Current REFS

Alexa Alexiu (alexiu@mit.edu)
Van Voorhis Group | 3rd year | Theoretical

Alexa grew up in Romania, before moving to the UK for her undergraduate degree in (the other) Cambridge. She is a grad student in the Van Voorhis group, where she works on developing computational methods to study interesting materials for quantum dots and solar cells. When she’s not coding at her desk, Alexa likes going on photo walks, reading, and making hyper-specific Spotify playlists.

Yasmeen S. AlFaraj (alfarajy@mit.edu)
Johnson Group | 6^th year | Organic

Yasmeen was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, and moved to the Bay to complete her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley. She is now a PhD candidate in the Johnson group. In her spare time she enjoys consuming Funfetti batter (sometimes cake), water-activities (kayaking+diving, not yet sailing), and acting as her cat Namla (Arabic for ant)’s full-time photographer.

Sunhee Bae (baebae@mit.edu)
Kiessling Group | 5^th year | Biological

Sunhee was born in Seoul, South Korea and spent her pre-college years moving to a new city every 3 years on average. She completed her undergraduate degree in Seoul National University and moved to Boston to study bacterial glycans in the Kiessling Group and break her personal record for the longest time lived in one city. Sunhee spends her spare time hiking and climbing, and convincing her friends to buy a bike.

Maya Chattoraj (mchatt@mit.edu)
Tisdale Group | 3^rd year | Physical

Maya grew up in the Chicago area and completed her undergraduate degree at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a graduate student in the Tisdale Lab (in the chemical engineering department) where she uses ultrafast spectroscopy to study interfacial charge transfer. Outside of the lab, Maya spends her time being a gym bro, meal prepping, and reading.

Maddie Hoffmann (mphoff@mit.edu)
Schlau-Cohen Group | 6^th year | Physical

Maddie grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and then moved to the east coast for undergrad at Yale. She’s now a graduate student in the Schlau-Cohen lab, where she spends her days shooting lasers at plants. When not in the MIT basement, she enjoys being outside with friends, hiking, and exploring Boston.

Andrei Iliescu (iliescu@mit.edu)
Dincă Group | 5^th year | Inorganic

Andrei is originally from Bucharest, Romania but, in a somewhat misguided attempt to avoid the freezing cold winters and hot, humid summers he has decided to move to the Boston area more than half a decade ago, for undergrad. He enjoys exploring the city and its surroundings on his runs, bike rides, and hikes. In his free time, he is likely experimenting with different pickling techniques or playing RPGs with friends.

Kunal Lodaya (klodaya@mit.edu)
Surendranath Group | 5^th year | Inorganicc

Kunal grew up in Chapel Hill, NC, and completed his undergrad right near home at the University of North Carolina. He currently works in the Surendranath Group researching electrochemical conversation of nitrogen oxides. Outside of the lab, he enjoys rock climbing, video games, and playing D&D with his friends, while also raising two beautiful cats.

Vennela Mannava  (vmannava@mit.edu)
Surendranath Group | 4^th year | Inorganic

Vennela grew up in MA and completed her undergrad at the University of Chicago. Missing the slightly warmer northeastern winters, she moved back to MA for grad school, joining the Surendranath Group to study the electrochemistry of adsorbed molecules. In her spare time, she enjoys doing jigsaw puzzles and exploring Boston.

Kaelyn McFarlane-Connelly  (kaelynmc@mit.edu)
Bawendi Group | 3^th year | Physical

Kaelyn grew up in the California Bay Area but moved to complete her undergraduate degree in snowy upstate New York at the University of Rochester. She is now a second year in the Bawendi Lab where she makes tiny cubes and then shoots lasers at them. Outside of research, she enjoys climbing, trying new recipes, and playing DND!

Omar Salinas  (osalinas@mit.edu)
Peng Group | 3^rd year | Biological

Omar grew up in Chicago, IL, and completed his undergrad at the University of Chicago. When he is not making and studying upconverting nanoparticles, Omar enjoys dancing (hip-hop and a little contemporary), cooking/baking, trying new foods, exploring the East Coast, and adding more hats to his collection!

Greg Schuette (gkks@mit.edu)
Zhang Group | 5^th year | Theoretical

Greg grew up near Chicago before moving to California to complete his undergraduate work at UCLA. Despite his love of LA’s weather, Greg moved to Boston to study chromatin with the Zhang group. In his spare time, he enjoys woodworking and exploring Boston.

