Lab Members
![Nicholas J. Durr](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/durr-1-e1485103451344.jpg)
He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley in 2003. After graduation, he joined the medical device company Nellcor. He earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from U.T. Austin in 2010, working with Adela Ben-Yakar. After a 1-year Postdoctoral Fellowship with John Frangioni at Harvard Medical School, Nick became an independent M+Vision Fellow at MIT. He left MIT to co-found PlenOptika, which he led as CEO until he joined Hopkins in 2016. Nick has helped start several new companies out of Hopkins, including Kubanda Cryotherapy.
Nick grew up rural Oregon and California, in an unstable, impoverished household. He is a first-generation college student that benefited from Upward Bound and EOP at Cal. If you are a first-generation or low-income student at Hopkins (especially in BME!), he wants to meet you. Hopkins is tough! You can find him at FLI Network events or email him directly.
![Taylor Bobrow](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/TaylorC.jpg)
He joined the Durr Lab in 2017, received the NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2018, and the Malone Postdoctoral Fellowship Award in 2024.
![Michaela Taylor-Williams](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Michaela-Taylor-Williams-photo-e1725566181562.jpeg)
She joined the Durr Lab in 2024.
![Marisa Morakis](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Marisa.png)
She joined the Durr Lab in 2020 and received the NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2022.
![Mayank Golhar](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Mayank_Pic-e1591671692158.jpg)
He completed his Masters degree in ECE in the Durr Lab then joined as a Ph.D. BME student in 2021.
![Luojie Huang](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Luojie-e1591985091338-1024x1024.jpeg)
He completed his Masters degree in BME in the Durr Lab then joined as a Ph.D. BME student in 2021.
![Anthony Song](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Anthony-Song-1024x1024.jpg)
He joined the Durr Lab in 2021 and received the NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2022.
![Corey Simmerer](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/corey-simmerer-1024x1024.jpg)
He joined the Durr Lab in 2022.
![Mantej Singh](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Mantej-Singh-scaled-e1687397568137-1024x1024.jpeg)
Outside of work, Mantej enjoys hiking, exploring Baltimore’s coffeeshops, doing stand-up comedy, and building wacky electronics projects in his room.
He joined the Durr Lab in 2022.
![Neha Rajan](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Neha_01_headshot-1024x1024.jpg)
She joined the Durr Lab in 2023.
![Hyun Seo Lee](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/HyunSeoLee_picture-e1697139078432-1024x1024.jpg)
She joined the Durr Lab in 2022.
![Lucas Galeano Fretes](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Lucas-Galeano-Fretes.jpg)
He joined the Durr Lab in 2023.
![Luiza Brunelli Buhrer](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Luiza-Brunelli-Buhrer-e1696953154417.jpeg)
She joined the Durr Lab in 2023.
![Loren Ayers](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Loren-Ayers-scaled-e1697496904354-1024x1024.jpeg)
She joined the Durr Lab in 2023.
Openings
PhD positions and Postdoctoral Fellowships available
The Durr Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University has immediate openings for graduate students and postdocs with an interest in translational research in computational biophotonics. We are an interdisciplinary group that works side-by-side with physicians to create new technologies at the intersection of optics and computational algorithms for important clinical needs.
We are funded by the NIH, philanthropic organizations, and commercial partners to create solutions to improve patient outcomes in a range of environments, including: gastroenterology, ophthalmology, hematology, pediatrics, pathology, and global health.
All trainees work on at least one project involving the construction of a new imaging system and at least one project involving the development of artificial intelligence models. Our lab is located within one of the world’s best medical institutions, and all members are supported to complete clinical observations related to the projects they work on. We are also part of the #1-ranked biomedical engineering program, which provides unparalleled opportunities for career growth towards leadership positions in academia, industry, start-ups, and government.
For PhD students, a background in electrical engineering, computer science, physics, optics, or medical imaging is desirable. For external applicants, please apply to Hopkins BME or ECE and indicate my name in your application. For current Hopkins students, please contact me directly.
For postdocs, relevant publications are required. Interested applicants should provide a resume/CV and a cover letter describing their particular interest in our research to Nicholas Durr ([email protected]).
