Prospective 2025 ASSIP Mentors
Select 1, 2, or 3 prospective 2025 mentors for your ASSIP application. Carefully read the linked information on this to match your interests. Previous intern research abstracts are published in Mason's open-access Journal of Student Scientist' Research (JSSR) where you can find out more about past projects. Some mentors publish certain abstracts in other journals; not all abstracts are in JSSR.*
Prospective 2025 ASSIP Mentors
Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Climate Science, Climate Change, Paleoclimatology, Oceanography.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Project Overview: Our research focuses on climate change across both past and present time periods, with an emphasis on tropical climate variations related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and monsoon systems. These projects aim to improve our understanding of tropical climate dynamics and their impact on global climate patterns. Preferred Skills (not required): (1) Proficiency in coding (e.g., Python, MATLAB), (2) data analysis skills, especially with climate datasets. Learn more our lab website: https://sites.google.com/view/xiaojing-du/
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Paleoclimate, Atmospheric and Earth Sciences
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Atmospheric Science,Earth Observation, Modeling
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Bioengineering
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Biomedical data analytics, computational biomechanics, medical image analysis, applied machine learning.
Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine
Format: In-person Internships ONLY.
Research Interests: protein-protein interactions; cancer therapeutics; drug design.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus.
Format: In-person Internships ONLY.
Research interests: cancer research invasion and metastasis, human disease, proteomics, biologic signaling networks, bioengineering inventing new technologies.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus.
Format: In-person Internships ONLY.
Research interests: Proteomics of cancer and infectious disease. My lab uses a variety of protein assays to measure cell signaling pathways, identify biomarkers, and identify potential drug targets. My lab is CAP/CLIA accredited which provides professional guidelines and federal laws for performing clinical lab tests. We apply these practices to our research projects. Skill sets for successful interns are: over 18 years if age, able to work with blood and body fluids, able to think critically, use good judgement, and be curious.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus.
Format: In-person Internships ONLY.
Research interests: Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM), Reverse Phase Protein Microarray (RPPA) technology and immunohistochemistry (IHC) to investigate unique signaling pathway profiles in cancer tissue that can be utilized for diagnosis, prognosis, targeted therapeutics and individualized therapy.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus.
Format: In-person Internships ONLY.
Research interests: Developing technologies that improve current diagnostics and therapeutics for diseases including cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases; applications of nanotechnology for the diagnostics and treatment of infectious diseases
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus.
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Protein Design, Biochemistry, Biophysics, Computational Protein Design, Peptide Materials
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus.
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research interests: synthesis of solid state inorganic materials.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: In-person Internships ONLY.
Research interests: Electrochemistry of innovative materials, energy conversion and storage, catalysis and sensing.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Computational Drug Design, Computational DNA-protein binding, Computational Elucidation of Reaction Mechanisms.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: Chemical Biology, Fluorescent probe design, Click Chemistry, Fluorescence Imaging. Basic skills needed: basic organic chemistry and biology.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research interests: Small molecule design/synthesis/characterization, macromolecular biosynthesis/purification/characterization, enzyme kinetics, lipid nanoparticles design/formulation/characterization, computational chemistry, and analytical/bioanalytical chemistry. Learn more at https://cme.science.gmu.edu.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Antimicrobial Peptides, Proteomics, Peptide Discovery, Peptide Engineering, Biotechnology, Immune Systems, Antibiotic, Antiviral
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus
Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: fungi-based self-healing concrete, decarbonized construction material, waste cycling
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Catalina Del Pilar Gonzalez Duenas
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: Multi-hazard risk and resilience assessment, Physics-Informed AI, Nature-Based Engineering, Hurricane-Induced Debris.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Transportation Planning, Traffic Safety, Biking and Pedestrian Infrastructure
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Computational and Data Sciences
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: Modeling and Simulation, Data Science, and Agent-Based Simulation. Learn more at our center and lab websites (https://socialcomplexity.gmu.edu/) and (https://hamdikavak.com/).
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Computational Social Scienct, psychology, cognitive modeling
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Data science, earth observation, natural language processing, machine learning, deep learning
Computer Science
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: Software Engineering. With a focus on Software Testing and Analysis, AI and Software Engineering, Software Evolution, and Software Dependability. Learn more at my lab website: https://cs.gmu.edu/~winglam/.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: machine learning, deep learning, optimization, foundation models, distributed/parallel computation.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: robot planning, machine learning. Learn more at my lab website: https://cs.gmu.edu/~gjstein/.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: RRobotics, Motion Planning, Machine Learning. Learn more at my lab website: https://cs.gmu.edu/~xiao/RobotiXX/lab.html.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Mason Square (Arlington) Campus
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: theoretical computer science, particularly, scheduling with predication and energy-efficient scheduling algorithms, hybrid quantum computing for optimization problems
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: Security and Privacy; VR Security; Decentralized Finance; Side Channels. Learn more at my lab website: https://mainarke.github.io.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: Wireless networks, Machine learning for wireless and mobile systems, wireless and mobile sensing, wireless sensing and perception for robots.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Data mining, Machine learning. Learn more at my website here: http://www.cs.gmu.edu/~jessica
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Immersive Computing; Augmented/Mixed/Virtual Reality
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: AI, Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models. Learn more at my website here: https://ziyuyao.org/
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Cyber Security Engineering
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Keywords: Artificial Intelligence for Hardware Security, Reverse Engineering, Security of Mobile Robots. Skill sets required: Programming knowledge in C/C++ and/or Python is a must. Learn more at my lab website: https://tanvirarafin.github.io.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research Interests: Microelectronics, Nanotechnology, Energy Harvesting and Storage, Quantum, AI Hardware, Logic and Memory. Learn more at my lab website: https://masonnano.wixsite.com/ethanahn
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research Interests: Brain-inspired Computing
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research Interests: Robotics; Light-than-air robot; Control
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Environmental Science and Policy
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research interests: aquatic invertebrate ecology, snails, crabs, parasites, field survey, laboratory experiments, animal husbandry.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Potomac Science Center (Woodbridge).
