Core Leadership
President
Helena Cantwell
Molecular and Cell Biology
Helena is a 3rd year postdoc at UC Berkeley interested in mechanisms of subcellular size and shape control.
Favorite Pastime: Singing, cooking, travelling
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Comal
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Kayaking with sea otters at Elkhorn Slough
Co-Vice-President & Treasurer
Ludovica Luisa Vissat
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Ludovica is a 3rd year postdoc at UC Berkeley working on research in movement ecology: data analysis of GPS tracking and activity data and mathematical modeling of animal movement.
Favorite Pastime: Baking, travelling, juggling
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: A Cheeseboard pizza on Indian Rock
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Hiking the Dipsea Trail (7 miles from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach)
Co-Vice-President
Michael Kosicki
LBL-EGSB
Michael is a 2nd year postdoc at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is studying how activity of regulatory DNA influences embryonic development and roles of DNA damage repair in genomic engineering.
Favorite Pastime: Books and old science
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Cafe Raj
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Move to SF
Secretary
Sebastian Sandl
Department of Chemistry
Sebastian is a 2nd year postdoc at UC Berkeley in materials science: Purifying gas mixtures accounts for 15% of the US energy consumption. His workgroup designs porous materials (metal-organic frameworks) for more efficient gas separations (hydrocarbons) and storage (hydrogen and carbon dioxide).
Favorite Pastime: Hiking, biking, rowing, and playing the saxophone
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Agrodolce L'Osteria
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Concerts - SFJazz, Mr. Tipples, BlackCatSF, Yoshi's, Greek theatre
Board Members
Federico D. Munch - Chair of Social Events Committee
Earth and Planetary Science Department
Fede is a 2nd year postdoc at UC Berkeley. His research studies how the energy released during an earthquake travels across the Earth to image variations in elastic properties of the Earth interior (between 50 and 1000 km depth). The resulting images are then used to understand how deep mantle circulation relates to plate tectonics and surface volcanism.
Favorite Pastime: Pretty standard hobbies (i.e., cooking/eating, exploring and hiking, D&D, and making people laugh)
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: House of Curries and A+ Burger
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Join BPA events, make friends and explore! ;P
Atiyya Shaw - Co-Chair of Career & Development Committee
Department of City and Regional Planning
Atiyya is a 1st year postdoc at UC Berkeley. Her research examines issues at the intersection of transportation engineering, urban planning, and public health.
Favorite Pastime: Spending time with family, cooking/baking, and exploring trails/parks.
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Emery Bay Public Market
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Just relocated to the Bay Area a week ago, so I am looking forward to finding our favorite spots/things-to-do here!
Xiao Liu - Co-Chair of Career & Development Committee
Molecular and Cell Biology
Xiao is a 1st year postdoc at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on how neuron size impacts the structure and function of the vertebrate nervous system during development.
Favorite Pastime: I’m an avid cooker, baker, and board gamer :)
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Easterly
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Hiking in beautiful parks such as Muir Woods.
Florentine (Flora) Rutaganira - Chair of Diversity & Inclusion Committee
Molecular and Cell Biology
Flora is a 4th year postdoc at UC Berkeley using chemical tools to decipher the roles of key signaling networks in choanoflagellates, single-celled organisms that are the closest living relatives of animals. She is focused on studying tyrosine kinases to see if they regulate choanoflagellate colony formation.
Favorite Pastime: Animal Crossing :)
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Sliver
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Use all trails and take visits to see all of the waterfalls
Rohit Kolora - Co-Chair of Career & Development Committee
Integrative Biology
Rohit is a 3rd year postdoc at UC Berkeley. His research involves questions on species evolution and trait adaptations using a comparative genomics framework. He is currently working on understanding the genetic basis of longevity in vertebrates, focusing particularly on rockfish
Favorite Pastime: Cooking, gaming, bouldering
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Jupyter/Sliver/Thai delight
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Hiking at muir woods, biking by the marina, walking on the golden gate/lands trail, driving on the Richmond bridge, explore restaurants around south bay
Molly KozminskyQB3
Molly is a 3rd year postdoc at UC Berkeley. In her research she is using DNA-directed patterning to make in vitro models of the tumor microenvironment.
Favorite Pastime: Outside the lab, I enjoy baking, running, and yoga.
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Comal
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: The Rose Garden, the botanical garden, Tilden Park
Amber Hornsby
Physics
Amber is a 1st year postdoc at UC Berkeley. She develops cameras for space telescopes to observe the oldest light in the Universe - the Cosmic Microwave Background (or CMB).
Favorite Pastime: Legend of Zelda games and hanging out with her cat, Cosmos
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Berkeley Thai House or Timeless Coffee (for vegan donuts)
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Cycling around on the bay trail and over the Golden Gate bridge.
Alexandros Karampatzakis
Molecular and Cell Biology
Alexandros is a 1st year postdoc at UC Berkeley. He is working with NK cells and how they can utilized for cancer immunotherapy.
Favorite Pastime: Soccer, tennis, music, hiking, cycling
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Wolfhound
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Explore parks and the seaside
Francesca Burgos BravoFrancesca is a 3rd year postdoc at UC Berkeley. She is studying how RNA molecules fold as they are being synthesized (co-transcriptional RNA folding) and how RNA polymerase II transcriptional dynamics direct the attainment of their correct folding at the single-molecule level using high- resolution optical tweezers.
Favorite Pastime: Biking, cooking, tennis, spending time with my family and friends
Favorite Place to Eat in Berkeley: Great China
Recommendation for things to do in the Bay Area: Visit the museums in San Francisco