Team


Principal Investigator

Ritu Raman, PhD is the Eugene Bell Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Her lab is centered on 4D tissue engineering of biological actuators for applications in medicine and machines. Ritu’s research has received several recognitions including the PECASE, the NSF CAREER Award, the Army Research Office YIP Award, and the Office of Naval Research YIP Award, as well as Rising Star Junior Faculty Awards from the Biomedical Engineering Society and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. She is also the recipient of the Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching at MIT and the author of the MIT Press book Biofabrication.

Prof. Raman received her BS from Cornell University and her PhD as an NSF Fellow with Prof. Rashid Bashir at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She completed her postdoctoral training as a NASEM Ford Foundation Fellow and L’Oréal Fellow with Prof. Robert Langer at MIT.

The Raman Lab accepts graduate students from all relevant departments at MIT. Prof. Raman is affiliated with Robotics at MIT, the Program in Polymers and Soft Matter, the Center for Neurobiological Engineering, the Aging Brain Initiative at the Picower Institute, and the Center for Multi-Cellular Engineered Living Systems. Faculty Website

Administrative Staff

Tyler Butler, administrative assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Postdocs

Ferdows Afghah, PhD
PhD BME,
Sabanci University ’20
Tamara Rossy, PhD
La Caixa Fellow
PhD BioE,
EPFL ’23
Ronald Heisser, PhD
Engineering Excellence Fellow
PhD MechE,
Cornell University ’23
Inkyu Lee, PhD
PhD MSE,
Carnegie Mellon University ’25
Sina Kheiri, PhD
NSERC Fellow
PhD MechE,
University of Toronto ’23
Arielle Berman, PhD
Engineering Excellence Fellow
PhD MechE,
Stanford University ’25

Graduate Students

Angel Bu, MechE
NSF Fellow
BS BME, Univ. of Florida ’21
Nicolas Castro, MechE
BS BME, Georgia Tech ’20

Maheera Bawa, MechE
NSF Fellow
BS MechE, MIT ’23
Jessica Shah, HST MEMP
NSF Fellow
BS BME, Duke ’23
Giannka Picache, MechE
BS, Stanford ’25
Giovanni Zanderigo, Visiting PhD Student | Rocca Fellow
MS, Politecnico di Milano ’22
Brandon Rios, MechE
NSF Fellow
BS BME, WUSTL ’21
Laura Schwendeman, MechE CNBE T32 Fellow
BS MechE, MIT ’23
Sonika Kohli, MechE
NSF Fellow
BS BME, Penn State ’24
Ashley Margetts, MechE
Raman/Culpepper Lab
BS MechE, MIT ’24
Ozgun Kilic Afsar, Media Lab
Toyota (TMNA) Fellow
MS EECS, KTH ’19

Undergraduate Students

Jasper Lee,
BS MechE/Physics,
MIT ’28
Seanbiron Johnson,
BS MechE/Public Policy,
UC Berkeley ’28
Gabriela de Lima,
BS MechE,
Howard University ’28
Vesper Evereux,
BS MechE,
UNLV ’25

Alumni

Naomi Lynch
MS MechE, MIT ’23
Liz Calle, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow ’21-’23
Tara Sheehan
BS MechE, MIT ’24
Vera McCoy,
BS Biology, MIT ’26
Karina Shah,
High School Intern
Pavankumar Umashankar,
BS, UMBC ’25
Ava Ladd,
BS MechE, MIT ’26
Farrah Ye,
BS MechE, MIT ’26
Jane Bai,
BS/MS MechE, MIT ’25
Annika Marschner,
BS MechE, MIT ’26
Isabella Weiner,
BS, Notre Dame ’25