Biomedical Engineering and Advanced Materials (BEAM) Lab
Dr. Depan's Group
OUR RESEARCH TEAM
Lillian Mambiri
Graduate Research Assistant
Lillian Mambiri is a graduate student from Zimbabwe. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Chemical Engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
She has been part of the BEAM Lab as a graduate assistant since the fall of 2021. Her research interests are in polymers and their composites particularly their degradation behavior. She is a member of NSBE and SWE.
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Owolabi Akanni
Graduate Research Assistant
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Owolabi Akanni is a graduate student from Nigeria. He is presently enrolled at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he is pursuing a master's degree in Chemical Engineering. He holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Nigeria's Obafemi Awolowo University and a master's degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
He started working at the beam lab in the fall of '21, and his main interest is in the degrading behavior of polymers and their composites. He is a member of the National Society of Black Engineers(NSBE) and the Society of Professional Engineers(SPE).
Gabrielle Broussard
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Gabrielle Broussard is a Sophomore majoring in Chemical Engineering. She has been an undergraduate research assistant in the lab since her Freshman year in 2020. She is interested in pharmaceutical and bioprocessing research, and she currently studies the production of graphene nanoscrolls in the BEAM lab.
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Hailey Privat
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My name is Hailey Privat, and I am a freshman from Lafayette majoring in Chemical Engineering with a specialized minor in Biomedical Engineering as well as minors in math and chemistry.
I graduated with Honors from Teurlings Catholic High School where I was an officer for the school’s National BETA club and played for the varsity tennis team. I am a member of many organizations, including: (AICHE) American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Women in Chemical Engineering, Society for Biological Engineers, Society of Women Engineers, and ULL Pre-Professional Society
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Dr. Dilip Depan
Director of BEAM Lab
Dilip Depan, Director of BEAM Lab, and Assistant Professor, at the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is a member of the Society for Biomaterials (USA), The Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS-USA). He received Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering from National Chemical Laboratory, India. His research is focused on biomaterials for tissue engineering and drug delivery applications. He is an Editorial board member of Bioinspired, Biomimetic and Nanobiomaterials, and International Journal of Polymer Science.
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Education:
Research Associate, Institute for Materials Research and Innovation, UL Lafayette, USA, 2010-2016
Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Dentistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, 2009-2010
Ph.D., Polymer Engineering, National Chemical Laboratory 2003-200
Rauf Mahmudzade
Graduate Research Assistant
Rauf Mahmudzade is a Graduate Research Assistant in BEAM Lab. He is currently pursuing M.S. in chemical engineering at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He obtained his bachelor's degree from the Baku Higher Oil School (Azerbaijan) and Heriot-Watt University (UK). He has been with the lab since 2019 Fall.
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Rauf’s current research interests lie within the domains of electrochemistry and wearable devices. More specifically, he is focused on the development of a flexible biosensor material for continuous and non-invasive detection of glucose. Rauf is highly trained on the use of various chemical and mechanical characterization techniques - Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Nanoindentation and etc.
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