2023 ADCA Leadership Board
Yi Wang
Co-President
Yi (She/her) is a 5th-year Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Applied Physics at Northwestern. Her current research focuses on studying the optical properties of in-plane plasmonic Moire lattices. Her research involves nanofabrication, solid sample characterization, Fourier microscopy setup, femtosecond, and continuous-wave laser, and single-angle setup with rotating stages. Outside the lab, Yi enjoys playing tennis, baking, and reading books.
Dana Monzer
Co-President
Dana Monzer (She/Her) is a graduate student in the Transportation Systems Planning and Analysis program at Northwestern University. Her research is quite interdisciplinary and it revolves around advancing modeling methodologies to better understand traffic dynamics encompassing both human drivers and autonomous vehicles, analyzing the potential impacts of urban air mobility, and tackling optimization challenges within the domain of LTL routing. She also holds a Master’s degree in Civil engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with a certificate in railroad Engineering. Before attending Northwestern University, she worked in the industry on infrastructure design projects and various traffic control studies, and she coordinated the planning of several projects and conducted feasibility studies in collaboration with different clients and stakeholders. Her previous research includes studying micro-level driving behavior through experiments using a driving simulator and studying the distributions of bus stop spacing of different transit systems in the US and outside the US. Outside of her academic and professional pursuits, Dana enjoys extreme sports like bungee jumping and skydiving, and admires the art of stand-up comedy as a way for cultural enrichment.
Aashutosh Shetti
Vice President, Outreach
Aashu (He/Him) is a postdoctoral scientist at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology. His current research focuses on the role of calcium homeostasis in the brain and how alterations in it can cause neuroinflammation. Aashu holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). During his time at UIC, he held several leadership positions, including Event Coordinator for Graduate Education in Medical Sciences and Graduate Student Council Representative. Beyond UIC, he served as a lead fundraiser for ComSciCon-Chicago, a regional chapter organizing Science Communication Workshops for PhDs and Postdocs across the United States. Outside of the lab, Aashu enjoys exploring various Chicago neighborhoods on his bike to try different cuisines. He has a collection of more than 25 houseplants and often shares cuttings with fellow plant enthusiasts. As an ADCA board member, Aashu aspires to create more consulting opportunities for PhDs and Postdocs at Northwestern University. Connect with Aashu on LinkedIn: Aashutosh Shetti
2022 ADCA Leadership Board
Jennie Chen
Co-President
Jennie is a 3rd-year Ph.D.-MPH student in the Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Jennie’s interest lies in integrating epidemiologic methods with ever-advancing molecular techniques in medical research and has experience in healthcare innovation through establishing a practical business model for the first outpatient newborn circumcision clinic in the U.S. and through working as a fellow to support quantitative/qualitative research endeavors at Chicago Innovation Center.
Alexandra Berl
Co-President
Alexandra is a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate and NSF predoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department at Northwestern. She obtained her B.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. Her current research bridges the gap between synthetic chemistry and polymer science to produce sustainable organic electronic devices. At Northwestern, she serves several leadership roles to build communication between students and the wider community. Outside the lab, she runs a book club and dotes on her cat, Lucy.
Yash Chainani
Co-Vice President, Professional Development
Yash is a first-year Ph.D. student studying bioinformatics in the department of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern. He previously graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S degree in Chemical Engineering. At Berkeley, Yash also took several classes in data science, which he really enjoyed, and so in his current research, Yash tries to combine algorithms in machine learning or deep learning to discover biosynthetic pathways to various molecules. With regards to consulting, Yash is also interested in pursuing careers in life sciences/ data sciences consulting after his PhD. Outside of school, Yash really enjoys photography and exploring different cafes to try out their coffee
Cady Fu
Co-Vice President, Professional Development
Cady is a 2nd-year Ph.D. student and a Northwestern DSI fellow in the Driskill Graduate Program. She received her B.A. in Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis. Her current research focuses on developing computational methods to study skin and hair regeneration. Outside of the lab, she is an amateur photographer and an adventurous foodie.
