Tina Hakimi, senior in biomedical engineering, has been awarded a Whitaker Fellowship.
The Whitaker International Fellows and Scholars Program sends emerging leaders in U.S. biomedical engineering (or bioengineering) overseas to undertake a self-designed project that will enhance their own careers within the field.
Hakimi will be working with the Vision Cooperative Research Center in Sydney, Australia with the Brien Holden Vision Institute.
Hakimi will be completing her master’s degree while working on a project dedicated to replacing the diseased natural lens of the eye with a soft-gel polymer which mimics the natural lens’ ability to be manipulated and change power. This is novel because it will replace current intra-ocular lenses that are hard, and cannot change shape like the natural lens of the eye.
In the first five years of the Whitaker Program, 140 grants have been awarded to Fellows and Scholars to conduct projects in over 25 countries worldwide.
