John is a first year PhD student in the department of Mechanical Engineering with an area of study in Thermal/Fluid system. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in Mechanical engineering as well having taken classes in the Post-Baccalaureate Pre-health program at the University of Florida to have a stronger background in biology and health related sciences. He has had a wide range of experience from computational fluid dynamics to experiments with tissues in a Mechanobiology lab at the University of Florida. Currently he is assisting Dr. Rylander on a few projects such as designing a 3D breast-skin platform and recreating the microenvironment of a diseased liver but is just getting started in the lab. He is taking classes in Biomedical Optics, Immune Engineering, and Fundamentals of Incompressible Flow, all of which are very essential to his field of study.