Past BPA Board

BPA Boards 2021-2022

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

Follow @michaelkosicki


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!

Follow @atiyyashaw


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
 

Follow @frutag33


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

Follow @rohitkolora

QB3


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.

Follow @amber_hornsby


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 Bravo

Molecular and Cell Biology


Francesca 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

Follow @Franburgos_