The ISTU Student Board helps plan and lead student activities and guide student participation in the Annual Symposium meeting. The Student Board will also plan unique opportunities for student engagement between the Annual Symposia.
The Student Board consists of PHD students from each of the geographic areas (North America, Asia, and Europe) that come together as a leadership group, under the guidance the Student Membership and Awards Committee.
Members of the Student Board are nominated and selected by members of the Student Membership and Awards Committee, and will serve for a period of 2 years.
Meet The Student Board
President | Zehra E. F. Demir
Zehra E. F. Demir is a fifth-year PhD Candidate and a member of the Sheybani Lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA). Her graduate research centers on developing rational therapeutic paradigms combining FUS with myeloid- targeted immunotherapies in breast cancer. She was a trainee in the NIH T32 Cancer Biology Training Program and a recipient of the UVA Cancer Center Trainee Fellowship, the UVA Victor Orphan Graduate Endowed Fellowship, and UVA Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs Professional Development Award. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies at UVA, Zehra received her BS at Virginia Tech in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering with minors in biomedical engineering and biology.
Vice President | Sarina Grewal
Sarina Grewal is a third-year PhD candidate in Dr Sophie Morse’s lab in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. Her research explores using focused ultrasound to modulate the function of the brain’s immune cells, with the aim of slowing the progression of neurological diseases. Her long-term goal is to advance the field of therapeutic ultrasound, translating her research into safe and effective treatments that can improve patient care. Prior to beginning her PhD, Sarina earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology and a postgraduate degree in Clinical Neuroscience at University College London.
Local Engagement Chair | Tiran Bercovici
Tiran Bercovici is a PhD student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tel Aviv University, where his research focuses on leveraging focused ultrasound (FUS) and nanodroplets for cancer therapy and blood-brain barrier opening to enable targeted drug delivery for neurological disorders. Prior to his PhD, Tiran spent seven years as a scientific researcher at Insightec, developing MRgFUS-mediated BBB therapies, drug-delivery platforms, and advanced contrast agents (ultrasound/MRI) and fluorescent nanoparticles. His expertise in biomedical applications of FUS motivated his transition to academic research. Tiran’s long-term goal is to advance therapeutic ultrasound, translating his findings into safe, effective clinical solutions to improve patient outcomes.
Outreach Chair | Sam Clinard
Sam Clinard is a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Utah. He is co-mentored by Dr. Dennis Parker and Dr. Douglas Christensen. His research focuses on developing acoustic simulation methods for transcranial focused ultrasound. He was awarded an NIH F31 Fellowship to support this work. Beginning in Fall 2025, he will join Dr. Taylor Webb’s lab at the University of Utah as a postdoctoral researcher, where he will gain experience in preclinical and clinical applications of FUS Neuromodulation. Prior to his doctoral studies, he was a research associate at the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, where he designed and published an open-source hydrophone scanner now used at more than 25 sites worldwide. He earned his undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Virginia, where he researched multi-modal breast imaging in Dr. Mark Williams’ Lab. His long-term goal is to advance therapeutic ultrasound for neurological diseases by translating simulation-guided and MR-monitored systems that enable more precise targeting, improved safety, and enhanced treatment efficacy.
Social Media Chair | Siaka Fadera
Siaka Fadera is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Dr. Hong Chen’s lab in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. A recipient of the prestigious Taiwan ICDF Scholarship, he earned his master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Chang Gung University in Taiwan. Siaka aims to translate cutting-edge research into meaningful clinical applications that improve patient outcomes, with a particular focus on neurodegenerative diseases. His work explores how focused ultrasound and neuroimaging can enhance drug delivery to the central nervous system. Using preclinical MRI techniques and large-animal models, he studies how focused ultrasound can optimize therapeutic agent movement within the glymphatic system, a key pathway for molecular transport in the brain. Ultimately, Siaka’s long-term goal is to bridge the gap between preclinical innovation and clinical implementation, ensuring that patients with neurodegenerative diseases benefit from the latest advances in biomedical engineering.
Local Engagement Chair | Clément Foullounoux
Since my bachelor's degree in acoustics, I have developed a strong interest in acoustic bubble generation and its interaction with biological tissues. This drove me to pursue an international Master of Science in Acoustics at École Centrale de Lyon (France).
From there, I had the opportunity to join the Laboratory of Therapeutic Applications of Ultrasound (LabTAU) in 2023 as a PhD candidate. Over the past two years, I have been working on ultrasound-induced cavitation for ocular applications. Our goal is to reverse the natural hardening of the crystalline lens — one of the main causes of presbyopia — by softening it through interactions with cavitation bubbles.