Charles Cui
Vice President, Firm, University, and Alumni relations
Charles is a 2nd-year Ph.D. student in Computer Science. He completed his B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science at Oberlin College. His research interests lie at the intersection of algorithms and economics, and he is currently working on building an online peer grading platform. He is also passionate about entrepreneurship and has previously co-founded a real estate technology startup.
Julie Anh Nguyen
Vice President, Firm, University, and Alumni relations
Julie is a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in Applied Mathematics. Her research is on data-driven modeling of dynamical systems, and she is interested in technical consulting.
Borges Liu
Vice President, Finance
Borges is a 2nd year Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He obtained his B.S. in Chemical Engineering with a certificate in International Engineering from UW-Madison. His research focuses on combining advanced neutron/X-Ray scattering and rheological techniques to investigate the structure-property relationships in porous electrodes for electrochemical energy storage. The fundamental understanding of such relationships that determine the microstructure is critical to accelerating the development of emergent battery technologies with higher rate cycling and capacity.
Huaxia Zhou
Vice President, Communication
Huaxia is a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McCormick School of Engineering. His current research is about Science of Science, an emerging interdisciplinary field integrates computational, analytical, and statistical expertise. In addition to research, he is a percussionist in Northwestern Philharmonia at Bienen School of Music. He enjoys reading, travelling, and jogging.
2021 ADCA Leadership Board
Adam J. Pluchinsky
Co-President
Adam is a 5th-year Ph.D. candidate and NSF Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He previously completed a B.S. in Chemistry from Fordham University and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University. Adam’s thesis research lies at the intersection of synthetic biology and chemistry where he utilizes his lab’s technology to develop new and innovative solutions to address large bottlenecks in the fields of directed evolution and proteomics. He is interested in leadership development and entrepreneurship, and he is driven by bringing far-fetched ideas to reality.
Kavya Mendu
Co-President
Kavya is a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She holds a Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering from National Institute of Technology and Master’s in Structural Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. She worked in several leadership roles throughout her undergraduate and graduate studies. She conducted interdisciplinary research in the areas of Structures, Biomechanics and Digital Image Analysis. She is currently studying the influence of nanotechnology in construction materials (earth and outer space applications). She is a stock market enthusiast, a basketball fan and a hearty eater.
Jennie Chen
Co-Vice President, Professional Development
Jennie is a 2nd-year Ph.D.-MPH student in the Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Jennie’s interest lies in integrating epidemiologic methods with ever-advancing molecular techniques in medical research and has experience in healthcare innovation through establishing a practical business model for the first outpatient newborn circumcision clinic in the U.S. and through working as a fellow to support quantitative/qualitative research endeavors at Chicago Innovation Center.
Roman Grigorii
Co-Vice President, Professional Development
Roman is a 6th-year Ph.D. candidate in the Center for Robotics and Biosystems at McCormick School of Engineering. His research is in the field of surface haptics and focuses on the design and development of haptic technology and algorithms to realize playback of natural tactile textures on flat screens. He is interested in entrepreneurship and commercialization of products that can enable and enhance the interaction between humans and digital devices.
Apoorva Shivaram
Vice President, Career and Alumni Relations
Apoorva is a 3rd-year Ph.D. student in Cognitive Psychology. Her research examines how infants and children learn from and reason about the world around them. She holds an MA in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago where she examined the effect of gestures in prompting children to reason through analogies. Broadly, she hopes to work at the intersection of educational consulting and data science by using a data-driven approach to evaluating and redesigning learning opportunities for children within and across educational systems.
Alexandra Berl
Vice President, Finance
Alexandra is a 3rd-year Ph.D. candidate and NSF predoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department at Northwestern. She obtained her B.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. Her current research focuses on using light to make new classes of conjugated polymers for organic electronic applications.
Vasundhara Agrawal
Vice President, Administration
Vasundhara is a 4th-year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Imaging and Biophotonics. She completed her B.S in Biomedical Engineering with a specialization in Cell and Tissue Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. She utilizes her expertise in electron microscopy and functional genomics to study epigenetic cell reprogramming for applications in regenerative engineering.
2020 ADCA Leadership Board
Wuliang Zhang
Co-President
Wuliang is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry. She received a B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI. Her PhD research is on nanomedicine, developing new nanoparticle-based oligonucleotide delivery methods for cancer therapeutics. She is interested in healthcare and intangible asset management.
