People
Gianmarco Pinton, Principal Investigator
Gianmarco Pinton is an Associate Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. His research interests are in non-conventional diagnostic ultrasound imaging, nonlinear wave propagation, and shear shock waves and brain injury.
Current Members
Francisco Santibanez
Research Assistant Professor
Francisco obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Universidad de Santiago de Chile in 2010. Since then, his main areas of interest have been experimental physics, instrumentation, contact dynamics, and non-linear wave propagation in complex media. Francisco joined the Pinton Lab in 2018 and is currently investigating ultrasound super-resolution and functional imaging as well as shear wave propagation in soft tissue. When he’s not in the lab, he enjoys loud music, fast cars, and whiskey.
Ryan DeRuiter
Graduate Research Assistant
Ryan was born and raised in Cary, NC, but ventured to Georgia for his undergraduate education at Mercer University. There, he earned a B.E in biomedical engineering with a minor in mathematics. Ryan joined the Dayton and Pinton Labs in the Fall of 2017. His current research focus is super-resolution ultrasound imaging via ultrafast ultrasound localization microscopy (uULM).
Rebecca Jones
Graduate Research Assistant
Rebecca earned her B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2019. She then left her home state of Tennessee to become a Ph.D. student through the UNC-NC State Department of Biomedical Engineering. Since joining our lab in 2019, she has been investigating neuromodulation using transcranial focused ultrasound. One of Rebecca’s favorite pastimes is hanging out with her two dogs, Sarah and Sparky.
Ruth Vorder Bruegge
Research Technician & Lab Manager
Ruth graduated from Wellesley College with a Neuroscience degree in 2018. She also researched the role of striosomal neurons in cost-benefit decision-making behavior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She joined our lab in 2019 and has been primarily focused on shear wave propagation in stochastic soft solids. Outside of the lab, Ruth helps maintain her family’s loblolly pine tree farm in Cumberland County, NC, and is heavily involved in 4H.
Hatim Belgharbi
Graduate Research Assistant
Hatim, who is from Montreal, recently joined our lab in Fall 2021 after finishing his B.E. and M.E. in Biomedical Engineering at Polytechnique Montreal. His focus in our lab on 3D super-resolution imaging is an extension of his prior research, where he helped develop optimal simulation framework for Ultrasound Localization Microscopy (ULM). Hatim is passionate about engines on two wheels and spends many weekends exploring North Carolina on his own.
Hanjoo Lee
Graduate Research Assistant
Hanjoo joined our lab in Fall 2021 after earning a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin Madison. He’s interested in all of our projects at the lab but is particularly focused on our super-resolution research. Hanjoo, who is from Lexington, Massachusetts, likes refurbishing old electronics in his spare time, making him an incredibly useful resource for lab members who enjoy thrifting.
Lab Alumni
Brady Anna
Brady, from Long Island, joined our lab as an undergraduate research assistant in 2019, where he assisted with phantom development by designing custom specialized CAD models. Since then, he’s earned his B.S. in Biomedical and Health Sciences Engineering from UNC-Chapel Hill, with a minor in Neuroscience.
Danai Eleni Soulioti
After she earned her B.S in Chemical Engineering, Danai obtained a M.Sc degree in Material Science and Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. In 2021, Diana earned her Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. through the UNC-NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Sandhya Chandrashekaran
Sandhya obtained her B.Tech in Civil Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, India, and her M.S in Structural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. In Spring 2022, she earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at NC State University.