People Spotlights
All Spotlights
- Graduate Student, Electrical Engineering
Jinhua Xu
I was born and raised in Qingdao, China. I’ve been at Caltech for almost three years now and am working at Caltech Optical Imaging lab under the guidance of Professor Lihong Wang. In general, my research interests lie in designing biomedical imaging systems for both research and medical purposes that are accessible, minimally invasive, and leveraging novel physics and computational technologies. Currently, my research focuses on building the first human-scale whole-body tomography system incorporating ultrasound, thermoacoustic, and photoacoustic contrasts that could potentially enable structural imaging, biopsy procedure guiding, and in vivo histology in one system. I’m also working on building a high-resolution photoacoustic tomography system for small animals. Outside of the lab, I enjoy reading novels, watching movies (Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Koreeda Hirokazu are some of my favorite directors), and going to concerts.
- Graduate Student, Applied Physics and Materials Science
Elina Sendonaris
My name is Elina, and I'm a G3 in Applied Physics working in the Nonlinear Photonics Lab with Professor Alireza Marandi. I work on creating and measuring quantum states of light using nonlinear nanophotonic chips made out of lithium niobate. In my free time I love to ski, hike, and bike around town. I am also advocating for safer streets for non-drivers with the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition.
- Graduate Student, Computing and Mathematical Sciences
Guanzhi Wang
Hi everyone! I am a third-year PhD student from the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences. I am advised by Professor Georgia Gkioxari and Professor Yisong Yue. My research interests lie in the area of foundation models, robotics, and embodied agents. I am passionate about building embodied foundation agents that are generally capable to discover and pursue complex and open-ended objectives and understand how the world works through massive pre-trained knowledge. Before joining Caltech, I obtained my MS from Stanford University and my BS degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Outside of research, I like to play soccer and travel.
- Undergraduate Student, Computer Science and Environmental Science
Kaushik Tota
Hey there! My name’s Kaushik, and I’m a third-year undergraduate studying computer science, business, and environmental science and engineering. I’ve spent the past few years working on projects lying at the intersection of sustainability and computer science. This summer, I’m returning to industry as a software engineering intern at Crusoe, a San Francisco and Denver-based unicorn building a high-performance, climate-aligned platform for cloud computing. Throughout my time at Caltech, I’ve also served as Vice President and board member of the nonprofit Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action, a youth-led network of over 100 students engaging in environmental policy advocacy, climate literacy campaigns, and climate career education. In the future, I hope to continue utilizing innovative technology and environmental policy to help solve the planet's most pressing sustainability challenges. I love spending my free time learning about new consumer technology (especially electric vehicles), watching Jeopardy! (if a Jeopardy! casting manager is reading this, let me on the College Championship, please), and exploring LA’s vibrant food scene!
- Graduate Student, Applied Physics and Materials Science
Bilgehan Baspinar
I am a fourth-year Applied Physics graduate student in Professor Andrei Faraon’s group. My research focuses on optical dielectric metasurfaces made of nano-structures smaller than the wavelength of light. These metasurfaces, with funky patterns, can mimic any traditional optical element despite being super lightweight and thin, and can achieve even more. I got involved in many different projects, yet one of the projects that got me the most excited was a collaboration with NASA-JPL, as I dreamed about working at NASA as a kid! I ended up realizing that my childhood heroes were regular people who could even get lazy sometimes, though — but that’s a story for another time. It was fantastic to see that we can correct the phase aberrations in a coronagraph with our metasurfaces. How exciting is it — even the possibility of contributing to the discovery of a new exoplanet? I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such cool people by coming to Caltech. Outside the lab, I am into traveling, photography, tennis, reading, and singing. Hit me up if you want to jam or do optics together!
- 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.