Moein Hosseini
Co-President
Moein is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a graduate student researcher at the Northwestern University Transportation Center (NUTC). He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Sharif University of Technology. He received his M.S. in Transportation Engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada. His research focuses on the impact of control strategies tailored to connected autonomous vehicles on the transportation network performance.
Nikodem Pancewicz
Co-VP Professional Development
Nikodem is a second year MS in Law student at Northwestern Pritzker School studying the impact of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and frontier technologies on privacy, intellectual property and other legal issues. He holds a Master’s in Management degree from Harvard University with a concentration in strategy and finance. Currently, he is working in Business Development and Strategy at a multinational engineering firm where he develops the go-to-market and growth strategy, oversees partnerships, and consults on Digital Transformation.
Conner Collins
Co-VP Professional Development
Conner is a 2L at Northwestern Law and a graduate of Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. He has worked in several financial roles both domestically and abroad. Currently, he is externing at Shipt, a tech start-up recently acquired by Target, and completing business-focused coursework through a joint program between Northwestern Law and Kellogg.
Sumit Saurabh, Ph.D
VP Finance
Sumit is a 4th-year Neurobiology Postdoctoral Fellow at Weinberg College of Arts and Science. Sumit finished his Ph.D. at the University of Houston-Main Campus, Texas in Animal Behavioral Genetics. He comes from clinical research and healthcare industry where he has handled drug safety surveillance wing for multiple clinical trials. He is currently supervising a project on drug screening for Autism disorders.
Jennie Chen
Co-VP Administration
Jennie is a first-year PhD-MPH student in the Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Jennie’s interest lies in integrating epidemiologic methods with ever-advancing molecular techniques in medical research and has experience in healthcare innovation through establishing a practical business model for the first outpatient newborn circumcision clinic in the U.S. and through working as a fellow to support quantitative/qualitative research endeavors at Chicago Innovation Center.
Mahsa Tajdari
Co-VP Administration
Mahsa is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She completed her Master’s degree at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Mahsa also worked with Lurie Children Hospital of Chicago for her PhD thesis. Her dissertation research studies the effect and evolution of Scoliosis on children.
Nikita Divekar
VP Career and Alumni Relations
Nikita Divekar is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate in the Molecular Biosciences Department at Northwestern University and studies the functions of enzymes in female reproductive cells (oocytes). She is interested in entrepreneurship and hopes to work at the intersection of business and technology. She interns at the Innovation and Venture Office where she is involved in patenting and commercialization of new technology developed in NU’s research labs. Prior to Northwestern, she majored in Molecular Biology and Bioengineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
2019 ADCA Leadership Board
Hussain Sangji
Co-President
Hussain Sangji is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering. He previously completed a B.S. and M.S. in Physics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His PhD research is on the intersection of nanotechnology and regenerative medicine, developing new biomaterials support regeneration of damaged tissues. He is interested biotechnology commercialization and entrepreneurship.
Nikita Divekar
Co-President
Nikita Divekar is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in the Molecular Biosciences Department at Northwestern University and studies the functions of enzymes in female reproductive cells (oocytes). She is interested in entrepreneurship and hopes to work at the intersection of business and technology. She interns at the Innovation and Venture Office where she is involved in patenting and commercialization of new technology developed in NU’s research labs. Prior to Northwestern, she majored in Molecular Biology and Bioengineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Helen Pinto
Co-VP Professional Development
Helen Pinto is a senior Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a graduate student researcher at the Northwestern University Transportation Center. She completed her undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering at Universidade Federal da Paraiba in Brazil, and obtained her Master’s degree in Transportation Systems Analysis and Planning at Northwestern University. Helen also worked with technical consulting in water resources in Brazil prior to graduate school. Her dissertation research studies the impacts of shared mobility services and autonomous vehicles on public transportation. Helen values environmentally- and community-focused initiatives, and enjoys latin dancing on her free time.
Chenyang Li
Co-VP Professional Development
Chenyang is a 3rd year PhD student in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northwestern University. Before joining Northwestern, Chenyang earned his MEngSc from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. His research focuses on the mechanics of construction materials.
