Division of Biology
Stijn Cassenaer (Biology) B.S., UC, San Diego 1999.Thesis: Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity and Synchronous Oscillations in an Invertebrate Olfactory System.
Robert Sidney Cox III (Biology) B.S., New College of University of San Francisco 2001.
Thesis: Transcriptional Regulation and Combinatorial Genetic Logic in Synthetic
Bacterial Circuits.
Jennifer Leigh Green (Biology) A.A., Los Angeles Pierce College 1999; B.S., UC, Los Angeles 2001.
Thesis: The C. elegans ROR Receptor Tyrosine Kinase, CAM-1, Regulates Wnt
Signaling by Two Distinct Mechanisms.
Asha Muthuraman Iyer (Biology) B.S., Stanford University 1998.
Thesis: FMRI Correlates of Planning Goal-Directed Actions.
Ali Mortazavi (Biology) B.S., Caltech 1993; M.S., California
State University, Los Angeles 2004.
Thesis: Structure and Evolution of Mammalian Gene Networks.
Anna Maria Salazar (Biology) B.S., Caltech 1997.
Thesis: A Pumilio Domain that Forms Heritable Amyloid Aggregates in Yeast Can
Regulate Pumilio-Mediated Translational Repression in Drosophila.
Stephen Edward Paucha Smith (Biology) B.A., Occidental College 2002.
Thesis: Maternal Immune Activation and Abnormal Behavior in the Adult
Offspring: Towards a Mechanism.
Luigi Andrea Warren (Biology) B.Sc., University College London 1982; B.S., Columbia
University 2001.
Thesis: Single-Cell Gene-Expression Analysis by Quantitative RT-PCR.
Brian Matthew Zid (Biology) B.S., Truman State University 2000.
Thesis: Translational Control Mediates Lifespan Extension Due to Dietary
Restriction in Drosophila.
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Donde R. Anderson (Chemistry) B.A., Northwestern University 2002.Thesis: Ruthenium Olefin Metathesis Complexes: Catalyst Development and Mechanistic Studies.
Melissa Jane Archer (Chemical Engineering and Applied Physics) B.S., Syracuse University
2003; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Multijunction Solar Cells on Epitaxial Templates.
Kimberly Elizabeth Beatty (Chemistry and Biology) B.S., UC, Santa
Barbara 2002.
Thesis: Imaging the Proteome: Metabolic Tagging of Newly Synthesized Proteins
with Reactive Methionine Analogues.
Teresa Diane Beeson (Chemistry) B.S., Colorado State University 2000.
Thesis: Development of Enantioselective Organocatalytic Technologies for the
Alpha-Functionalization of Aldehydes and Ketones.
Amie Kathleen Boal (Chemistry) B.A., Pomona College 2002.
Thesis: DNA-Mediated Charge Transport in DNA Repair.
Akram Issam Boukai (Chemistry) B.S., UC, Los Angeles 2002.
Thesis: Thermoelectric Properties of Bismuth and Silicon Nanowires.
Mark Butler (Chemistry) B.S., Brigham Young University 1995; M.S., University of
Utah 1999.
Thesis: Novel Methods for Force-Detected Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.
Christie Anne Canaria (Chemistry) B.S., UC, San Diego 2000.
Thesis: Self-Assembled Monolayers for the Study of Biological Targets.
Daniel David Caspi (Chemistry) B.S., UC, San Diego 2002.
Thesis: The Adaptive Nature of Palladium Reactivity in Synthesis.
Rebecca Elizabeth Connor (Chemistry) B.S., Carnegie Mellon University 1999.
Thesis: N-terminal Modification and Codon Reassignment with Non-Canonical
Amino Acids in Proteins.
Ubaldo M. Cordova-Figueroa (Chemical Engineering) B.S., University of Puerto Rico,
Mayaguez 2003.
Thesis: Directed Motion of Colloidal Particles via Chemical Reactions: Osmotic
Propulsion.
Ralph Leonard Ameri David (Chemical Engineering) A.S., Dixie College 1998; B.S.,
Brigham Young University 2003.
Thesis: Associative Polymers as Antimisting Agents and Other Functional
Materials via Thiol-ene Coupling.
Claudiu Adrian Giurumescu (Chemical Engineering and Biology) S.B., MIT 2001.
Thesis: Quantitative Insights into Developmental Signals and Phenotypes in
C. elegans.
Erin Nicole Guidry (Chemistry) B.S., Texas A&M University 2002.
Thesis: Interlocked Molecules Using Olefin Metathesis.
Jason P. Jordan (Chemistry) B.S., Carnegie Mellon University 2001.
Thesis: The Development of Water-Soluble Olefin Metathesis Catalysts
Containing an N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligand.
Neena Sujata Kadaba (Chemistry) S.B., MIT 2002;
S.M., 2003.
Thesis: Structural Studies of the E. coli Methionine ABC Transporter and Its
Cognate Binding Protein.
Victor Wai Tak Kam (Chemistry) B.A., Cornell University 2001.
Thesis: Methods in Computational Protein Design.
Jordan E. Katz (Chemistry) B.A., Reed College 1999.
Thesis: Metal Oxide-Based Photoelectrochemical Cells for Solar Energy
Conversion.
Jason M. Keith (Chemistry) B.S., University of North Texas 2001.
Thesis: Palladium Mediated Activation of Molecular Oxygen.
John A. Keith (Chemistry) B.A., Wesleyan University 2001.
Thesis: Computational Insight into Homogeneous Organopalladium Catalysis.
Hugh Inkon Kim (Chemistry) B.S., UC, Berkeley 2003.
Thesis: Fundamental and Applied Studies of the Structures and Reaction Dynamics
of Biomolecules Using Mass Spectrometry and Ion Mobility Spectrometry.
Tsun Yin Lai (Chemistry) B.A., The Johns Hopkins University 2003.
Thesis: Characterizing a-Synuclein Membrane Bound Structure.
Sandra Lee (Chemistry) B.S., UC, Berkeley 2000.
Thesis: Development of Iminium-Activation Technologies and the Total Synthesis
of (+)-Frondosin B.
Michael J. Mackel (Chemical Engineering) B.A., UC, Davis 1995;
B.S., UC, Santa Barbara 2000.
Thesis: Hydrophilic Polymers in Gels and Solutions: Surface Properties and
Structure.
Eric Louis Margelefsky (Chemical Engineering) B.S., Cornell University 2004.
Thesis: Cooperative Catalysis by Bifunctionalized Mesoporous Silica.
Ryan Michael McFadden (Chemistry) B.S., Purdue University 2002.
Thesis: Applications of Palladium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Decarboxylative
Alkylation in Natural Products Total Synthesis.
Sarina Mohanty (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) B.A., University of Virginia 2001.
Thesis: Akt Phosphorylation of Drosophila Heat-Shock Factor: A Signature for
Stress Resistance.
Vijay Natraj (Chemical Engineering) B.E., National University of Singapore 1998; M.E.,
2001; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Radiative Transfer Modeling for the Retrieval of CO2 from Space.
Nicholas George Nickols (Chemistry) B.A., Pomona College 2000.
Thesis: Endogenous Gene Regulation by DNA Binding Polyamides.
Clifford Anders Olson (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) B.A., New York University
2001.
Thesis: mRNA Display Selection Using a Combinatorial 10FnIII Protein Library
for Detection and Modulation of Cellular Processes.
Christopher Richard Otey (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) B.S., UC, Santa Barbara 1999.
Thesis: Structural and Functional Analysis of an Artificial Family of Cytochromes
P450.
Yan Shuen Poon (Chemistry) B.A., B.S., UC, Berkeley 2000.
Thesis: The Characterization and Structure of Mechanosensitive Channels of Small
Conductance.
David J. Robichaud (Chemistry) B.S., B.A., California State University, Fullerton 2001.
Thesis: High-Resolution Study of the O2 A-Band using Frequency Stabilized Cavity
Ring-Down Spectroscopy.
Katie Rose Saliba (Chemistry) B.S., Georgia Institute of Technology 2001.
Thesis: Methodologies for the Rapid Synthesis of Hexoses and Their Application
towards a Differentially-Protected Chondroltin Sulfate Tetrasaccharide.
Fangwei Shao (Chemistry) B.S., Fudan University 1999; M.S., 2002.
Thesis: DNA-Mediated Hole and Electron Transport.
Crystal Shih (Chemistry) S.B., MIT 2003.
Thesis: Electron Tunneling and Hopping Through Proteins.
Armin Sorooshian (Chemical Engineering and Environmental Science and Engineering) B.S.,
The University of Arizona 2003; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Aerosol Composition and Hygroscopicity Studies: Instrument
Development/Characterization, Ambient and Laboratory Measurements, and
Modeling.
Ryan Leonard Stafford (Chemistry) B.S. (Biology), B.S. (Chemistry), UC, Irvine 2002.
Thesis: Design of Protein-DNA Dimerizers.
Matthew C. Traub (Chemistry) A.B., Princeton University 2001.
Thesis: Chemical Functionalization and Electronic Passivation of Gallium Arsenide
Surfaces.
Sherry Mon-Yue Tsai (Chemistry) B.S., Yale University 2000.
Thesis: a-Diaminobutyric Acid-Linked Hairpin Polyamide-Alklylator Conjugates.
Jamison Bryce Tuttle (Chemistry) B.A., Connecticut College 1999.
Thesis: Development of Enantioselective Organocatalytic Hydrogenation Methods
and Progress toward the Total Synthesis of (+)-Minfiensine.
Christina Luisa Vizcarra (Chemistry) B.S., University of Kansas 2002.
Thesis: Development and Evaluation of Protein Design Methods for Functional
Targets.
Maung Nyan Win (Chemistry) B.S., Virginia Commonwealth University 2003; M.S.,
Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Engineering RNA Devices for Gene Regulation, Biosensing, and Higher-
Order Cellular Information Processing.
Xinan Xiu (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) B.S., University of Louisville 2002.
Thesis: Structure-function Studies of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Using
Unnatural Amino Acids.
Tae Hyeon Yoo (Chemical Engineering) B.S., Seoul National University 1996; M.S.,
1998.
Thesis: Proteins of Novel Composition: Synthesis, Evolution, Dynamics.
Cheng-Zhong Zhang (Chemical Engineering and Physics) B.E., Tsinghua University 2001;
M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Interplay between Long-Range and Short-Range Interactions in Polymer
Self-Assembly and Cell Adhesion.
Division of Engineering and Applied Science
Anelia Angelova (Computer Science) M.S., Sofia University 2000; M.S., Caltech 2004.Thesis: Visual Prediction of Rover Slip: Learning Algorithms and Field Experiments.
Meher Kiran Prakash Ayalasomayajula (Applied Physics) B.Tech., Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras 2001; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Theoretical Studies of Single Molecule Biophysical Systems and
Photochemical Ensembles.
Aydin Babakhani (Electrical Engineering) B.S., Sharif University of Technology 2003;
M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Direct Antenna Modulation (DAM) for On-chip mm-Wave Transceivers.
Ivan Bermejo Moreno (Aeronautics and French and German) Aeronautical Engineer,
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid 2001; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: On the Non-Local Geometry of Turbulence.
Antoine Jean Bruguier (Electrical Engineering) Diplome d'Ingenieur, Ecole Superieure
d'Ingenieurs en Electrotechnique et Electronique 2004; M.S.,
Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Encoding of Financial Signals in the Human Brain.
John Maurice Carson III (Mechanical Engineering and Control and Dynamical Systems) B.S.,
The University of Texas at Austin 1992; M.S., 1997.
Thesis: Robust Model Predictive Control with a Reactive Safety Mode.
Yuval Cassuto (Electrical Engineering) B.Sc., Technion Š Israel Institute of Technology
2001; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Coding Techniques for Data-Storage Systems.
Gang Chow (Bioengineering) B.S., UC, San Diego 1998; M.S.,
California State University, Northridge 2002.
Thesis: Laser Tweezers for Moving Live Dissociated Neurons.
Roger David Donaldson (Applied and Computational Mathematics) B.A.Sc., The
University of British Columbia 2001; M.S., 2003.
Thesis: Discrete Geometric Homogenisation and Inverse Homogenisation of an
Elliptic Operator.
Gang Duan (Materials Science) B.S., Beijing University 1999; M.S., 2002; M.S.,
Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Simulations, Modeling, and Designs of Bulk Metallic Glasses.
Mary Julia Dunlop (Mechanical Engineering) B.S.E., Princeton University 2002; M.S.,
Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Dynamics and Correlated Noise in Gene Regulation.
Tamer El Sayed (Mechanical Engineering) A.S., Chaffey Community College 1997; B.S.,
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Constitutive Models for Polymers and Soft Biological Tissues.
Teresa Holly Emery (Electrical Engineering) B.S., Cornell University 2002; M.E., 2003.
Thesis: Fabrication of Nanowire-based Magnetic Structures for Magnetic
Resonance Applications.
Michael Steven Epstein (Mechanical Engineering) B.S., UC, Los
Angeles 2002; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Managing Information in Networked and Multi-Agent Control Systems.
Jonathan Christopher Erickson (Bioengineering) B.S., Harvey Mudd College 2001;
M.S., Caltech 2002.
Thesis: The Neurochip: A Complete System for Long-Term Investigation of
Cultured Neural Network Connectivity.
Claudio Fanti (Computer Science) Diploma Di Laurea, Universit Degli Studi Di Padova
2001; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Towards Automatic Discovery of Human Movemes.
Daniel Robert Feldman (Environmental Science and Engineering) S.B., MIT 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Remote Sensing of Radiative Fluxes and Heating Rates from Satellite
Instrument Measurements.
Melvin Estuardo Flores Contreras (Control and Dynamical Systems) B.S.E., Arizona State
University 1998.
Thesis: Real-Time Trajectory Generation for Constrained Nonlinear Dynamical
Systems Using Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline Basis Functions.
Ebraheem Ihsan Fontaine (Mechanical Engineering) S.B., Massachusetts Institute of
Technology 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Automated Visual Tracking for Behavioral Analysis of Biological Model
Organisms.
Christian Franck (Aeronautics) B.S., University of Virginia 2003; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Quantitative Characterization of 3D Deformations of Cell Interactions
with Soft Biomaterials.
Jiansong Gao (Applied Physics) B.S., Tsinghua University 1999; M.S., 2002; M.S.,
Caltech 2004.
Thesis: The Physics of Superconducting Microwave Resonators.
Xiaojie Gao (Computer Science) B.S., Peking University 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: On A Capacitated Multivehicle Routing Problem.
Anna Grosberg (Bioengineering) B.S., University of Minnesota 2002.
Thesis: A Bioinspired Computational Model of Cardiac Mechanics: Pathology and
Development.
Katalin Anna Grubits (Control and Dynamical Systems) B.Sc., University of Sydney 2001.
Thesis: Low-dimensional Representations of Transitions in Molecular Systems.
Lin Han (Applied Physics) B.S., Jilin University 2001; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: In vitro DNA Mechanics in Gene Regulation: One Molecule at a Time.
Hannes Helgason (Applied and Computational Mathematics) B.S. (Electrical Engineering),
B.S. (Mathematics), University of Iceland 2001.
Thesis: Nonparametric Detection and Estimation of Highly Oscillatory Signals.
Xin Heng (Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics) B.S., Nanjing University 2002;
M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Optofluidic Microscopy: Technology Development and Its Applications in
Biology.
Jinseong Heo (Applied Physics) B.S., Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Probing Electronic Properties of Carbon Nanotubes.
David Hoch (Applied and Computational Mathematics) Diploma, Kantonsschule Im Lee
1996; C.S.A.E., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology 2001.
Thesis: Nonreflecting Boundary Conditions Obtained from Equivalent Sources for
Time-Dependent Scattering Problems.
Tomonori Honda (Mechanical Engineering and Control and Dynamical Systems) B.S.,
UC, Berkeley 2002; M.S., Caltech
2003.
Thesis: Formalization and Applications of Grayscale Reliability Analysis for
Engineering Design.
Princess Izevbua Ikhianosen Uerenikhosen Imoukhuede (Bioengineering) S.B.,
MIT 2002.
Thesis: Visualizing the Membrane Confinement, Trafficking and Structure of the
GABA Transporter, GATI.
Winston Paul Jackson (Applied Mechanics) B.S., Southern University 2003; B.S., Texas
A&M University 2003; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Characterization of Soft Polymers and Gels Using the Pressure-Bulge
Technique.
Wonjin Jang (Computer Science) B.A., Seoul National University 1998; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Soft-error Tolerant Quasi Delay-insensitive Circuits.
