HRI SURF Program Information

Program Provisions

What is included in the program?

$4,000 stipend
On-campus housing
Meal plan
Airfare
Professional development activities
Local excursions

What does the typical program timeline look like?

Check out the HRI SURF 2025 Guide and Schedule to see an example of what the timeline could look like and the fellowship experience overall.

Faculty Information

The participating faculty profiles and their research interest areas are displayed below:

Biological Sciences

Paul Goetsch

pdgoetsc@mtu.edu
906-487-1790

Research Interests

Developmental Biology
Transcriptional Biology
Cancer Biology

Researcher Profile

Biomedical Engineering

Sangyoon Han

sjhan@mtu.edu
906-487-2897

Research Interests

Mechanobiology
Traction force by a living cell
Cell adhesion and migration
Image data modeling
Machine learning
BioMEMS

Researcher Profile

Zhengpeng (Jason) Wan

wanzp@mtu.edu
906-487-1129

Research Interests

Microfluidic
Vascularized organoids
Cancer and immunotherapy
Infectious diseases and neurological disorders

Researcher Profile

Chemistry

Ashutosh Tiwari

tiwari@mtu.edu
906-487-1840

Research Interests

Identify experimental conditions that can generate diverse aggregated protein structures from the same proteins.
Develop novel tools and techniques to differentiate amongst the varied aggregated species of proteins.
Understand the relationship between aggregated protein species and its associated cellular toxicity.

Researcher Profile

Chemical Engineering

Aytug Gencoglu

agencogl@mtu.edu
906-487-1787

Researcher Profile

Caryn Heldt

heldt@mtu.edu
906-487-1134

Research Interests

Bioseparations
Virus removal and detection
Biosensors

Researcher Profile

Who are the participating faculty in this program?

Participating, Faculty, and Areas of Study:

Dr. Aytug Gencoglu, Chemical Engineering - Disease Diagnostics
Dr. Paul D. Goetsch, Biological Sciences - CRISPR To study Cancer Cell Dysregulation
Dr. Sangyoon Han, Biomedical Engineering - Mechanobiology for eye health and disease
Dr. Caryn Heldt, Chemical Engineering - Vaccine manufacturing and stability
Dr. Ashutosh Tiwari, Chemistry - Aggregated Proteins and cellular toxicity: What is the connection?
Dr. Jason Wan, Biomedical Engineering - Disease Microphysiological System Modeling

What should I do if my area of interest is not covered by the participating faculty?

If a faculty member or area of interest is not listed here, please fill out the application form and put the faculty name and/or topic of interest when prompted. More information on faculty and their research areas can be found at these links: