Panagiota Benetatos

Panagiota is a first year Biochemistry major. Panagiota is interested in the application of where biology and chemistry meet and interact with each other. Panagiota joined the EXPAND Program because she wanted to gain research experience and develop more hands-on experience. Outside of academics, Panagiota enjoys going hiking, hanging out with friends, and exploring new places!

Mohit Dutta

Mohit is a first-year mathematics-computer science major at UCSD. His interests lie in applying computational techniques to the social and physical sciences, particularly in machine learning applications. Mohit joined the EXPAND program to get a good understanding of what the research process entails and learn from those already established in his fields of interest. When he is not working, one can find Mohit singing, reading, or exploring the area.

Manasvini Komandur

Manasvini is a first year student studying Physics at UCSD. Her favorite things to do are spending time with her friends, reading a good book, and playing her violin. Manasvini is interested in the fields of astrophysics and quantum physics, and in particular, learning more about how quantum effects can be observed in some of the most extreme conditions in the universe. She joined the EXPAND program in order to better understand the research process and to learn more about current research topics in physics and astrophysics with the guidance of her mentor. 

Mentor: Alyssa Johnson 

Carmen Lopez

Carmen ( she / her) is a first-year Hispanic student studying Chemistry. She enjoys going out with friends, buying anything monkey related, and finding new music to obsess over every week. As she is always up for an adventure, Carmen joined the Student Cohort Program to broaden her experiences and get insight for others who have been in her position. Carmen is always eager to learn and ready to accept any challenges that may come her way.

Sammyo Roychowhury

Sammyo is a second-year computer science student at UCSD. He's interested in how he can combine his passion for computer science with other disciplines, with a particular interest in how artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to further science. Sammyo joined the EXPAND program because he wants to learn more about the research process and get some hands-on experience. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball, lifting, and drawing.

Sydney Vongsarath

Sydney is a first-year student studying Biochemistry at UCSD. She is from Thailand, and she loves creating art, trying out new foods, and being in nature. She is interested in pursuing a career in the medical field or in biomedical research because she enjoys problem-solving and learning about the human body. Additionally, as someone who had undergone surgery for a severe heart defect, she would like to one day be part of a team that actively takes part in saving patients’ lives and/or in discovering more effective treatments for human diseases. She joined the EXPAND program as a mentee at the Komives Lab because she would like to not only get exposure to research and hands-on experience in the lab, but to also gauge if fields pertaining to human health are what she wants to commit to

David Wang

Anupam Anand Ojha

Anupam is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego. His research spans the interdisciplinary field of computational, biological, chemical, and pharmaceutical sciences. He is particularly interested in creating computational tools for drug discovery and development using statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, machine learning, and deep learning. He is the recipient of the prestigious MOLSSI fellowship for his work in this field. If he is not doing science, you can find him playing the violin, motorcycling, hiking, and writing non-fiction stories.

Mentees: Mohit Dutta, Sammyo Roychowhury and David Wang