Hao Jiang (Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering) B.E., Tsinghua University
1998; M.S., Caltech 2002.
Thesis: Adaptive Feature Selection in Pattern Recognition and Ultra-wideband
Radar Signal Analysis.
Eric Johnsen (Mechanical Engineering) B.S., UC, Santa Barbara
2001; M.S., Caltech 2002.
Thesis: Numerical Simulations of Non-Spherical Bubble Collapse with Applications
to Shockwave Lithotripsy.
Shannon Theresa Kao (Mechanical Engineering) B.S., The Johns Hopkins University 2002.
Thesis: Detonation Stability with Reversible Kinetics.
Shwetank Kumar (Applied Physics) B.Tech., Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi 2000;
M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Submillimeter Wave Camera Using A Novel Photon Detector Technology.
Wonhee Lee (Applied Physics) B.S., Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Microfluidic Chip Calorimeters for Biological Applications.
Sebastien Leprince (Electrical Engineering) Diplome de Technologue, Ecole Superieure
de Technologie Electronique 2000; Diplome d'Ingenieur, Ecole Superieure
d'Ingenieurs en Electrotechnique et Electronique 2002; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Monitoring Earth Surface Dynamics with Optical Imagery.
Zhenyu Li (Electrical Engineering) B.S., Tsinghua University 1999; M.S., UC, Santa Barbara 2001.
Thesis: Optofluidic Dye Lasers.
Wei Liang (Applied Physics) B.S., Tsinghua University 2001; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Study of Optical Phase Lock Loops and the Applications in Coherent Beam
Combining and Coherence Cloning.
Yongqiang Liang (Mechanical Engineering) B.S., University of Science and Technology of
China 1998; M.E., 2001; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Robotic Training for Motor Rehabilitation after Complete Spinal Cord
Injury.
Hsuan-Tien Lin (Computer Science) B.S., National Taiwan University 2001; M.S.,
Caltech 2005.
Thesis: From Ordinal Ranking to Binary Classification.
Mary Laura Lind (Materials Science) B.S., Yale University 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Ultrasonic Investigation of the Elastic Properties and Liquid Fragility of
Bulk Metallic Glasses in the Supercooled Liquid Region.
Manuel Lombardini (Aeronautics) Diplome d'Ingenieur, Ecole Polytechnique 2003;
M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability in Converging Geometries.
Jian Lu (Bioengineering) B.S., Tsinghua University 2002; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Quantitative Three-dimensional Imaging of Droplet Convection and
Cardiac Cell Motions Based on Micro DDPIV.
Sebastian Josef Maerkl (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics) B.S., Fairleigh Dickinson
University 2001.
Thesis: Microfluidic Large Scale Integration and its Application to Systems
Biology.
Georgios Matheou (Aeronautics) Diploma, National Technical University of Athens 2002.
Thesis: Large-Eddy Simulations of Molecular Mixing in a Recirculating Shear Flow.
Matthew Sanford Mattson (Applied Physics) B.S., Marshall University 2002; M.S.,
Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Understanding and Treating Eye Diseases: Mechanical Characterization
and Photochemical Modification of the Cornea and Sclera.
Kevin L. McHale (Bioengineering and Control and Dynamical Systems) B.S. (Chemistry), B.S.(Mathematics), University of Florida 2002.
Thesis: Feedback Tracking and Correlation Spectroscopy of Fluorescent
Nanoparticles and Biomolecules.
Jeffrey Mendez (Environmental Science and Engineering) B.S., Caltech 1999.
Thesis: Iron and Manganese in the Ocean. A Coastal Ocean Time Series, and an
Investigation of Atmospheric Input by Dust.
John Anderson Monro, Jr. (Applied and Computational Mathematics) B.S., Caltech 1996.
Thesis: A Super-Algebraically Convergent, Windowing-Based Approach to the
Evaluation of Scattering from Periodic Rough Surfaces.
Pierre Moreels (Electrical Engineering) Diplome d'Ingenieur, Ecole Polytechnique 1999;
DEA, Universite de Bourgogne 2000; Diplome d'Ingenieur, Ecole Nationale des
Ponts et Chaussees 2001; M.S., Caltech 2002.
Thesis: Probabilistic, Features-Based Object Recognition.
Grant Haverstock Mulliken (Computation and Neural Systems) B.S., The Colorado School
of Mines 1998; M.S., The Johns Hopkins University 2002.
Thesis: Continuous Sensorimotor Control Mechanisms in Posterior Parietal
Cortex: Forward Model Encoding and Trajectory Decoding.
Helia Naeimi (Computer Science) B.S., Sharif University of Technology 2002; M.S.,
Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Reliable Integration of Terascale Systems with Nanoscale Devices.
Fabien Nicaise (Mechanical Engineering) B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2000;
M.B.A., 2001; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Automated Design Synthesis of Discrete Structures using Growth
Enhanced Evolution.
Chang Kook Oh (Civil Engineering) B.S., Seoul National University 1998; M.S., 2000;
M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Bayesian Learning for Earthquake Engineering Applications and Structural
Health Monitoring.
Anna H. Olsen (Civil Engineering) B.S., Harvey Mudd College 2003; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Steel Moment-Resisting Frame Responses in Simulated Strong Ground
Motions: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Big One.
Changlin Pang (Electrical Engineering) B.S., Tsinghua University 2000; M.S., 2002;
M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Parylene Technology for Neural Probes Applications.
Piyush Prakash (Computer Science) B.S., Caltech 2002; M.S., 2005.
Thesis: Throughput Optimization of Quasi Delay Insensitive Circuits via Slack
Matching.