Jasmine Lucas
VP Finance
Jasmine is a 5th-year PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences program at Northwestern University. Jasmine obtained her B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Michigan State University in 2014. At Northwestern, she studies the development of a peculiar photoreceptor and its role in retinal development. While Jasmine has a broad array of business interests, she is most fascinated by the impact of finance on science and how scientific progress can be translated into capital.
Lama Al Hajj Hassan
VP Administration
Lama is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a graduate student researcher at the Northwestern University Transportation Center (NUTC). Her research focuses on building demand forecasting models and formulating mathematical programs and heuristics for optimizing freight transportation and logistics operations. She holds a B.E. in Civil Engineering from the American University of Beirut and M.Sc. in Transportation Engineering from Northwestern University.
Vadim Glinskiy
VP Career and Alumni Relations
Vadim Glinskiy is a second year PhD student at Kellogg School of Management. He holds Master of Science degree in Sustainable Energy Technology from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He studied Power Engineering for his Engineer’s Diploma Degree in Russia and South Korea. Currently, he is studying market diffusion models applying the methods of optimal control and dynamic programming. His broader research interests include Machine learning, Demand forecasting models, Dynamic and Stochastic programming with the applications in transportation, energy industry, marketing and advertising. His main hobby is studying new languages.
2018 ADCA Leadership Board
Amr Elfar
Co-President
Amr is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a graduate student researcher at the Northwestern University Transportation Center (NUTC). His research at focuses on the impacts of connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technology, widely known in the form of self-driving vehicles, on the operational performance of transportation systems. Before joining the doctoral program at Northwestern, Amr worked in construction management on multiple building and infrastructure projects in Oman and his home country of Jordan.
Xuan Dou
Co-President
Xuan Dou is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate in Materials Science and Engineering. Xuan holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of Science and Technology of China. Xuan’s research at Northwestern University is focusing on designing new type of lubricant additive to further reduce the mechanical friction and wear, in the meantime he is very interested in technology commercialization.
Joseph Toonen, PhD
VP Marketing
Joe Toonen is a postdoctoral fellow in Neurosurgery at FSM aimed at discovering novel therapies for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). He received his Ph.D. in Cell biology, Neurobiology, & Anatomy from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He has also served as a consultant for the BALSA group in St. Louis before relocating to Chicago and is interested in consulting and biotechnology.
Jenna Logsdon
VP Internal Affairs
Jenna Logsdon is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in the Chemistry Department. She holds a B.S. in Chemistry and Biology from The University of Tampa in Florida. Her current research focuses on designing and analyzing the fundamental properties of molecules to improve the efficiency and accessibility of organic photovoltaic solar cells.
Nikita Divekar
VP External Affairs
Nikita Divekar is a 3rd Year Ph.D. student in the Molecular Biosciences Department at Northwestern University. She holds a double major in Molecular Biology and Bioengineering from the University of California, Santa Cruz. At Northwestern, she is involved in NU-MORE and serves as an International Student advisor. Her current research involves the study of meiotic kinases using diverse microscopy, biochemistry, and cell biology techniques.
Hussain Sangji
VP Professional Development
Hussain Sangji is a 3rd year Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering. He previously completed a B.S. and M.S. in Physics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. His PhD research is on the intersection of nanotechnology and regenerative medicine, developing new biomaterials support regenration of damaged tissues. He is interested biotechnology commercialization and entrepreneurship.
Shichen Lian
VP Finance
Shichen Lian is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His current research focuses on utilizing solar energy to reduce greenhouse gas by using novel nanomaterials. Outside of his research, Shichen serves as the Vice President of the Phi Lambda Upsilon chemistry honors society at Northwestern and is involved with Chicago entrepreneurial community on clean tech.
Weiwei Wang
VP Firm and Alumni Relations
Weiwei Wang is a 5th year Ph.D. candidate in the Chemistry Department. She holds a B.A. from Kalamazoo College in Michigan and decided to stay around the Midwest for gradate studies. While in Kalamazoo, she did undergraduate research in organic synthesis and was an active member of the university and community orchestra. Her current research focuses on methodology development and its application to the syntheses of natural products. This is currently her 3rd year with ADCA.