President
Nikhil Chellam (he/him/his)
Department: Chemical & Biological Engineering (5th year)
Nikhil is a 5th year Ph.D. student, co-advised by Profs. George Schatz and Chad Mirkin. His research focuses on the synthesis and theoretical investigations of metallic aluminum nanoparticles and exploiting their collective optical properties for plasmon-driven photochemistry. He received his B.A. in History and B.S. in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from Rice University in 2020. In his spare time, he enjoys long-distance running, playing video games (particularly in the Pokémon franchise), and drinking copious amounts of tea.
Vice President
Riddhi Ananth (she/her/hers)
Department: Chemistry (5th year)
Riddhi is a 5th year Ph.D. student, advised by Mark Hersam. She received her BS degree in chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses on the optical spectroscopy of chemically functionalized low-dimensional nanomaterials for applications in quantum information science. Outside the lab, she enjoys running, dancing, and playing basketball.
Secretary
Ali Najjar Amiri (he/him/his)
Department: Electrical & Computer (2nd year)
Ali is a second-year Ph.D. student under the mentorship of Professor Mahdi Hosseini, specializing in the design, fabrication, and characterization of photonic structures for quantum applications, with a particular focus on quantum memory. He holds a B.S. in Computer Hardware Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in Iran and an M.S. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Koç University in Turkey. Outside of academia, Ali enjoys participating in sports, watching movies, and discovering new places to eat.
Treasurer
Lauren Oleksy (she/her/hers)
Department: Chemical & Biological Engineering (2nd year)
Lauren is a 2nd year PhD student advised by Professor Dayne Swearer. Her research focuses on developing dielectric-based metasurfaces and structures for sustainable photochemistry. She received her B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from Clarkson University in 2023. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, snowboarding, and experimenting in the kitchen.
Social Media Chair
Xi Wan (she/her/hers)
Department: Chemical Engineering (2nd year)
Xi is a 2nd year PhD student advised by Professor Jeff Richards. Her research focuses on synthesizing mixed ionic and electronic conductors for structure color application and investigating how the processing and formulation influence the performance of graphene inks and battery slurries via rheo-electric measurement. She received her B.S. and M.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology and Northwestern University. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring new restaurants, cooking, and traveling.
Publicity Chair
Anushka Dasgupta (she/her/hers)
Department: Materials Science & Engineering (5th year)
Event Coordinator
Gerrit Christenson (he/him/his)
Department: Chemistry (3rd year)
Gerrit was born and raised in Minnesota, where he received a B.S in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2022. As an undergraduate, he used SERS to study charge and energy transfer in molecule-plasmon systems. Now, as a third-year graduate student in the Gaynor group, he is developing 2D spectroscopies to study vibronic dynamics in molecules and materials.
Komal Prasad (she/her/hers)
Department: Materials Science & Engineering (2nd year)
Komal is a 2nd year PhD student in the group of Prof. David Barton. Her research focuses on lithium niobate based optical devices for integrated photonics. She received her B.Tech. degree in Chemical Technology and her M.S. from Stanford University in Materials Science and Engineering. In her spare time, she loves to read, dance, and make art.
Ramin Yazdaanpanah(he/him/his)
Department: Electrical & Computer (2nd year)
Ramin is a second year PhD student in the ECE department. He is working with Prof. Koray Aydin and his research focuses on photonic materials and optical metasurfaces.
Outreach Committee
Abhiram Devata (he/him/his)
Department: Materials Science & Engineering (2nd year)
Abhi is a second year PhD student in the Barton lab, researching the effects of processing and fabrication on semiconductor materials for energy efficient photonic integrated circuits. He is originally from Northern California and attended UC Santa Barbara for his B.S. in Chemical Engineering. In his free time, he enjoys baking, birdwatching, and photography.
Weijia (Vera) Fan (she/her/hers)
Department: Biomedical Engineering (4th year)
Vera (Weijia) Fan is a fourth year PhD student in Biomedical Engineering. Her research is about developing an optical system called optical coherence tomography (OCT) for retina imaging and ophthalmological disease diagnosis. She is originally from Nanjing, China, and received a B.S. degree from UC Los Angeles in Biophysics. In her spare time, she likes traveling, photo shooting, exploring nice food.
General Board Members
Whitney Tso (previous social media chair), Emma-rose Newmeyer (previous vice president)