Alice Su (alicesu@mit.edu)
Dincă Group | 4^th year | Inorganicl

Alice grew up and completed her undergrad in Munich, Germany. When she is not making materials in lab, you can likely find her strolling around some body of water, pitching a tent and enjoying the sunshine. At home she likes to make art for her apartment or her friends.

David Ullery  (ulleryd@mit.edu)
Freedman Group | 4^th year | Inorganic

David grew up in Cincinnati and stayed in Ohio to obtain his undergraduate degree from Ohio State University. He now studies molecular qubits in the Freedman group and is working to synthesize new chromium compounds of all colors in the rainbow (currently has OGBIV) . Outside of the lab he enjoys going to the gym, playing Zelda, and camping.

Anna Davis (agdavis@mit.edu)
Jeremiah Johnson Group | 2^nd year | Organic/PPMS

Anna grew up in Greensboro, NC and traveled down the road for undergrad at Duke University. She is a graduate student in the Johnson Group where she studies network toughening and counts loops. When she is not making and degrading polymers you can find her on a run, exploring greater Boston, or curled up with a good book and probably some candy.

Ghazal (Hazel) Kamyabi (gkamyabi@mit.edu)
Nolan Group | 3^rd year | Chemical Biology

Hazel was born and raised in Iran. She later moved to California, where she earned her B.S. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley. A few years ago, she joined the Nolan lab, focusing on improving the efficiency of antibiotics. A proud “cat lady” and an indoor person, Hazel spends her free time cooking, drawing, knitting, and enjoying cozy, creative activities at home.

Katie Pelham (kapelham@mit.edu)
Elkin Group | 2^nd year | Organic

Katie grew up in the Catskill mountains in NY and obtained her B.A. in chemistry from Skidmore College. After graduating, she worked as a medicinal chemist for three years before returning to graduate school and joining the Elkin lab to research organic methodology. Outside of lab, she enjoys being outdoors—hiking, skiing, gardening, and camping, or enjoying live music, crafting, baking or reading while indoors..

Alev Studenikina (alev848@mit.edu )
Peng Group | 2^nd year | Physical/ Theory

Alev was born in Moscow, Russia, attended high school in the UK, and then decided to keep moving and came to the US to do her undergrad at Princeton University. When Alev is not busy trying to get upconverting nanoparticles to do her bidding, you can find her binging fantasy novels, dancing, catching up with her family, keeping up her doodle Instagram account, and learning how to be a menace in different languages (currently, the Chinese-speaking members of the Peng lab are taking the brunt of it).

Marissa Vera (mvera@mit.edu)
Kiessling Group | 4^th year | Chemical Biologyy

Marissa grew up in Laredo, Texas before moving to complete her undergrad at the University of Texas at Austin. She’s currently a graduate student in the Kiessling Group, where she studies lectin-glycan interactions. Outside of the lab, Marissa enjoys making collages, horror movies (the artsy kind), thrifting, and watching her dog chase bubbles.

Matthew Shoulders (mshoulde@mit.edu)
Professor of Chemistry

Matt earned his B.S. in chemistry at Virginia Tech in 2004 and his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009. After postdoctoral research at Scripps Research Institute, he began his independent career as a faculty member in the MIT Department of Chemistry in 2012. His lab studies the molecular mechanisms of protein folding in cells and uses evolution as a tool to understand proteostasis and develop new biotechnologies. Matt was a founding member of the MIT Chemistry Department’s Quality of Life Committee, and he has chaired QoL since 2019. In 2018, Matt’s contributions to mentorship were recognized by MIT’s student-nominated Committed to Caring Award for outstanding graduate student mentorship. In 2022, he received the MacVicar Faculty Fellowship for exemplary and sustained contributions to undergraduate teaching and education at MIT. Matt has been a FacultyREF since 2021.

Timothy Swager (tswager@mit.edu)
John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry

Tim is a native of Montana. He received a BS from Montana State University in 1983 and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1988. After a postdoctoral appointment at MIT, he joined University of Pennsylvania 1990-1996 and returned to MIT in 1996 as a Professor of Chemistry and served as the Head of Chemistry from 2005-2010. His research interests are in design, synthesis, and study of organic-based electronic, sensory, energy storage, membranes, liquid crystals, and colloids.