Event Description
Join us to celebrate the 20 year legacy of the STAR (Students Tackling Advanced Research) Scholars Program! Throughout July and August 2022, Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs will host a weekly lecture series, during which Drexel faculty and STAR alumni will give presentations about their experience with and the impact of the STAR Scholars Program. Attendees may join us virtually or in person, with lunch served for in-person attendees.
Speakers for Wednesday, August 3:
Dr. David Becher is the Dean’s Industry Fellow, Professor of Finance, and Fellow for the Raj & Kamla Gupta Governance Institute at Drexel University as well as a Fellow at the Wharton Financial Institution Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Becher’s specializations include mergers, governance, and banking. He has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, CNN, Dow Jones Newswire, Fox Business News, and Reuters, among others and provided media interviews to NBC News, CNN News, NPR Marketplace, etc. He earned a B.A. in Economics and International Relations at the College of William and Mary, specialized in International Economics at the University de Montpelier, France, and obtained his Ph.D. concentrating in Finance at the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Becher was awarded the 2020 Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award, named a 2019 Outstanding STAR Mentor of the Year, and received four Top Teaching Excellence Award for Vanguard MBA (2015-2018, 2020) among numerous other honors and awards.
Dagmawi Mulugeta is currently a threat research engineer at Netskope, a cloud security company. He has a Masters' degree in Cybersecurity from Drexel University and an OSCP and various cloud certifications. His current research interests are focused on Cloud security and he has presented at numerous security conferences including Hack in the Box, OWASP EU, and Area 41.
Cali Chesterman is a multimedia artist from NE Philly. She now lives in the Greater Seattle area, working on the Halo toy lines at 343 Industries. In her free time, she mentors other first-gen college students, as a way to “pay-it-forward” to her own mentors. For STAR, she worked in Dr. Aroutis Foster’s GLIDE Lab (School of Education).
Jakub Zegar is a Philly-born and raised wildlife biologist interested in conservation, disease ecology, and herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians). Currently, he is a Ph.D. student of biology at the University of Mississippi where he is investigating the interplay of climate change, disease, and thermal physiology on local & global amphibian populations. Throughout his career, he has had the fortune to work with threatened frogs, cryptic salamanders, endangered turtles, and even venomous snakes - and it all started with his STAR experience. Though he is committed to working towards ensuring the persistence of these amazing animals, he is equally as passionate about sharing their wonders with others! |