Hello and welcome to my website! My name is Amanda Zigomalas and I am a biomedical engineering graduate student at Stony Brook University. I received my Bachelor’s of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering in 2017 and I am currently pursuing my Master’s of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering. I am currently working on my Master’s Thesis in Dr. Bluestein’s Biofluids Research Laboratory Group. More information on my research interests can be found on my “Research Interests” page.

In addition to my research work I am involved in various activities. I work as a gallery assistant for the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery at Stony Brook University. The Zuccaire Gallery is located in the Staller Center on campus and it hosts different exhibits that showcase the work of many talented artists. As a gallery assistant I work to take care of the current exhibit as well as answer any questions visitors may have about the artwork or the artist. I have also worked on the installation of some of the exhibits that come to the gallery. I enjoy my job and love the opportunity that it gives me to meet and talk to different artists about their work.

In addition to working at the Zuccaire Gallery I am also an active member of the Women in Science and Engineering program here at Stony Brook. During my sophomore year of college, I was given the opportunity through the WISE program to work as a mentor for one of their summer outreach programs. The goal of the program was to introduce middle school girls to STEM fields and the possibility of pursuing a career in science or engineering. As a mentor I worked on helping the students with different engineering and physics projects. I was able to see firsthand the impact that mentoring has on the involvement of the students in STEM projects. During my junior year I became a mentor for another outreach program through the WISE program. This program was held weekly for approximately sixteen weeks at a local middle school. As a mentor, I would lead weekly learning and group activities with the girls focusing on different areas of STEM education.

In the past year, I have increased my role as a mentor for the outreach programs that the WISE office runs. The WISE program runs a program called High School WISE which takes young female students from local high schools and brings them to Stony Brook University. At the university, the girls are paired with graduate student mentors who teach them about research and they get hands-on lab experience. The WISE office wanted to implement a new program for middle school students that would prepare them for the High School program. I have been directly involved in the creation of this new program. Over the past year and a half, I have written and developed a curriculum for 20 two hour long lessons for middle school girls to introduce them to the field of engineering. The program was implemented in a local middle school this past school year with the first group of 6th grade students. The program was successful and we have some data and feedback from the students to use going forward to improve the program for years to come. The second year of the program has just begun, and I am very excited to see where this program leads. Through my work with the WISE program, I have discovered a passion for STEM education and for working on outreach programs that provide young women with the confidence to pursue a career in science and engineering.

My future goal is to continue my graduate work for my Masters of Science degree at Stony Brook University. I am currently working on a thesis for my degree in the Biofluids Research Group. I am studying platelet activation due to shear stresses and how this activation is related to the age of the platelets. I am comparing neonatal platelet activation to adult platelet activation in response to shear stresses. I would like to turn my love for research into a career in research and development.