Amrit Pratap (Computer Science) M.Sc., Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 2001;
M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Adaptive Learning Algorithms and Data Cloning.
Derek Gresham Rinderknecht (Bioengineering) S.B., Massachusetts Institute of
Technology 2002.
Thesis: Development of a Microimpedance Pump for Pulsatile Flow Transport -
Part 1: Flow Characteristics of the Microimpedance Pump. Part 2: A Systematic
Study of Steady and Pulsatile Transport in Microscale Cavities.
Damien Craig Rodger (Bioengineering) B.S., Cornell University 2000.
Thesis: Development of Flexible Parylene-based Microtechnologies for Retinal
and Spinal Cord Stimulation and Recording.
Angel Ruiz Angulo (Mechanical Engineering) B.S., National University of Mexico 2002;
M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Surface Deformation in a Liquid Environment Resulting from Single
Particle Collisions.
Ueli Rutishauser (Computation and Neural Systems) B.S., University of Applied Sciences,
Rapperswil 2003.
Thesis: Learning and Representation of Declarative Memories by Single Neurons
in the Human Brain.
Effrosyni Seitaridou (Applied Physics) B.A., Smith College 2002; B.E., Dartmouth
College 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Non-Equilibrium Dynamics: Diffusion in Small Numbers and Ribosomal
Self-Assembly.
Jason Shih (Electrical Engineering) B.S., Caltech 2003; M.S.,
2004.
Thesis: Microfabricated High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
System with Closed-Loop Flow Control.
Edwin Soedarmadji (Electrical Engineering and Biology) B.S., Caltech 1997; M.S., 2003.
Thesis: Generalized Network Routing Metrics and Algorithms.
David Soloveichik (Computation and Neural Systems) A.B., S.M., Harvard College 2002.
Thesis: Molecules Computing: Self-Assembled Nanostructures, Molecular Automata,
and Chemical Reaction Networks.
Mihailo Stojnic (Electrical Engineering) Dipl. Ing., Belgrade School of Electrical
Engineering 2001; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Optimization Algorithms in Wireless and Quantum Communications.
Borching Su (Electrical Engineering) B.S., National Taiwan University 1999; M.S., 2001.
Thesis: Blind Channel Estimation Using Redundant Precoding: New Algorithms,
Analysis, and Theory.
Luke A. Sweatlock (Applied Physics) B.S., Cornell University 2001; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: Plasmonics: Numerical Methods and Device Applications.
Sarah Lynne Sweatlock (Applied and Computational Mathematics) B.S. (Applied Math), B.S.
(Electrical Engineering), Northwestern University 2003.
Thesis: Asymptotic Weight Analysis of Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) Code
Ensembles.
Alexandros Taflinidis (Civil Engineering and Control and Dynamical Systems) Diploma,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 2002; M.S., 2003.
Thesis: Stochastic System Design and Applications to Stochastically Robust
Structural Control.
Kunihiko Taira (Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics) B.S., University of Tennessee
2002; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: The Immersed Boundary Projection Method and Its Application to
Simulation and Control of Flows around Low-Aspect-Ratio Wings.
Katsuaki Tanabe (Materials Science) B.Eng., University of Tokyo 2001; M.Eng., 2003;
M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Low-Cost High-Efficiency Solar Cells with Wafer Bonding and Plasmonic
Technologies.
Lixiu Tian (Applied and Computational Mathematics) B.S., M.S., Peking University 1998.
Thesis: Effective Behavior of Dielectric Elastomer Composites.
Ching Hang Tong (Environmental Science and Engineering) B.S., University of Delaware
2001; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Thermodynamic Modeling of Organic Aerosol.
Ke Wang (Applied and Computational Mathematics) B.S., Tsinghua University 1999; M.S.,
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 2001.
Thesis: A Subdivision Approach to the Construction of Smooth Differential Forms.
Stephen J. Waydo (Control and Dynamical Systems) B.S., University of Washington 2001.
Thesis: Explicit Object Representation by Sparse Neural Codes.
Julie Anne Wolf (Civil Engineering) B.S., UC, San Diego 1999;
M.S., Caltech 2000.
Thesis: A Plasticity Model to Predict the Effects of Confinement on Concrete.
Michael Timothy Wolf (Mechanical Engineering and Control and Dynamical Systems)
B.S., Stanford University 1997; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Target Tracking Using Clustered Measurements, with Applications to
Autonomous Brain-Machine Interfaces.
Gunsu S. Yun (Applied Physics) B.S., Pohang University of Science and Technology
1998; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: Dynamics of Plasma Structures Interacting with External and Self-
Generated Magnetic Fields.
Pun To (Douglas) Yung (Bioengineering) B.S. (Electrical Engineering), B.S. (Mathematics),
UC, Los Angeles 2003.
Thesis: Detection of Aerobic Bacterial Endospores: From Air Sampling,
Sterilization Validation to Astrobiology.
Lin Zhu (Electrical Engineering) B.S., Tsinghua University 2000; M.S., 2003.
Thesis: Photonic Crystal Bragg Lasers: Design, Fabrication, and Characterization.
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
Kristina Marie Barkume (Planetary Science) B.A., Reed College 2003; M.S., Caltech 2005.Thesis: Surface Properties of Kuiper Belt Objects and Centaurs.
Min Chen (Geophysics) B.S., University of Science and Technology of China 2001.
Thesis: Numerical Simulations of Seismic Wave Propagation in Anisotropic and
Heterogeneous Earth Models: The Japan Subduction Zone.
Laura Baker Hebert (Geochemistry) B.S., University of Maryland 2001; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: (I) A Coupled Geochemical and Geodynamical Approach to Subduction
Zone Modeling and (II) Development of Color in Greenish Quartz.
