MIT Grad Blog » Meet the Bloggers

Meet the Bloggers

Our entourage of bloggers include notable faces from the graduate community. Here is a bit of information that each of them has shared.

	Kevin McComber, originally from Appleton, Wisconsin, is a Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering. He was also an undergraduate at MIT, having earned B.S. degrees in materials science and engineering and in physics in 2005. He is now the vice president of the GSC, as well as the Northeast Regional President/Coordinator of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS) and the chair of the Boston Graduate Leadership Organization (BGLO). He enjoys weightlifting, studying foreign languages, and being picky about grammar.
	Alex Hamilton Chan, 56th GSC President. He was born and raised in Hong Kong, China.
	Caroline Cochran is a graduate student in nuclear engineering originally from Oklahoma. She enjoys hip hop dance, productive procrastination like laundry or excessive reading of current events, and being a part of the off-campus delegation for GSC.
	Yoda is one of the editors of The Graduate, GSC’s official publication. She also can’t stop signing up for stuff, which means there will be plenty of stories for her to blog about!
	Wendy Lam is a Ph.D. student in Biology at MIT, and is one of the co-chairs of the GSC’s Housing and Community Affairs Committee. She was born and bred in Southern California, and is a proud alum of UC Berkeley (GO BEARS!). Wendy spends way too much time thinking about DNA (along with stipends and dental insurance… obviously), and has an insatiable appetite for red velvet cupcakes.
	Zenzile Brooks hails from Oakland, California. She received her B.S. in Civil Engineering at the University of Southern California, and is currently pursuing a S.M./Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at MIT, with a focus on the nanomechanics of geomaterials. She frequently escapes lab by playing frisbee, basketball, and serving as the president of MIT Sidney-Pacific Graduate Community.
	Brandon Russell, GSC Activities Committee Co-Chair, is officially a Ph.D. student in Biological Engineering, but he’s really an organic chemist who’s hoping no one catches on. He was born and raised in the heart of the deep south in southern Mississippi, and graduated from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 2008. When he’s not elbows-deep in RNA, he can be found volunteering as an EMT with the MIT ambulance or making appearances at local karaoke bars, where he’s better known as “51 Cent”.
	Cherry Wan, originally from Taiwan, is a 5th (argh!) year graduate student in mechanical engineering. She has been involved with GSC peripherally by being her departmental representative for a couple of years and helping out with 2008 orientation. In her free time, she is involved with a few international development projects in China and Cambodia. She enjoys spending time thinking about nonsense and making geeky analogies.
	Nan Gu is a Ph.D. student in physics and grew up in New York City.
	Shayna Harris is a Sloan School of Management student with a passion for social justice and sustainability. A native Chicagoan, she has spent the better part of the last decade working on various trade and economic development initiatives at human rights organization Oxfam America, as a Fulbright researcher in rural Brazil, and as a campaigning and ethical/green sourcing consultant for a number of non/for-profits. The more she travels, the more her wanderlust grows; both work and mere curiosity have carried her to almost 30 countries and all reaches of the US. She looks forward to exploring MIT, Sloan and sustainability with you!
	Paul Monasterio is a Ph.D. student in Nuclear Science and Engineering. He is originally from Caracas, Venezuela and obtained his undergraduate degrees in Nuclear Engineering and Mathematics from UC Berkeley (GO BEARS!). He currently serves as one of the Graduate Student Representatives to the Advisory Committee to the MIT Board of Trustees (The Corporation).