B.S., University of Mississippi, 2017
Advisor: Davita Watkins and Daniell Mattern
Ph.D., Princeton University, 2022
Advisor: Robert Knowles
Schmidt Science Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT, 2022–2024
Advisor: Jeremiah Johnson
Shubhanga Ballal
Pronouns: he/him
B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2022
1st Year Graduate Student
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Shubhanga was born on the southwest coast of India and grew up in Austin, Texas, where he worked in the lab of Prof. John Ekerdt at UT Austin to characterize inorganic thin films. He received his B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT, and served as Vice President of the National Championship-winning Sport Taekwondo team. After graduating, Shubhanga worked for three years at Quadratic 3D, a startup developing volumetric 3D printing technologies. As an avid enthusiast of skiing, cheese, and chocolate, he is excited to be pursuing a PhD in Switzerland. In his spare time, Shubhanga also enjoys watching sports such as basketball and tennis, attending music concerts, and cooking.
Yuji Watanabe
Pronouns: he/him
M.S., Kyoto University, 2020
1st Year Graduate Student
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Yuji was born and raised in Japan and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in pharmaceutical sciences from Kyoto University. He conducted research on stereoselective aldol reactions using organocatalysis in the lab of Professor Kawabata, under the supervision of then Associate Professor Furuta. Following graduation, Yuji joined Asahi Kasei Corporation, where he worked on the development of super engineering plastics and polymer chemical recycling. After five years of corporate research, he decided to pursue a PhD at EPFL, specializing in polymer chemistry. In his spare time, Yuji enjoys working out, playing games, watching movies and cat videos.
Yuchen Hu
Pronouns: he/him
Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2022
Process Development Engineer, Shanghai Hongene, Inc.
Research Scientist II, N1 Life, Inc.
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Yuchen Hu was born and raised in a small southern city in China. He obtained his master's degree from Tianjin University in China. During his master's program, he performed his research on Covalent-Organic Frameworks (COFs) in Prof. Bin Zhang's lab. Then he moved to the United States to pursue his Ph.D. degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he conducted the research on Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and their applications under the guidance of Prof. Jian Zhang. After receiving his Ph.D. degree in 2022, Yuchen joined N1 Life, inc. (San Jose, CA) and worked on peptide-drug conjugates for one year. After that, he went to Shanghai Hongene and gained experience of DNA, RNA and oligonucleotides synthesis and design. In his spare time, Yuchen is a soccer player, a keen traveller, a movie lover and a real foodie.
Nadia Gauljaux
Pronouns: she/her