People Spotlights
All Spotlights
- Graduate Student, Environmental Science and Engineering
Sara Murphy
Sara is a fifth-year graduate student in Environmental Science and Engineering performing research in experimental atmospheric chemistry. Using gas chromatography chemical ionization mass spectrometry (GC-CIMS) and a small atmospheric chamber, she studies the formation rates of atmospherically significant organic peroxides. Broadly, she is interested in studying the rates and mechanisms of gas-phase organic reactions in the atmosphere to better understand and model tropospheric chemistry and air quality. In addition to her research, Sara enjoys teaching and mentoring undergraduates, and is active in pushing for changes to make Caltech and academia more inclusive. In her spare time, she enjoys playing and teaching bluegrass fiddle, playing violin in the Caltech orchestra, and exploring the local hiking trails.
- Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering
Smruthi Karthikeyan
Dr. Karthikeyan's research interests lie at the interface of microbial ecology, computational biology and engineering. She builds predictive models that integrate physicochemical and transport data with multi-omic (DNA, RNA and metabolome-level) data to make accurate predictions of microbial community responses to environmental perturbations. (Karthikeyan joins Caltech in Jan 2023)
- Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Deborah Chung (BS '73, MS '73)
Dr. Deborah Chung (BS '73, MS '73) graduated as one of the first four female undergraduates at Caltech, and is the first female to graduate from Caltech with a major in Engineering and Applied Science. After Caltech, Chung received her PhD degree in Materials Science from MIT. Chung is a pioneer in the field of multifunctional structured materials and is best known for her invention of smart concrete, a material in which short carbon fibers are added to concrete so that stress and deformation can be easily detected even before cracks appear.
- Chief Scientist and Senior Vice President of Research at NVIDIA
Bill Dally (PhD '86)
Dr. William Dally (PhD '86) became hooked on computers the first time he got to play with one in the 1970s. After studying engineering at Virginia Tech and Stanford, Dally came to Caltech and worked with Professor Charles Seitz on multiprocessors. After earning his PhD at Caltech, Dally joined the faculty of MIT, where he and his team built experimental parallel computer systems and built the foundation for the theory of interconnection networks.
- Professor and department head of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University
Ivett Leyva (BS '94, MS '95, PhD '99) October 04, 2022
Dr. Ivett Leyva (BS '94, MS '95, PhD '99) likes to go fast. Really fast. This need for speed inspired her research interest of hypersonic aerodynamics and has led her to become a professor and department head of aerospace engineering at Texas A&M University.
- 9x builder of early-stage startups
Dave Zito (BS '97)
Dave Zito (BS '97) is a 9x builder of early-stage startups, raising over $30 million in venture capital funding and running consumer software teams with exits exceeding $250 million. Zito's career in startups began at Idealab, where he worked under the guidance of Caltech engineering alumnus and trustee, Bill Gross (BS '81). Since his early days at Idealab, Zito has worked with PayMyBills, Overture/Yahoo, Cramster/Chegg, Miso Robotics, and more.