Alumni

Lydia Palma Miner is cofounder of BioMilitus, a sustainable animal feed startup company that utilizes larvae to rapidly convert agricultural residues into protein-rich insect biomass. Lydia is passionate about recycling waste and food production and received her doctorate in Biological Systems Engineering at UC Davis. Under Dr.

Matt Paddock is a bioengineer at the NASA Ames Research Center developing biological life-support systems. He graduated UC Davis in 2017 with his bachelors and 2019 with his masters in Biological Systems Engineering. As a student he participated in SOBE and ASABE robotics clubs and worked as an undergraduate researcher in the Biotechnical Engineering laboratory.

Akshata currently works as a Scientist at Nanōmix Inc, a leading developer of mobile, affordable point-of-care diagnostics. As a Scientist, Akshata leads projects developing and characterizing point of care IVD assays. She works on driving product specifications, development, verification, performance testing, and manufacturing transfer as part of the product development team. Before working at Nanōmix, Akshata worked in Dr.

Alex Mora graduated from UC Davis in 2018 with a degree in Biological Systems Engineering. After graduation, Alex joined Accenture’s Management Consulting practice, where she currently works with global Life Science and Healthcare clients to develop Digital Health strategies around data-driven insights. As an undergraduate, Alex was involved with Post-Harvest research in the lab of Dr.

Julie graduated from UC Davis in 2018 with a Master’s in Biological Systems Engineering. After starting out as a Project Engineer at Davids Engineering, she moved to the USDA NRCS in 2020. During her time at Davids Engineering, she helped compile basin-scale water budgets to support groundwater sustainability efforts and set up, refined and calibrated hydrologic models.

Nisha is currently a researcher in the Sustainable Aquaculture Program at WorldFish, an international nonprofit research organization that works to strengthen livelihoods and enhance food and nutrition security in developing countries by improving fisheries and aquaculture.

Jose is a Staff Engineer at Geosyntec Inc, an environmental consulting company which focuses on environmental remediation of chemical spills below the ground surface. As an engineer, Jose helps design remediation systems, perform construction oversight, and sample soil and soil vapor in the field. During his time at UC Davis, Jose was deeply involved professionally and with extracurriculars; Jose was part of a Renewable Energy Data Science Research Project under Dr.

Ryan graduated from UC Davis in 2014 with a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering. He worked at Genentech for one year before returning to UC Davis. Under the support and invaluable mentorship of Dr. Tina Jeoh, he earned his Ph.D. in Biological Systems Engineering in 2021, focusing his research on the formulation of biopesticides for more sustainable agricultural practices. He has a Professional Engineering license and currently works at Provivi Inc.

Nara is a lecturer and researcher in Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology at Silpakorn University, Thailand. Her researches now focus mainly on biomass conversion to fermentable sugars which can be fermented to valuable products. She is also interested in developing sugar biosensors for using in bioprocesses. Nara’s technical and leadership training from Dr.

Carolyn earned an Agricultural (Biological Systems) Engineering BS degree from UC Davis in 2001 where she spent two years as a live-in caretaker at the Animal Science Horse Barn. In 2000, Carolyn joined the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as an intern in the Dixon Field Office. After graduation, she joined NRCS at the State Office where conservation and agricultural engineering took her throughout Northern California.