Current Fellows
Amalia Bastos
Fellowship start year: 2023-24
Status: continuing
Bastos’ research concerns comparative cognition, investigating the minds of nonhuman animals and how they perceive the world around them. Through the fellowship award, Bastos is studying the foundations of normativity in collaboration with Christopher Krupenye in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. She will use state-of-the-art eye-tracking technology to determine the extent to which humans and chimpanzees share an understanding of social rules.
Fun Fact | In her spare time, Bastos goes on hikes with her dog, Rohan, and tries to identify every bird species they find along the way.
Angélica Cruz-Lebrón
Fellowship start year: 2024-25
Status: 1st year
Angélica Cruz-Lebrón completed her PhD in Molecular Virology at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in 2020. Prior to joining the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program in the Pathology Department, Dr. Cruz-Lebrón held a short postdoctoral position at CWRU before joining the Sfanos lab as a postdoctoral fellow in pathology. Dr. Cruz-Lebrón’s research focuses on the interplay between steroid metabolism by the gut microbiota and prostate cancer treatment resistance. This award will support one of the first studies examining prostate cancer drug metabolism by the gut microbiota that leads to resistance to prostate cancer treatment.
Fun Fact | During her free time, Dr. Cruz-Lebrón enjoys photography and visiting art museums.
Gabrielle Evans
Fellowship start year: 2023-24
Status: continuing
Evans’ research uses reproductive justice and historical trauma frameworks to analyze the impact of trauma on the sexual health of Native American adolescents and women. During the fellowship, she is working with mentors Allison Barlow, Jennifer Richards, and Chris Kemp in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School. This award will help advance her long-term career goals of becoming an independent researcher and scholar in Native American sexual health, while also continuing to advance the sexual health and well-being of native peoples. Evans is piloting an intervention plan outlined in her dissertation for developing culturally relevant and inclusive trauma-informed sexual health education programs for native older adolescent and young adult women.
Fun Fact | Evans currently has 20 houseplants and is always looking to expand her collection.
Patrick Jefferson
Fellowship start year: 2023-24
Status: continuing
Jefferson’s research uses string theory as a theoretical laboratory for elucidating properties of quantum gravity that may help tackle outstanding challenges in high-energy physics and cosmology. His recent work has focused on charting the landscape of string theory vacuum solutions containing the Standard Model particles and interactions. The fellowship provides Jefferson with an opportunity to enrich this research program by collaborating with leading experts on modern developments on symmetries in quantum field theory and black hole physics. Jefferson is working in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, alongside mentors Ibou Bah and Marc Kamionkowski.
Fun Fact | Apart from his love for physics, Jefferson also has an avid interest in music and has played and recorded drums with several bands.
Leann Mclaren
Fellowship start year: 2024-25
Status: 1st year
Leann Mclaren completed her PhD in political science at Duke University in 2024. Before joining the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program in the Political Science department, Dr. Mclaren was a doctoral student at Duke University, where she received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and completed a dissertation funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, among other organizations. Mclaren’s research focuses on Black political behavior in the US, social identity, and immigration politics. Mclaren’s innovative book project delves into the strategies and perceptions of Black candidates with ‘invisible identities’, particularly immigrant identity, in political campaigns. This groundbreaking research involves the collection of the first known dataset of Black immigrant politicians elected in the US. Her unique approach combines content analysis and survey experiments to analyze the effectiveness of these candidates’ identity strategies among Black and white Americans, potentially reshaping our understanding of political campaigns. This fellowship award allows Dr. Mclaren as she examines the effectiveness of strategies from Black immigrant candidates among Black, white, and Latino voters.
Fun Fact | When Dr. Mclaren is not working on her academic research, she enjoys crotchet, reading novels, and taking long walks in nature.
Eugene Park
Fellowship start year: 2024-25
Status: 1st year
Eugene Park completed her MD/PhD in Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis in 2020. Prior to joining the Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Dr. Park completed her residency in dermatology at Johns Hopkins Hospital and her graduate work in the lab of Dr. Wayne Yokoyama at Washington University. Park’s research focuses on the mechanisms by which ribosomes regulate inflammasome activation in keratinocytes. Funding from this award will allow for detailed investigation of the molecular mechanisms that govern skin inflammation with potential ramifications on photosensitive skin disorders and skin autoimmunity.