Troy Lee Hudson (Planetary Science) S.B. (Materials Science and Engineering), S.B. (Planetary Science), MIT 2000.
Thesis: Growth, Diffusion, and Loss of Subsurface Ice on Mars: Experiments and
Models.
Ali Ozgun Konca (Geophysics) B.S., Koc University 2000.
Thesis: Investigating Large Earthquake Rupture Kinematics from Joint Analysis of
Seismological, Geodetic and Remote Sensing Data.
Cody Zane Nash (Geobiology) B.Sc., Rhodes College 2000; M.S., International Space
University 2001.
Thesis: Mechanisms and Evolution of Magnetotactic Bacteria.
Emily Lauren Schaller (Planetary Science) B.A., Dartmouth College 2002; M.S.,
Caltech 2004.
Thesis: I. Seasonal Changes in Titan's Cloud Activity. II. Volatile Ices on Outer
Solar System Objects.
Teh-Ru Alex Song (Geophysics) B.S., National Central University 1997; M.S., 1997.
Thesis: Broad Band Modeling Earthquake Source and Upper Mantle Structure on
Plate Boundary Zones.
Zhonghua Yang (Geochemistry) B.S., University of Science and Technology of China
2000; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Constraining Global Carbon Budget Using Vertically-Integrated CO2
Measurements.
Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences
Meghana Bhatt (Social Science) A.B., Harvard College 2001; M.S., Caltech 2004.Thesis: Three Papers in Neuroeconomics.
Alexander L. Brown (Social Science) B.S., The Ohio State University 2003; M.S.,
Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Investigating Psychology-Influenced Economic Models in Lab, Field, and
Theory.
Laurent Alexandre Mathevet (Social Science) B.S., Jean Monnet University 2002; M.S.,
2003; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Selection, Learning, and Nomination: Essays on Supermodular Games,
Design, and Political Theory.
Kyle Alan Mattes (Social Science) B.A., Northwestern University 1997; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: When Candidates Attack: Who Goes Negative, and Why it Works.
Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy
Igor Bargatin (Physics and Electrical Engineering) Diploma, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University 2000.Thesis: High-Frequency Nanomechanical Resonators for Sensor Applications.
Joanna Margaret Brown (Astronomy) B.A., Swarthmore College 2002.
Thesis: Childhood to Adolescence: Dust and Gas Clearing in Protoplanetary
Disks.
Chi Ming Hubert Chen (Physics) S.B., MIT 1999.
Thesis: Development of Hard X-ray Imaging Detectors for the High Energy
Focusing Telescope.
Micol Huw Christopher (Astrophysics) A.B., Harvard College 1999; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Young, Massive Star Clusters in the Antennae.
Paul Langabi Hogan Cook (Physics) B.A., University of Witwatersrand 2002; B.S., 2003
Thesis: Aspects of Topological String Theory.
Theodore Allen Corcovilos (Physics) B.A., University of Tennessee 1999.
Thesis: Fluid Phase Thermodynamics: I) Nucleate Pool Boiling of Oxygen under
Magnetically Enhanced Gravity and II) Superconducting Cavity Resonators for
High-Stability Frequency References and Precision Density Measurements of
Helium-4 Gas.
Melissa Lanae Enoch (Astrophysics) A.B., UC, Berkeley 2001.
Thesis: Molecular Clouds and Star Formation: A Multiwavelength Study of
Perseus, Serpens, and Ophiuchus.
Lisa Maria Goggin (Physics) B.S., University College Cork 2001; M.S., 2002; M.S.,
Caltech 2004.
Thesis: A Search for Gravitational Waves from Perturbed Black Hole Ringdowns
in LIGO Data.
Ivan S. Grudinin (Physics) Diploma, Moscow State University 2003.
Thesis: Crystalline Whispering Gallery Mode Resonators for Quantum and
Nonlinear Optics.
Aliekber Grel (Mathematics) B.S., Bilkent University 2000; M.A., UC, Santa Barbara 2002.
Thesis: An Exact Average Formula for the Symmetric Square L-Function at the
Center.
Laura J. Hainline (Astrophysics) B.S., Indiana University, Bloomington 2001.
Thesis: Multi-Wavelength Properties of Submillimeter-Selected Galaxies.
Rassul Karabalin (Physics) B.S., Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology 2002;
M.S., 2003.
Thesis: Nonlinear, Coupled, and Parametric Nanoelectromechanical Systems.
Claire Isabelle Levaillant (Mathematics) Ingenier, Ecole Normale Superieure de Cachan
2002; M.S., Caltech 2005.
Thesis: Irreducibility of the Lawrence-Krammer Representation of the BMW
Algebra of Type An-1.
Ziyang Ma (Physics) B.S., University of Science and Technology of China 2001.
Thesis: Precision Optical Measurements of DNA Structure and Synthesis.
Ilya Mandel (Physics) B.S., Stanford University 2000; M.S., 2001; M.S., Caltech 2003.
Thesis: The Three S's of Gravitational-Wave Astronomy: Sources, Signals,
Searches.
Sean Michael Moran (Astrophysics) A.B., Harvard College 2002.
Thesis: Understanding the Physical Processes Driving Galaxy Evolution in
Clusters: A Case Study of Two z ~ 0.5 Galaxy Clusters.
Bret Justin Naylor (Physics) B.S., UC, San Diego 1998.
Thesis: Broadband Millimeter-Wave Spectroscopy with Z-Spec: An Unbiased
Molecular-Line Survey of the Starburst Galaxy M82.
