The Kunjapur Lab is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.
We celebrate the different backgrounds and perspectives that every lab member brings to our team.
For Prospective Members
We are hiring! We are looking for 3 graduate students and 1 post-doc to start in Fall 2026 / Winter 2027:
We are currently looking for postdocs who has expertise in engineering of Bacillus subtilis or related non-model microbes.
Postdoc applicants can email Dr. Kunjapur directly with their CV and a brief cover letter.
If you are a prospective graduate student who has an engineering undergraduate degree and is interested in our lab, then apply to the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering PhD program.
If you are a prospective graduate student who has an undergraduate degree in the natural sciences and is interested in our lab, then apply to the Microbiology Graduate Program.
We celebrate the different backgrounds and perspectives that every lab member brings to our team.
For Prospective Members
We are hiring! We are looking for 3 graduate students and 1 post-doc to start in Fall 2026 / Winter 2027:
We are currently looking for postdocs who has expertise in engineering of Bacillus subtilis or related non-model microbes.
Postdoc applicants can email Dr. Kunjapur directly with their CV and a brief cover letter.
If you are a prospective graduate student who has an engineering undergraduate degree and is interested in our lab, then apply to the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering PhD program.
If you are a prospective graduate student who has an undergraduate degree in the natural sciences and is interested in our lab, then apply to the Microbiology Graduate Program.
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Principal Investigator: Aditya M. KunjapurAppointment
2025- Thomas Willing Early Career Associate Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, UD 2025 Otto Mønsted Visiting Professor, DTU Biosustain, Technical University of Denmark (Jun.-Dec.) 2024-2025 Thomas Willing Early Career Assistant Professor, Chem. & Biomol. Engineering, UD 2019-2024 Assistant Professor, Chem. & Biomol. Engineering, UD Education 2018 Post-Doc, Genetics, Harvard Medical School (Advisor: George Church) 2015 PhD, Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Advisor: Kristala Prather) 2010 BS, Chemical Engineering, University of Texas (Advisor: Bruce Eldridge) For info on Aditya or his view of synthetic biology, see this blog post from 2015, this short chat with Science in 2024, or this podcast in 2026. Recent Awards 2026: American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Food, Pharmaceutical, & Bioengineering Division Early Career Award 2025: Department of Energy Early Career Award; Gerard Mangone Young Scholar; Roberta Colman Innovation Award Co-Recipient; Biotechnology & Bioengineering Journal Daniel I.C. Wang Award 2024: University of Delaware College of Engineering Outstanding Early Career Faculty Award; AIChE Delaware Valley Section Outstanding Faculty Award; BioInnovation Institute & Science Grand Prize for Innovation 2023: Society of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Early Career Award 2022: NIH Director's New Innovator Award; Office of Naval Research Young Investigator 2021: New Innovator Award from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research; Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence |
Doctoral Students & Postdocs
Ronald Adukure, Ph.D.Ph.D., University of Texas - Dallas
Chemistry drrda(at)udel(dot)edu |
Ethan Bolinger
B.S., U. Maryland - College Park
bolinger(at)udel(dot)edu |
Neil Butler, Ph.D.(Part-time Post-Doc,
Co-Founder & CEO of Nitro Biosciences) Ph.D., University of Delaware B.S., Penn State University ndb(at)udel(dot)edu |
Avaniek Cabales
B.S., Rutgers University
avaniekc(at)udel(dot)edu |
Jessica GambaNIH T32 Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) Fellow
M.S., University of Sao Paulo jgamba(at)udel(dot)edu |
Saloni Gupta
B.S., Visvesvaraya NIT
salonig(at)udel(dot)edu |
Gordon Ko
B.S., University of California - Irvine
lmko(at)udel(dot)edu
lmko(at)udel(dot)edu
Kiseok Lee, Ph.D.
