Current Dissertation Defenses

January 2026

Candidate: Irene Kahvazadeh
For the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Computer Science
Title: Advancing Computational Frontiers in Noisy Quantum Systems with Transformative Quantum Neural Network Classifiers
Committee: Dr. Alvis Fong, Chair, Dr. Elise de Doncker, Dr. Dean Johnson
Time/Place: Tuesday, January 13, 2026, 1 to 3 p.m., Virtual meeting

Candidate: Ariel S. Martin
For the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Geological and Environmental Sciences
Title: Evaluating the Relationship between Mineralogy and Oxygen Isotope Incorporation in High-temperature Experimental Dolomites
Committee: Dr. Stephen Kaczmarek, Chair, Dr. Sierra Peterson, Dr. Ian Winkelstern,       Dr. David Zakharov
Time/Place: Tuesday, January 6, 2026, 2 to 4 p.m., 1710 Sangren Hall

Candidate: Sawyer Osborn
For the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Mathematics
Title: From Total Domination to Graph Colorings
Committee: Dr. Ping Zhang, Chair, Dr. Gary Chartrand, Dr. Jeffrey Strom, Dr. Ebrahim Salehi
Time/Place: Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 1 to 3 p.m., Virtual meeting

Candidate: Ritabrato Chatterjee 
For the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Mathematics
Title: Ramsey Chains in Graphs
Committee: Dr. Ping Zhang, Chair, Dr. Gary Chartrand, Dr. Jim Zhu, Dr. Dinesh Sarvate
Time/Place: Wednesday, January 21, 2026, 2 to 4 p.m., Virtual meeting

Previous dissertation defenses have been digitized and archived by the Western Michigan University Libraries ScholarWorks Dissertations page. Use the advance search located on the left side of the page to get dissertations sorted by author, subject, department, year published, and more.