Student Mentor Listing

We currently have mentors for these courses:

1 – Civil & Environmental Engineering

Number of mentors: 1

Investigating the interactions of atmospheric chemistry, biomass burning, and radiative forcing through GEOS-Chem, a chemical transport model, and observations; Exploring the policy relevance of this modeling work for health and climate change impacts 

3 – Materials Science & Engineering

Number of mentors: 1

Directed self assembly at the nanoscale; nanomaterials; polymer design and synthesis

5 – Chemistry

Number of mentors: 3

  1. Broadly interested in organic synthesis/chemical catalysis. Working on copper hydride chemistry in the Buchwald lab. Eventual goal of a research career in pharma.
  2. Theoretical and computational chemistry, quantum chemistry, non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, computational structural biology.
  3. I am interested in using structural techniques such as crystallography and/or electron microscopy to understand the maturation of metalloenzymes. Specifically, I am probing how precious and complicated cofactors such as Vitamin B12 are modified, protected and ultimately delivered to their target protein to ensure correct function.
6 – Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

Number of mentors: 2

  1. Electrical engineering, power electronics
  2. My general research area is applied physics and devices. More specifically I am interested in spintronics.
7 – Biology

Number of mentors: 6

  1. I work in Jacqueline Lees's lab on a project related to splicing regulation in cancer.  My research also occasionally involves cancer immunology and cancer stem cells.
  2. I've been trained as a molecular biologist/biochemist and have been attempting to learn more physics over the past few years to work at interdisciplinary questions in the biology of gene expression and regulation. I'm in Gene-Wei Li's lab where we attempt to mathematically model and experimentally quantify how genes are regulated. I'm fascinated by ideas surrounding why genes have certain expression levels and how they've been "optimized" over evolutionary timescales!
  3. Applying machine learning to large biological datasets such as single cell rna sequencing data, Investigating fundamental questions about regulation in biology, Combining experimental and computational approaches
  4. biochemistry, protein structure-function
  5. Host-pathogen interactions. Interested in understanding how intracellular bacterial pathogens subvert cellular processes to disseminate to different tissues in the body.
  6. In the past I've studied the role of proteins and transcription factors in gene regulation during development and cancer. My current work focuses on understanding the structure and biochemistry of the proteins that make up nuclear pores, the holes in the nucleus that regulate trafficking to and from the nucleus and cytoplasm.
8 - Physics

Number of mentors: 3

  1. Theoretical aspects of quantum computing and quantum information science in general.
  2. Condensed matter theory - Topological superconductivity, strongly correlated materials, entanglement dynamics
  3. fast astronomy, 21 centimeter cosmology, quantum information and foundations, quantum optics, atomic physics
9 – Brain & Cognitive Science

Number of mentors: 2

  • I work on synapse biology in Drosophila. Right now, I am focused on a project involving RNA editing and how it regulates a protein involved in neurotransmission modulation. I am also studying ion channels and their localization / trafficking at the synapse.
  • brain bioenergetics and metabolism, glia, the blood-brain barrier, neuro-immunology, iPS models, stem cell engineering, transcriptomics, neurodegenerative disease (e.g. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's)
10 – Chemical Engineering

Number of mentors: 5

  1. My main research focuses on the fundamentals of electrochemical engineering and how it applies on energy storage applications such as Li-ion batteries. My expertise includes transport phenomena, theoretical electrochemistry, reaction kinetics, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, rheology of complex liquids, numerical methods and solid mechanics.
  2. My research is in the field of diagnostics using microfluidic and soft material technologies. I am interested in a biomarker called microRNA, along with proteins.
  3. Statistical Physics, Computational Biology
  4. Biomaterials, Immunology, Drug delivery, Tissue Engineering
  5. I am interested in biopharmaceutical development and delivery into the body. Specifically, I am interested in cancer therapeutics that specifically target cancer cells. I am interested in high affinity protein therapeutics.
12 – Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Science

Number of mentors: 3

  1. Climate Science; Physical Oceanography, Gulf Stream, autonomous underwater vehicles
  2. My research involves the detection and characterization of exoplanets (planets outside the solar system). I use a combination of observations, experiments and modeling to try to understand the surfaces and atmospheres of a subset of the exoplanet population called "hot super Earths" – rocky planets with short orbital periods.
  3. I study physical oceanography, biological oceanography, and mathematical ecology. My undergraduate was in applied math.
14 - Economics

Number of mentors: 1

Econometrics, Statistics, Probability

16 – Aeronautics & Astronautics

Number of mentors: 2

  1. Renewable Energy, Alternative Fuel, Energy in Developing Countries
  2. Human factors engineering, bioastronautics, spacesuits, space physiology, and partial gravity simulation.

Reminders:

  • Mentors are all current MIT graduate students who are volunteering their time
  • They are available on an as-needed basis (there is no longer term time commitment involved unless agreed upon by both L&L participant and the mentor)
  • This does not satisfy the L&L Faculty Mentor requirement

To request to be connected to a mentor, please email laureatesleaders [at] mit.edu (laureatesleaders[at]mit[dot]edu). You will be connected with a mentor within 48 hours

Don't see your course listed? Check this page intermittently, as mentors are able to sign up at any time.