Fun Fact | In her free time, Dr. Park enjoys reading, running, and baking.
Michael West
Fellowship start year: 2024-25
Status: 1st year
A. Michael West Jr. completed his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in May 2024, under Professor Neville Hogan. His research focused on improving control algorithms for robots used in rehabilitation and dexterous manipulation. He investigated human upper-limb motor control and perception during complex manipulation tasks, introducing novel analytical techniques and experimental paradigms that provided new insights to the field. Dr. West aspires to establish his own research laboratory focused on using insights from human motor control and perception to develop innovative rehabilitation and assistance technologies, such as prosthetics, exoskeletons, and therapeutic robots. He is thrilled to join the Haptics and Medical Robotics (HAMR) Laboratory under Prof. Jeremy Brown. His project will enhance the understanding of haptic feedback during manipulation tasks and use this knowledge to improve robotic rehabilitation technologies. Dr. West is excited about advancing his research at Johns Hopkins, renowned for translating research advancements into practical applications that benefit patients.
Fun Fact | Dr. West’s passion for rehabilitation technology was sparked by his experiences as a college athlete. Recovering from various sports injuries fueled his dedication to developing technologies for injury recovery and motor impairment rehabilitation.
Yang Yang
Fellowship start year: 2023-24
Status: continuing
Yang’s research involves partial differential equations and geometric analysis, with a particular interest in questions concerning regularity and classification of global solutions to geometric variational problems. This fellowship award will help advance his current research doing controlled growth of the anisotropic Bernstein problem, trying to achieve a Bernstein-type result for global minimizers of some parametric elliptic functional with growth constraints. He is working with mentors Jacob Bernstein and Yi Wang in the Department of Mathematics.
Fun Fact | Yang loves swimming in his spare time, and his personal best in freestyle is completing 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) in 16 minutes.
2019-2020/21*
- Ayobami Akenroye
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Corrine Keet
- Ashley Cureton Turner
- School of Education | Mentor: Annette Anderson
- Kerry-Ann Mitchell
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Chad Gordon
- Jorge Morales
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Chaz Firestone
- Genevieve Stein-O’Brien
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Elana Fertig
- Jerreed Ivanich
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Alison Barlow
- Ehsan Azimi
- Whiting School of Engineering | Mentor: Peter Kazanzides
- Fernando Tormos-Aponte
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Vesla Weaver
*2021 COVID Hardship Extensions
2018-2019
- Rheeda Ali
- Whiting School of Engineering | Mentor: Natalia Trayanova
- Kimberly Boddy
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Marc Kamionkowski
- Sabina Henneberg
- School of Advanced International Studies | Mentor: Peter Lewis
- Melissa Hladek
- School of Nursing | Mentor: Sarah Szanton
- Wilmina Landford
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Devin O’Brien Coon
- Heather Shappell
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Martin Lindquist
- Ayushi Sinha
- Whiting School of Engineering | Mentor: Russell Taylor
2017-2018
- Farah El Najjar
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Andrew Pekosz
- Shanshan Jiang
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Jinyuan Zhou
- Kathryn Moss
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Ahmet Hoke
- Jonathan Musila
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Steven Rokita
- Melanie Shears
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Photini Sinnis
- Eleanor Nicole Thornton
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Erin Chung
- Alexandre Sasha White
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Beverly Silver
- Tanya Williams McDonald
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Mackenzie Cervenka
2016-2017
- Stanley Andrisse
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Sheng Wu
- Sebastian Barreto Ortiz
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Dan Berkowitz
- Miranda Darby
- Schoool of Medicine | Mentor: Serven Sabunciyan
- Marc Edwards
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Peter Devreotes
- Ballington Kinlock
- Bloomberg School of Public Health | Mentor: Roland Thorpe
- Susana Rodriguez
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Guang William Wong
- Reyhan Westbrook
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Jeremy Walston
- Dionna Williams
- School of Medicine | Mentor: Janice Clements
- Dominika Wylezalek
- Krieger School of Arts & Sciences | Mentor: Nadia Zakamska