Current Members
Principal Investigator
Siavash Ahrar (he\him\his)
Assistant Professor
Biomedical Engineering, CSU Long Beach
Email: Siavash.ahrar [at] csulb.edu
BlueSky: @Siavasha
Education
SEEF fellow, Bioengineering, Stanford
Postdoctoral Researcher, UC Irvine
PhD, Biomedical Engineering, UC Irvine
Maro Aziz
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2026
Roquel Roman
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2026
Kenji Yoshida
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2026
Ena Arroyo
Hydrodynamics of marine larvae
Expected graduation
Fall 2025
Jaimie De Guzman
Hydrodynamics of marine larvae
Expected graduation
Spring 2026
Anh Nguyen
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2027
Helen Cardenas-Rios
Hydrodynamics of Hydra
Expected graduation
Spring 2027
Looking for research opportunities?
Current CSULB students (all majors - no prior research experience is required)
are welcome to apply.
Our lab is always looking for folks who are excited to deeply engage with research.
Please reach out to Siavash directly via email.
Former team members
Name Graduations First position after graduation
1. Chung Thai Spring 2022 MS student at UCI Biomedical Engineering
2. Brenda Ametepe Spring 2023 PhD student at UCSF-UCB Bioengineering
3. Clare Kim Spring 2023 Engineer – industry position (Glidewell)
4. Brian Le Spring 2023 MS student at UCI Biomedical Engineering
5. Erika Gomez Spring 2023 Engineer I at Applied Medical
6. Moses Villeda Spring 2023 Research Scientist at Recursion
7. Lucas Kim Fall 2023 MS student UCSD
8. Natalia Margaris Fall 2023 Engineer at Applied Medical
9. Michael Richardson Fall 2023 PhD student at UCR Bioengineering
10. Bryant Lopez Spring 2024 MS student at UCI Biomedical Engineering
11. Harithi Nandasena Spring 2024 MS student at BU Biomedical Engineering
12. Haley Obenshain Spring 2024 PhD student at UCSB Bioengineering
13. Emily Chrasta Fall 2024
14. Emma Varela Undergraduate student at CSULB Physics
15. Val Gillcrist Spring 2025
16. Ogochukwu Ozonevo Spring 2025
17. Sandra Trajkovski Spring 2025 MS student at UCB
18. Wesley Chen Spring 2025
19. Marcus Mallabo Spring 2025
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Our values and approach towards research and training
We seek to enable all team members to achieve their education, research, and career goals.
We strive to work collaboratively and support each other.
Together, we wish to create an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming environment.
We keep in mind that research is challenging.
Therefore, we actively aim to grow, learn, and improve as researchers.
Exciting research happens in a collaborative and supportive environment in partnership with others.
We strive to build and maintain such an environment.
Support and mentorship (both from Siavash and the team) are essential for our individual and collective success.
We define mentorship as setting individualized goals, creating progress plans, training, formative feedback, and reflection.
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Finally, we hope to have fun in a joyful environment while working on projects that could lead to discoveries or valuable technologies.
