumni Highlight: Steven R. Spurgeon<a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pendari.com\/dcg\/alumni-highlights\/steve_spurgeon\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2646\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-2646 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/beta.pendari.com\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/steve_spurgeon-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"236\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Our next alumni highlight features our previous PhD student, <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pendari.com\/dcg\/people\/steven-spurgeon\/\">Steven Spurgeon<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Graduation Year: <\/strong>2014 (Drexel University)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thesis Project: <\/strong>Understanding mechanisms of magnetoelectric coupling in manganites through high-resolution STEM and neutron scattering<\/p>\n<p><strong>Current Role: <\/strong>Staff Scientist PNNL and Affiliate Associate Professor of Physics UW<\/p>\n<p class=\"xmsonormal\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">Steven&#8217;s best memories of the DCG are the fun times visiting user facilities and working all night collecting measurements; they were tiring but very rewarding. These experiments taught me the value of perseverance and realizing that failure is just part of the process. <\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif;\">As a materials scientist, Steven gets to study the fabric of the world around us. He believes are able to shape the basic building blocks of the universe into amazing technologies and devices that have an impact on our everyday lives. At PNNL, he enjoys working with some of the best scientists in the world using incredible instrumentation and being on the cutting edge of materials science and electron microscopy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Alumni Highlight: Katie Jo Sunday<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2683\" src=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-472x1024.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-472x1024.png 472w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-138x300.png 138w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-768x1665.png 768w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-600x1301.png 600w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-1100x2385.png 1100w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-800x1734.png 800w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-709x1536.png 709w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1-945x2048.png 945w, https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/kj1.png 1179w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/strong>Our first alumni highlight features our previous PhD student, <a href=\"https:\/\/beta.pendari.com\/dcg\/people\/katie-jo-sunday\/\">Katie Jo Sunday!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Graduation Year: <\/strong>2017 (Drexel University)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thesis Project: <\/strong>Development of Ferrite-coated Soft Magnetic Composites: Correlation of Microstructure to Magnetic Properties<\/p>\n<p><strong>Current Role:\u00a0<\/strong>Additive Manufacturing Lead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jobyaviation.com\/\">Joby Aviation<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As a student in the DCG group, Katie Jo enjoyed getting a complete understanding of materials characterization techniques and the applications they can\/should be used for. She has been able to think outside the box and consider all possibilities when managing a challenging project. She believes the best part about an MSE degree is having a breadth of knowledge on materials and processes. Her MSE degree has allowed her to become a subject matter expert in multiple disciplines and become a Full-MRB (material review board) member at Joby Aviation. In her new position, Katie Jo enjoys making history producing FAA certified parts to revolutionize human transportation with one of the first eVTOL aircrafts!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>(Photos of Katie Jo from Joby&#8217;s NYSE Day)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Alumni Highlight: Yevgeny Rakita Our next alumni highlight features our previous postdoctoral scientist, Yevgeny Rakita! Position in DCG: Postdoctoral Scholar (joint with Columbia University), 2021-2022 Current Role: Assistant Professor in Materials Engineering Department at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. It has been a fun place to explore new materials and lots of connections [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2412","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2412"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2793,"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2412\/revisions\/2793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/dcg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}