Education/Webinar Liaison | Manu K S
Manu K S is a PhD student in the Medical Ultrasound Engineering (MUSE) Laboratory at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. His research focuses on designing and fabricating focused ultrasound transducers (HIFU) and developing acoustic metamaterials for advancing ultrasound-based therapy. He is a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship, awarded by the Government of India. Before joining for PhD in 2022, he completed his Bachelor of Technology in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University in 2020 and later worked as a Research Assistant at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore.
Meet the Faculty Advisors
Under the leadership of Faculty Advisors, the ISTU Board was originally formed in 2022 to further the engagement of students in ISTU.
Maxime Lafond
Maxime Lafond is a research associate at the Laboratory of Therapeutic Applications of Ultrasound (LabTAU, INSERM U1032, Lyon, France). He received an M.Sc. degree in acoustics from Université du Maine, Le Mans, France, and a Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering from the LabTAU in 2016, with a focus on unseeded cavitation-based potentiation of doxorubicin, stable cavitation monitoring, and cavitation localization. He held a JSPS post-doctoral fellowship at the Umemura-Yoshizawa Laboratory, Tohoku University, from 2017 to 2018, where he was involved in cavitation monitoring in sonodynamic therapy. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Image-guided Ultrasound Therapeutics Laboratories, University of Cincinnati, from 2018 to 2021 where he worked on catheter-based ultrasound-mediated drug delivery and bioactive gas delivery for bactericidal and neuroprotective applications. He joined the LabTAU in 2021 to study emerging uses of ultrasound, notably in the eye. His current research interests are using cavitation for ophthalmologic applications including presbyopia reversal and glaucoma management, cavitation-mediated cancer treatment, and ultrasound for implant-based neuroregeneration.
Fenfang Li
Fenfang Li is a junior principal investigator in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in Shenzhen Bay Laboratory. Fenfang Li received her PhD degree at Nanyang Technological University Singapore in 2015. She then did her postdoc training at Duke University from 2015 to 2019. She was awarded the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine Dean’s Postdoc Fellowship in 2019 in a joint program between Nanyang Technological University and Imperial College London. Since 2022, she joined Shenzhen Bay Laboratory as a faculty member. Her principal research interest is in ultrasound and microbubbles induced bioeffects, sonoporation, calcium signaling and ultrasound neuromodulation. Her focus is on the mechanism by which microbubbles and low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) interact with biological cells and the brain. She has published several papers in PNAS, Theranostics, Physical Review Fluids and Biophysical Journal on the physics and bioeffects of ultrasound and microbubbles.
Himanshu Shekar
Dr. Himanshu Shekhar is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India, where he co-leads the Medical Ultrasound Engineering (MUSE) Laboratory. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology, India (2008), and a Master’s (2010) and Ph.D. (2014) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester, U.S.A. Dr. Shekhar trained as a postdoctoral fellow (2014 – 2019) at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, U.S.A. His research is focused on ultrasound-mediated therapy, molecular imaging, and sensing. His research has been recognized with the F. V. Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship and best paper awards from the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), the Star Ambassador Lectureship Award from the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society (UFFC-S), and the Har Govind Korana Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award from the Government of India. Dr. Shekhar is a member of IEEE UFFC-S, ASA, and the International Society of Therapeutic Ultrasound.
Natasha D. Sheybani, Ph.D.
Dr. Sheybani is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and (by courtesy) of Radiology & Medical Imaging and Neurosurgery at the University of Virginia. Dr. Sheybani leads a translational research program centered on advancing focused ultrasound into the era of precision immuno-oncology for solid tumors of the brain and periphery. Her research interests include immunotherapy delivery, immuno-modulation, liquid biopsy, molecular imaging and imaging informatics. The Sheybani laboratory interfaces closely with multiple ongoing clinical trials at UVA that are evaluating combinatorial focused ultrasound and immunotherapy in metastatic breast cancer and other solid tumor settings.
Eli Vlaisavljevich, Ph.D.
Dr. Eli Vlaisavljevich is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His research interests include focused ultrasound, non-invasive tissue ablation (HIFU, histotripsy), cavitation physics, nanoparticle-mediated histotripsy (NMH), biomaterials, tissue regeneration, cancer, non-invasive neuromodulation, and clinical translation. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Dr. Vlaisavljevich conducted his graduate degrees in the Histotripsy Lab at the University of Michigan (2010-2015) and then spent two years working at HistoSonics (2015-2017) on the development of histotripsy for the treatment of liver cancer.