young man wearing a dark beanie, white t-shirt and mustard colored sweater. standing in a garage space with a rocket taller than him

Asa Garner

Asa Garner studied Mechanical Engineering at Cal. He was a member of the CUBES project and is working under Aaron Berliner to study offworld nuclear engineering & develop methods to additively manufacture fissile material. He was also a lead for the Cal liquid rocket propulsion group ‘Space Enterprise at Berkeley’

Skyler Chan

Skyler Chan undergraduate in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. He wanted to become an astronaut since he was 3. In high school, he learned how to fly gliders, and was involved in various student-led space organizations. One of his goals is to make humanity an interplanetary species within our lifetime, and he joined CUBES to advance this mission. Currently, he builds in the Systems Design and Integration Division of CUBES. He is interested in exploring sustainable design on Mars, such as, how to build the first self-sufficient Martian cities. To Skyler, the idea that the choices we make designing the first Martian habitats today will have an impact on the future of humanity never gets old. In his free time, he can be found flying drones, PR-ing at the gym, and filming videos with friends.

Snigdha Jagarlapudi

Snigdha is a freshman at UC Berkeley studying Genetics and Plant Biology. She is working with Dr.Sander on the CUBES project because of their work with the growth coupling of polyhydroxyalkanoate production in species of Cupriavidus for applications in space exploration. She is interested in studying the genetic engineering of metabolic pathways in bacteria and algae, especially in the broader context of sustainability.

Shobhin Logani

Shobhin Logani is a sophomore at UC Berkeley studying Molecular and Cell Biology, and is working with Kelsey Hern on engineering probiotic biosensors for detecting respiratory disease. He is interested in studying functional and comparative genomics, and his research interests lie in manipulating natural biological systems to address issues in human and environmental health. He is also passionate about making new biotechnologies more accessible and cost-effective.

Phillipe Wiederkehr

Phillipe Wiederkehr is an undergraduate in Bioengineering Department at UC Berkeley with a major emphasis in synthetic biology. His interest in microbiology is tailocins, which he hopes could be utilized to revolutionize medicine in the future. He is very interested in just how precise bacteria-tailocin interactions are, and how surface proteins on a cell can have counter-intuitive effects on such events. The overall complexity of viruses interests him, and he will be able to contribute to a greater understanding of their interactions with cells.
He assists with phage-related projects. He has done biological research since high school and co-authored a paper on the effects of cannabinoids on the brain that was published in the Journal of Investigative Medicine in 2019. He is also involved with Berkeley iGEM, a club focussing on synthetic and computational biology.

Katie Sie

Katie is an undergraduate studying Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. She is mentored by Cameron Hearne and Dr. Mutalik. Her focuses will be to use phage isolation techniques to optimize the engineering of phage-like molecules.

Yihao (Harry) Ma

Yihao is a first year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying Molecular Cell Biology. He is working with Jiaqi Huang on the C. necator imaging project. Through his work at this lab, Yihao is interested in exploring investigating diversity generating mechanisms in bacterial isolates.

Joyleen Abou Hamad

Joyleen an undergraduate in Aerospace Engineering Department (part of the inaugurating class) at UC Berkeley. She worked with Dr. Aaron Berliner a postdoc in the Arkin Lab on the development of Space Bioprocess Engineering metrics involving sustainability and supportability.

Rahil Shaik

Rahil Shaik, chemical engineering undergraduate at UC Berkeley with an interest in studying manufacturing automation, battery materials, and semiconductor design. He worked with Dr. Kyle Sander to develop process models and 3D design modeling.

Sophia Bertoldo

Sophia is a sophomore at UC Berkeley studying Molecular & Cellular Biology and Economics. She was initially drawn to CUBES because of their work with In-situ Resource Utilization and is interested in studying different forms of life in strenuous environments. In her free time she enjoys surfing, playing soccer and reading novels.