Alumni
![Naomi Kifle](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Naomi-Kifle-1.jpg)
After graduating, Naomi joined the startup company, Optosurgical.
![Greg McKay](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/GregC.jpg)
Greg’s finished the PhD part of his MD-PhD program in the Durr Lab in April 2022, focusing on non-invasive blood analysis. He completed his B.S. in Optics and B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Rochester in 2014.
He joined the Durr Lab in Fall 2017.
![Tianyi (Mason) Chen](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Mason-e1504620003898-1024x1024.jpg)
Mason’s PhD in the Durr Lab focused on structured light macro-imaging and machine learning. He received his B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, where he researched on high-intensity focused ultrasound beam mapping.
He joined the Durr Lab in 2017. He completed an internship at Amazon in 2021 and finished his Ph.D. in March 2022. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Durr lab March-June 2022.
![Ryan Niemeier](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Ryan-Niemeier.jpg)
Ryan received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020 for his work in multi-channel visible-light optical coherence tomography. His current research interests include leveraging optical scattering as an intrinsic contrast source in quantitative imaging.
Faisal received his PhD from the Structural Cellular Biology Unit at OIST Graduate University, Japan. His research interests include signal and image processing, high performance computing, machine learning and biomedical instrumentation. When he’s not playing with code he enjoys photographing everything imaginable!
![Richard Chen](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/photo_richard-e1515862570131.jpg)
Richard completed his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Hopkins, and is currently pursuing a M.S. in Computer Science with a focus on Statistical Pattern Recognition, with applications in medicine and healthcare. His interests include exploring semantic segmentation networks and adversarial examples for better medical image understanding. When he travels, he likes to make friends through pop-up dance workshops.
![Yixin (Clarisse) Hu](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Clarisse-Yixin-Hu.jpg)
Clarisse completed her M.S.E in Robotics and B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Instrumentation at Johns Hopkins University. She co-developed a cryosurgical system for treating breast cancer in low resource areas. She loves crafting, hiking, and open water swimming.
![Bailey Surtees](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Bailey-picC.jpg)
Bailey completed her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Instrumentation from Johns Hopkins University. She continued her design project, developing a low-cost system for breast cancer cryotherapy, in the DurrLab as a staff Research Assistant after graduating. In 2020 she founded and became CEO of Kubanda Inc.
![Jordan Sweer](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Jordan-e1485103338217.jpg)
Jordan Sweer was a Masters student in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Instrumentation and Computational Biophotonics. He completed his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, where he researched 3D-printed optical phantoms and Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy Imaging in the Biomedical Optical Technologies lab. In the Durr Lab, he completed research in using Spatial Frequency Domain Imaging for the characterization of precancerous cells in the gastrointestinal tract.
Rotation Students
![Anisha Oommen](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Anisha-Oommen-scaled-e1590971348327-1024x1024.jpg)
![Thomas Athey](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Tommy-e1538515226688-1024x1024.jpg)
![Alex Trick](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/AlexTrick-e1487014408337.jpg)
![Vikram Chandrashekhar](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Vikram-e1487014891324.jpg)
Undergraduate Researchers
![Keerthana Thammana](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/keerthana_thammana2-1024x1024.jpg)
![Lia Gomez-Perez](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Lia-Gomez-Perez-Prof-Photo-1024x1024.jpeg)
After the Durr Lab, Lia was awarded an NSF GRFP and matriculated into MIT/Harvard’s HST Program.
![Ethan Levy](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Ethan-Levy.png)
![Nela Mohan](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Nela-1024x1024.png)
![John Han](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/John-Han.png)
![Melina Papadakis](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/MelinaP.jpg)
![Helena Hahn](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Helena.png)
![Madeline Chabab](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Maddie-Chabab-DurrLab-1024x1024.jpg)
![Daniel Borders](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Daniel-Borders-e1526062840776.png)
![Matthew Jorgensen](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Matt-Jorgensen-e1486962672845.jpg)
![Zheyuan Zhang](https://durr.jhu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/DavidC.jpg)