Tracy Eleanor Northup (Physics) A.B., Harvard College 1999.
Thesis: Coherent Control in Cavity QED.
Francis Thomas O'Donovan (Astrophysics) B.Sc., National University of Ireland, Cork
2001; M.Sc., 2004; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: The Detection and Exploration of Planets from the Trans-Atlantic
Exoplanet Survey.
Eric Lee Peterson (Physics) B.S., Brigham Young University 2003.
Thesis: A Random Walk in Physical Biology.
Christian L. Reichardt (Physics) B.S., Caltech 2001.
Thesis: A High Resolution Measurement of Temperature Anisotropies in the
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation with the Complete ACBAR Data Set.
Pavlin Savov (Physics) S.B., MIT 2001.
Thesis: Topics in Gravitational-Wave Physics.
Jack Sayers (Physics) B.S. (Mathematics and Computer Science and Physics), Colorado School
of Mines 2002; M.S., Caltech 2004.
Thesis: A Search for Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies on Arcminute
Scales.
Catherine L. Slesnick (Astrophysics) B.A., New York University 2000.
Thesis: 1-10 Myr-old Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs in Nearby Star Forming
Regions.
Tristan Laine Smith (Physics) B.A., The University of Chicago 2003.
Thesis: The Gravity of the Situation.
Sherry Hsuan Suyu (Physics) B.Sc., Queen's University 2001.
Thesis: Dissecting the Gravitational Lens B1608+656: Implications for the Hubble
Constant.
Lisa A. Tracy (Physics) B.S., Arizona State University 2001.
Thesis: Studies of Two Dimensional Electron Systems via Surface Acoustic Waves
and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Techniques.
Todor Dimitrov Tsankov (Mathematics) B.S., Sofia University 2003.
Thesis: Amenability, Countable Equivalence Relations, and Their Full Groups.
Rupert William Venzke (Mathematics) B.S., M.A., University of Pittsburgh 2003.
Thesis: Braid Forcing, Hyperbolic Geometry, and Pseudo-Anosov Sequences of
Low Entropy.
Jie Yang (Physics) B.S., University of Science and Technology of China 2000; M.S.,
2003.
Thesis: Holomorphic Anomaly Equations in Topological String Theory.
Ki Won Yoon (Physics) B.A., UC, Berkeley 2000.
Thesis: Design and Deployment of BICEP: A Novel Small-Aperture CMB
Polarimeter to Test Inflationary Cosmology.
Michael Philip Zwolak (Physics) B.A., B.S. (Chemical Engineering), B.S. (Chemistry),
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University 2002; M.S., 2003.
Thesis: Dynamics and Simulation of Open Quantum Systems.
GUSH
Chinese Food Gush this Friday at 6pm in the South Cats Rec Room.
GSC Teaching and Mentoring awards
This year, the GSC is recognizing a total of 4 winners for our annual Teaching and Mentoring awards. For 2007-2008, our nomination forms were revised to elicit significantly more detailed comments and we were pleased to receive a large number of highly descriptive nominations. These nominations often told compelling stories of great mentorship and teaching across Caltech throughout the year. Several strong nominations were received in both the Mentoring and TAing categories and we are enthusiastic to recognize this yearÕs award winners including 1 mentor and 3 TAs; another TA received honorable mention:
Outstanding Mentor: Professor Robert W. Clayton
Outstanding TAs: Ling Zheng, James Swan, and Chris Wegg Honorable Mention (TA): Flora Hinz
The winners were presented with a plaque at the June 11th faculty meeting. The GSC academics committee would like to thank all of the people who took time to submit nominations. These awards are on ongoing effort, and we will need your help next year to continue to identify outstanding faculty and TAs for these awards. Please visit http://www.its.caltech.edu/~gscacad/awardinfo.html or contact Jai Shanata (jshanata@caltech.edu) for more information.
Feynman Prize for excellence in teaching
Zhen-Gang WangProfessor of Chemical Engineering
This yearÕs choice for the Richard P. Feyman Prize for Excellence in Teaching is Zhen-Gang Wang, Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Professor Wang was selected for this award in recognition for his mastery of thermodynamics and polymer physics, clarity of presentation, and ability to empower students through the knowledge and experience they gain from his teaching.
The 2nd month under new leadership at the GSC has seen many successes. Moore-Hofstadter Funding will support a summer formal as well as some library renovations. The GSC's budget is potentially undergoing a large increase. Finally, the GSC is looking to become more active on your behalf, and this has resulted in a push toward open-access policies at Caltech.
The summer formal is months away, so I'll leave discussion of exact dates and plans for later, but suffice it to say this formal has a budget of well over $20,000. In related news, the GSC is requesting its first increase in the student fees portion of its budget since 1989. Over that time inflation has cut our spending power by nearly half, reducing the services available to graduate students. With the increase in funds amounting to somewhere around $25,000 for next year if approved, we are planning to expand services in response to the Quality of Life Survey results. In these results you requested there be more off-campus activities, along with more intermixing of different departments on campus. Our social committee will be working to change our programming to better fit your preferences. Besides these increases, we intend to use our budget increase to fully fund the Everheart Lecture Series, additional Teaching and Mentoring awards, and to greatly increase both club funding and quickfunding to give you more direct impact over the types of events you want to put on. Last month I had mentioned that this proposal would come to a student vote. After investigating the matter, all graduate student fees (including the ones we proposed to increase) are paid directly by your advisor. As such, it is faculty approval that is required, not graduate student approval, and I will keep you posted on this issue in next month's GSC news.