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: Coral reef ecology, environmental microbiology, harmful algal blooms. Learn more at my lab website here: https://salernolab.com/
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Potomac Science Center (Woodbridge).
Finance, School of Business
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: blockchain; Econ-CS; skills: (one of) data analytics, computer science, finance, or mathematical modeling.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Economics of AI, Market Structure, Investments, Corporate Finance, FinTech. Learn more at my website: https://sites.google.com/view/lei-gao/home.
Forensic Science
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week).
Research interests: Drones and 3D modeling and mapping of Crime Scenes and Incidents.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Geography and Geoinformation Science
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Multi-spectral object detection; modeling of space weather impacts on critical infrastructure (electricity and telecom networks); Modeling climate-hazard impacts on critical infrastructure.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Xianjun Hao
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: remote sensing applications, climate change.
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: Climate Science, Remote Sensing, Wildland Fires, Soil Moisture and Drought, Clean Energy, Water and Food Security, Water-Energy-Food-Health (WEFH) Nexus. Learn more at our department and center websites: (https://ggs.gmu.edu) and (http://estc.gmu.edu).
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research interests: Spatiotemporal Computing, HPC, GIS, and GeoInformatics. ASSIP fellows will participate in NSF Spatiotemporal I/UCRC projects of their choice at (www.stcenter.net).
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research interests: Climate Resilience, Human Mobility, Data Analytics, Environmental Justice, Urban Transformation, Technology Adaptation, Infrastructure Equity, Natural Disasters
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: machine learning/AI for environmental and agricultural analysis.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Earth Artificial Intelligence. Learn more at my website here: https://zihengsun.github.io
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: agent-based simulation, geographic information science, data science, public health, diseases
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Human mobility (Travel perception, behavior, and accessibility); Equity, environment and health; Space-time modeling and prediction; Network analytics and optimization; Transportation geography; Geospatial data science; Geographic Information Science (GIScience). For more information about my research, please visit: https://armitakar.github.io/
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: Biodiversity, Data Analytics, Food Systems Transformation
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Information Sciences and Information Technology
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY.
Research interests: Artificial Intelligence, Engineering Education.
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Generative Image AI, Virtual/Augmented Reality. Learn more att my lab website: https://mason.gmu.edu/~zyan4/.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Information Systems and Operations Management
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Information Systems, Application of AI in Business Settings, Social Marketing.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Institute for Digital Innovation
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research Interests: Generative AI, STEM education
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Mason Square (Arlington) Campus
Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week.
Research interests: work with deep learning algorithms for 3-D tracking of animal (laboratory mouse) pose and behavior; interest in basic programming; research on spatial cognition, memory, and navigation in a neurophysiology lab
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: In-person Internships ONLY.
Research interests: Neuroscience, learning and memory, synaptic plasticity, hippocampal oscillations
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Background/Research Interests: Veterinary Medicine, Regenerative Medicine, Orthopedics, Cartilage healing, Osteoarthritis, Wound healing.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center (17690 Old Waterford Rd
Leesburg VA 20176)
Mathematics
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Mathematical Modeling; Scientific Computing; Data Science
Mechanical Engineering
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research interests: Materials science, nanomanufacturing
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: Manufacturing, Nanomaterials, and NanoSensors. For more information, visit my website here: https://kanglabs.wordpress.com/
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus
Physics and Astronomy
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Sun, Astronomy, Computer programming in Python. See more of my research interests on my CV here: https://science.gmu.edu/media/185.
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: Atmospheric gravity waves, thermosphere, ionosphere, satellite data and remote sensing, Mars, Venus, Earth, planetary atmospheres, space physics. Python and coding skills are required. For more information, visit my website here: https://sites.google.com/view/erdalyigit
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
Format: Hybrid internships (A combination of remote work and in-person work during an average week)
Research interests: NASA Landolt mission, exoplanets. See https://landolt.gmu.edu for more information. I can only host US citizens to work on this project.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus.
School of Systems Biology
Format: In-person Internships ONLY
Research interests: Virus and transcription, HIV, HTLV, CNS and HIV, Extracellular Vesicles and HIV-1 Pathogenesis, Inhibitors of transcription and other related pathways
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: SciTech (Manassas) Campus
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Sustainability, agriculture, horticulture, microbiology, microbiomes
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Computational Biology, Bioinformatics
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: bioinformatics cancer drug resistance, computational modeling cardiac arrhythmias, t cells, mitochondria
Statistics
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Data Science, Statistical Machine Learning, Generative AI, Big Data Analytics, Data Visualization, Spatiotemporal Modeling, Image Analysis, Data Reduction, Programming Skills (R, Python). Learn more at my website: https://sites.google.com/view/lilywang/home.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Systems Engineering & Operations Research
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: digital twin, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, healthcare analytics. Learn more at my lab website: https://mason.gmu.edu/~jxu13/
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Format: For the right candidate, I am flexible on internship format.
Research interests: Learn-to-optimize, Machine learning, Game theory: Conflict and Cooperation, Resilience of Infrastructure Systems and Communities, Water Sustainability . Learn more at my lab website: https://mohebbilab.cec.gmu.edu/.
Any in-person interns in my group will be expected to commute to the following campus: Main (Fairfax) Campus
Virginia Serious Games, Computer Game Design
Format: Remote/Online Internships ONLY
Research interests: Serious Game, Metaverse, Mixed Reality (AR/VR), EduTech, AI in Serious Game