Defense Announcements

01/20/2026 | Christopher Evan Van Pelt, MS, Materials Science and Engineering

10:00AM, RDMC 208

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
Electrochemical Characterization of Redox-Active Copolymers for Energy Storage

Engineering
Materials Science & Engr

Chair: Emily Pentzer

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22259


02/3/2026 | Kuan-Ling Liu, PHD, Entomology

8:30AM, ZOOM

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
NAVIGATING A CHANGING WORLD: MULTIDIMENSIONAL RESPONSES OF TWO ANT SPECIES TO HUMAN-ALTERED LANDSCAPES

Agriculture and Life Sciences
Entomology

Chair: Edward Vargo

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22267


02/10/2026 | Kaylee Raye Kipp, PHD, Biomedical Sciences

12:00PM, VENI 106A

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
EVALUATION OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES RELATED TO PARASITE CONTROL AND ANTHELMINTIC RESISTANCE IN RANCHED AND WILD BISON HERDS IN THE UNITED STATES

Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Veterinary Pathobiology

Chair: Guilherme Gomes Verocai

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22255


02/10/2026 | Olivia Faith Dingus, PHD, Biomedical Engineering

1:00PM, tbd

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
Adhesive Multi-Network Hydrogels for Cartilage repair

Engineering
Biomedical Engineering

Chair: Melissa Grunlan

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22266


02/17/2026 | Maureen Kelly, PHD, Biomedical Sciences

12:00PM, VENI 106 A (Open); VIDI 349 (Closed)

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
EVALUATING THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF CUTANEOUS AND BLOOD-BORNE FILARIAL NEMATODES IN COMPANION ANIMALS

Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Veterinary Pathobiology

Chair: Guilherme Gomes Verocai

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22254


02/18/2026 | Benjamin Maurice Thomas, PHD, Genetics and Genomics

3:00PM, MREB2 room 1403

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
Development of Protein Diagnostics and Therapeutics for Shiga Toxin producing E. Coli

Agriculture and Life Sciences
Biochemistry & Biophysics

Chair: Zhilei Chen

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22256


02/20/2026 | Karissa L. Palmer, PHD, Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications

9:00AM, AGLS 129

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
GOT MILK!: USING RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS TO INVESTIGATE HOW LABELING INFLUENCES CONSUMERS’ DECISION TO PURCHASE DAIRY AND PLANT-BASED MILK

Agriculture and Life Sciences
Ag Leadership, Educ & Comm

Chair: Holli Leggette

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22260


02/20/2026 | Samantha Dyanne Aguilar, PHD, Educational Psychology

10:00AM, Harrington Tower

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
Cultural Congruity for Latino Students in STEM: Fostering STEM and Ethnic Identity

Education and Human Development
Educational Psychology

Chair: Jeffrey Liew

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22257


02/20/2026 | Poojashree Boopathyraj Chettiar, PHD, Medical Sciences

1:00PM, MREB 2 - Room 1403

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
PKC-dependent NMDAR depression by striatal glutamate delta-1 (GluD1) receptor underlies cognitive flexibility

Medicine
College of Medicine

Chair: Shashank Dravid

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22265


02/26/2026 | Kiran Alla, MS, Horticulture

1:00PM, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Centre, Uvalde, TX

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
Genome-Wide Association Study of Southern Native Tepary Beans and Rhizosphere Microbiome Dynamics of Summer Cover Crops

Agriculture and Life Sciences
Horticultural Sciences

Chair: Vijay Joshi
Co-Chair: Shuyang Zhen

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22270


03/2/2026 | Karina Lee Hissen, PHD, Biomedical Sciences

11:00AM, VIDI 106

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
Investigating Dietary L-glutamate Effects on the Intestinal Mucosa of Hybrid Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis ♀ × Morone chrysops ♂)

Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Veterinary Pathobiology

Chair: Michael Criscitiello

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22262


03/2/2026 | Nereyda Yovana Ortiz Osejo de Lemus, PHD, Sociology

2:00PM, West Campus Social Science Building

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
Push–Pull, Herd Effects, and Spatial Context in U.S. Residential Mobility: Evidence from County-to-County Flows

Arts and Sciences
Sociology

Chair: Ernesto Amaral
Co-Chair: Mary Campbell

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22261


03/4/2026 | Robert Matthew Stellbauer, PHD, Water Management and Hydrological Science

1:30PM, https://tamu.zoom.us/j/5202321740

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
BEYOND INFRASTRUCTURE: MULTIPLE USE WATER SERVICES AND EXPERIENCES WITH HOUSEHOLD WATER INSECURITY

Arts and Sciences
Geography

Chair: Wendy Jepson

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22269


03/5/2026 | Vanessa D Verner, PHD, Sociology

1:00PM, TBD

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
"Not By the Commission of Men's Hands": Gender, Race and Class Politics within Black Pentecostalism

Arts and Sciences
Sociology

Chair: Sarah Gatson

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22263


03/5/2026 | Yufei Huang, PHD, Neuroscience

2:00PM, MREB2 Room1403

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
Neural Circuit Mechanisms Underlying Cognitive Inflexibility in Early Alzheimer’s Disease

Medicine
College of Medicine

Chair: Jun Wang

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22268


03/6/2026 | Rusali Saha, MS, Computer Science

2:00PM, PETR 314

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
A COMPREHENSIVE MULTILINGUAL, MULTICULTURAL INVESTIGATION OF BIAS IN LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS

Engineering
Computer Science & Engineering

Chair: Kuan-Hao Huang

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22264


05/5/2026 | Jeong Jae Han, PHD, Interdisciplinary Engineering

1:00PM, WEB232

Tentative Title of Thesis / Dissertation / Record of Study:
DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A HIGH-THROUGHPUT DRUG SCREENING PLATFORM TARGETING ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANT MICROBES BASED ON DROPLET MICROFLUIDICS TECHNIQUE

Engineering
Multidisciplinary Engineering

Chair: Arum Han

| Direct Link: https://grad.tamu.edu/aggie-life/Defense-Announcements#da22258