Ph.D. University of Chicago
Ecology and Evolution kiseok(at)udel(dot)edu |
Chris MayhughNIH T32 Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) Fellow
B.S. University of Alabama cmayhugh(at)udel(dot)edu |
Yu Jung Sohn, Ph.D.Ph.D., Ewha Womans University (Korea) Chemical Engineering yjsohn(at)udel(dot)edu |
James VanAntwerp
(Co-Advised by Kelvin Lee)
NIH T32 Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) Fellow B.S., Michigan State University vanantj(at)udel(dot)edu |
D'Jana Wyllis
NIH T32 Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) Fellow,
GEM Fellow B.S., Columbia University djanaw(at)udel(dot)edu |
Ciara Young
B.S., Worcester Polytechnic Institute
ciayoung(at)udel(dot)edu
ciayoung(at)udel(dot)edu
Undergraduates
Jacob Escobar(Co-advised by Prof. Kelvin Lee)
B.S. Chemical Engineering 2028 |
William HerronB.S. Chemical Engineering
2027 |
Braden RogersB.S., Chemical Engineering
2027 |
Alice RousseauB.S., Chemical Engineering
2028 |
Ryan StewartB.S., Chemical Engineering
2029 |
Iris ZhangB.S., Chemical Engineering
2029 |
Trainee Alumni
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Kunjapur Lab Alumni:
Name - Years in Lab - Status in Lab (UG = Undergrad | G = Grad | T = Technician | P = Post-Doc) → Next Institution/Entity Roman Dickey - 2021-2025 - G → Alnylam Shelby Anderson - 2021-2025 - G → Stanford (Post-Doc) Amanda Forti - 2021-2025 - G → Madan Gopal - 2021-2025 - G → Northwestern (Post-Doc) Austin Desmarais - 2023-2025 - G → Abigail Spangler - 2023-2025 - UG → U. Michigan (Ph.D.) Vishal Somasundaram - 2023-2025 - UG → U. Illinois (Ph.D.) Niteesha Adapala - 2024-2025 - G → Mimetics Sabyasachi Sen - 2019-2025 - G → Integral Molecular Michaela Jones - 2019-2024 - G → MIT (Post-Doc) ChemE Rising Star Neil Butler - 2019-2024 - G → Nitro Biosciences (Co-Founder) Priyanka Nain - 2022-2024 - P → Corteva Agriscience Amanda Rosier - 2022-2024 - P → Corteva Agriscience Nastassja Corrado - 2023-2024 - UG → U. Wisconsin (Ph.D.) Miyu Mudalamane - 2021-2024 - UG → MIT (Ph.D.) Goldwater Scholar & NSF Fellow Josh Bryan - 2023-2024 - UG → U. Delaware 4+1 (M.S.) Alexander Tiso - 2023-2024 - UG → U. Delaware 4+1 (M.S.) Ishika Govil - 2020-2023 - UG → MIT (Ph.D.) Goldwater Scholar & NSF Fellow Morgan Sulzbach - 2019-2023 - G → Proskauer Sean Wirt - 2019-2022 - UG → MIT (Ph.D.) NSF Fellow Shalom Fadullon - 2021 - UG → Northeastern (Ph.D.) NSF Fellow Khai Khee Kho - 2020-2022 - UG → Minnesota (Ph.D.) [declined] Soumili Chattopadhyay - 2020-2021 - G → VaxCyte Nathan Edwards - 2020 - UG → U. Delaware 4+1 (M.S.) Vicky Lin - 2019 - UG → Johnson Matthey Natalie Fuhr - 2019 - UG → ExxonMobil Ryan Buchser - 2019-2021 - UG → UT-Austin (Ph.D.) Before Delaware: Emily Niu - 2018 - UG @ MIT → Bain & Company Aditya Jog - 2018 - UG @ MIT → U. Michigan Medical School Lucas Brown - 2018 - T @ Harvard → Rice University Karen Noguera - 2017-2018 - T @ Harvard → U. Indiana - Bloomington Peter Smith - 2017-2018 - G @ Harvard Devon Stork - 2016-2018 - G @ Harvard → Tenza Bio Jason Hyun - 2014-2015 - UG @ MIT → Manus Biosciences Asmawaw Wassie - 2013 - UG @ MIT → MIT Biological Engineering PhD Nikita Khlystov - 2012-2014 - UG @ MIT → Stanford Chemical Engineering PhD Spencer Wenck - 2012-2013 - UG @ MIT → Boston Consulting Group Bernardo Cervantes - 2012 - UG @ Berkeley → MIT Microbiology PhD |
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Snapshots of the Team
2026
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2025
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2024
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2023
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2022
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2021
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2020
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2019
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