Doctoral student Ambalika Tanak MS’16, who plans to graduate in December, works in the UTD Biomedical Microdevices and Nanotechnology Lab, where she developed a sensor that can detect sepsis.

Ambalika Tanak MS’16, a biomedical engineering doctoral student at The University of Texas at Dallas who has developed potentially lifesaving biosensors, received the Jess Hay Chancellor’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship from The University of Texas System.

Tanak, who plans to graduate in December, has developed a sensor that can detect sepsis, an extreme response to an infection that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. She also developed a sensor to help doctors make faster decisions during parathyroid surgery.

“I feel really honored to have been selected for the Jess Hay Chancellor’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship,” Tanak said. “I am proud to be able to represent UT Dallas and the bioengineering department. To receive this award in my graduating semester is a perfect culmination of my PhD research work.”

​The fellowship was established by Jess Hay, who served on the UT System Board of Regents from 1977 to 1989 and was chairman from 1985 to 1987. Hay, a key supporter of UT Dallas, died in 2015. Two annual fellowships, which recognize exemplary academic and research achievements that benefit the state, rotate among UT System’s academic and health institutions each year.

“I feel really honored to have been selected for the Jess Hay Chancellor’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship. I am proud to be able to represent UT Dallas and the bioengineering department. To receive this award in my graduating semester is a perfect culmination of my PhD research work.”

Ambalika Tanak MS’16

“The Jess Hay Graduate Fellowship is one of the UT System’s most prestigious graduate student awards. It is a clear recognition of the world-class level of research that Ambalika and Dr. Shalini Prasad’s team are performing,” said Dr. Juan González, dean of graduate education and the Francis S. Johnson Chair for Graduate Education. “Our entire UT Dallas community is very proud of Ambalika. She is one more example of the outstanding graduate students the University recruits for its programs.”

Prasad, department head of bioengineering and the Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, is Tanak’s faculty mentor. She said Tanak “embodies the qualities of a bioengineering Comet.”

“Ambalika is bold and fearless in her research and is able to apply strong engineering foundational principles to translation research,” Prasad said. “As her PhD supervisor, I am proud of her accomplishments as it showcases how bioengineering can be utilized to solve global health care challenges.”

In 2020 Tanak received a first-tier Baxter Young Investigator Award, which supports research to develop therapies and medical products that save and sustain patients’ lives.

“Based on her strong credentials, I am very happy that Ambalika Tanak was selected by UT Dallas to be the recipient of this prestigious fellowship,” said Dr. Poras Balsara, associate dean for academic affairs in the Jonsson School. “I wish her continued success in all her future endeavors.”