President – Tim Melano
When asked where Tim is from, he will respond: “Berkley.” After graduating from Berkley with a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering, Tim spent some time working in Washington D.C before joining the BME graduate program here at the University of Arizona. He currently does research in the Neuromorphic Vision and Robotic Systems Laboratory developing brain-machine interfaces, computational neuroscience, and neurobiology.. /
/ Vice President – Nathaniel “Ned” Kirkpatrick
Ned hails from the great state of Wyoming where he graduated with a 4.0 in Electrical Engineering. He also participated in BMES at Wyoming, bringing a longstanding tradition to our organization. Ned does research focused on the development of optical techniques for the early diagnosis of tissue pathologies. He also likes to monitor of drug activity in Dr. Urs Utzingers lab.
Treasurer – Kristin O’Halloran
Kristen is a first year student in the Biomedical Engineering PhD program, and is planning on working on cardiovascular research in Dr. Stuart Williams’ lab. She graduated in June ’03 with a BS degree in General Engineering (with a biomedical concentration) from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo (in California). During her four years at Cal Poly, she also played on the women’s NCAA volleyball team. Kristen is originally from Nipomo, California (on the central coast), and has an identical twin sister who recently started law school. /
/ Secretary – Chantal Ottino
Chantal is 19 year old freshman from Phoenix, where she graduated from Xavier College Preparatory. She is headed towards Medical School where she hopes to become an anesthesiologist. In the meantime she enjoys volunteering at Casa de la Luz Hospice, figure-skating, and traveling to Europe with her family. She is a car fanatic, especially Mustangs, and likes the challenge of racing out other cars at the stop light. Only having 2 tickets in 3 years, she is ever vigilant for the unsuspecting radar gun. Academically, she is involved in other clubs around campus, and if not on the road driving, can be found in the Health Sciences Library.
Webmaster – Cody Bliss
Before graduating from BYU with a physics degree Cody completed a 2 year church service mission in Argentina. Cody is a family man of one wife and two beautiful girls. Cody does orthopedic research in Dr. John Sziveks lab and led the BME intramural basketball team in technicals. /
/ Advisor – Dr. Jennifer Barton (BME,ECE)
Dr. Barton received her Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering at University of Texas at Austin in 1998. She does OCT research and has received awards too numerous to list on this small webpage. She has done work for NASA and is always so nice to let us have the “end of the year party” in her backyard.