As you noticed if you read the weekly announcements recently, the GSC is trying to become more active on your behalf. From conversations with many of you, including our Academics Committee and appointees to the Faculty Library Committee, the first of these resolutions on your behalf is presently being drafted. The subject is open-access, particularly whether or not we, as publishing scientists, should maintain the copyright to our work when we publish. Currently many publishers require a transfer of copyright upon publication, and several professors at the institute simply cross these requirements off the contract when they submit work. However, while faculty can change their contracts and still expect their papers to be published, we graduate students cannot afford to be so cavalier. We are currently considering a resolution in favor of an opt-out policy for such rights maintenance, meaning that graduate students won't have to worry about haggling over the issue with different journals as that role will be filled by our library. Similar steps to protect these copyrights have already been taken by Harvard faculty and the National Institute of Health, along with professional societies in high-energy physics and neuroscience. Please let me know of any concerns you have moving forward with this, and I will relay them to the Faculty Library Committee (in addition to, of course, to the GSC Board of Directors).
I've heard from several of you about our resolution, and many suggestions have already been incorporated. If you feel strongly one way or the other about this or other issues at Caltech, please contact your option representative or, in the case that your option is not represented, contact me directly. Your option representative can be found at http://gsc.caltech.edu/members.html . The following departments currently have no representation or are underrepresented in the GSC: ACM, Aero, Astro, Bio (2 openings), CDS, Civil E, Chem (2 openings), Chem E, Geo, Math, Mech E, Physics, and Poly Sci. Additionally, if you do not see your option here and are still interested, we have 3 openings for directors at large which can come from any option. We are also still seeking volunteers to fill faculty committee appointments, please refer to announcements for remaining openings.
As a last note, I've heard many complaints about the recent raise in parking rates on campus. Over the next few months, the GSC will be trying to figure out constructive action to take to ensure that parking rates are not raised again in the next 5 years. If you have any suggestions about how this can be done, please let me know. Also, if you have an issue you'd like the GSC to take action on, please come to our meetings on the first Thursday of the month, or let me know by email (as I use gmail as an external hard drive for my brain).
Have a great summer!
The Neurological Basis of Timely Movement
Contrary to what one might imagine, the way in which each of us interacts with the world is not a simple matter of seeing (or touching, or smelling) and then reacting. Even the best baseball hitter eyeing a fastball does not swing at what he sees. The neurons and neural connections that make up our sensory systems are far too slow for this to work. "Everything we sense is a little bit in the past," says Richard A. Andersen of the California Institute of Technology, who has now uncovered the trick the brain uses to get around this puzzling problem.
Work by Andersen, the James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience at Caltech, and his colleagues Grant Mulliken and Sam Musallam, offers the first neural evidence that voluntary limb movements are guided by our brain's prediction of what will happen an instant into the future. "The brain is generating its own version of the world, a 'forward model,' which allows you to know where you actually are in real time. It takes the delays out of the system," Andersen says.
"The idea is that you feed back the command you make for movement into those areas of the brain that plan the movement," Andersen says. "The signal about the movement taking place is adjusted to be perfectly aligned in time with the actual movement--what you're moving in your head matches with what you're moving in the real world." The effect is akin to an athlete visualizing his performance in his mind. Studies have previously shown that these simulations of movement trajectories run through the posterior parietal cortex, and run at actual speed, taking the same amount of time as the activity would in real life.
The lab is working toward the development of implanted neural prosthetic devices that would serve as an interface between severely paralyzed individuals' brain signals and their artificial limbs--allowing thoughts to control movement. Andersen's group focuses on a high-level area of cortex called the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), which is where sensory stimuli are actually transformed into movement plans.
In their experiments, Andersen and his colleagues trained two monkeys to use a joystick to move a cursor on a computer screen from a small red circle into a green circle, while keeping their gaze fixed on the red circle. The monkeys typically generated curved trajectories, but to increase the curvature one monkey was trained to move the cursor around an obstacle. The obstacle (a large blue circle) was placed between the initial location of the cursor and the target circle, and the monkey had to guide the cursor around the obstacle, without touching it, and over to the green circle. As the monkeys conducted the tasks, electrodes measured the activity of neurons in the PPC. This allowed Andersen and his colleagues to monitor signals--commands for movement--in real time.
The studies showed that neurons in the PPC produce signals that represent the brain's estimation of the current and upcoming movement of the cursor. "An internal estimate of the current state of the cursor can be used immediately by the brain to rapidly correct a movement, avoiding having to rely entirely on late-arriving sensory information, which can result in slow and unstable control," Mulliken says.
The paper, "Forward Estimation of Movement State in Posterior Parietal Cortex," will be published in a future print issue the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences but is now available online. First author, Grant Mulliken, was a graduate student at Caltech and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; coauthor Sam Musallam was a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech and is currently an assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Getting Better with a Little Help from Our Micro Friends
A naturally occurring molecule made by symbiotic gut bacteria may offer a new type of treatment for inflammatory bowel disease, according to scientists at the California Institute of Technology.
"Most people tend to think of bacteria as insidious organisms that only make us sick," says Sarkis K. Mazmanian, an assistant professor of biology at Caltech, whose laboratory examines the symbiotic relationship between "good" bacteria and their mammalian hosts. Instead, he says, "bacteria can be beneficial and actively promote health."
For example, the 100 trillion bacteria occupying the human gut have evolved along with the human digestive and immune systems for millions of years. Some harmful microbes are responsible for infection and acute disease, while "other bacteria, the more intelligent ones, have taken the evolutionary route of shaping their environment by positively interacting with the host immune system to promote health, which gives them an improved place to live; it's like creating bacterial nirvana," says Mazmanian.
If bacteria are actively modifying the gut, their work would have to be mediated by molecules. In their recent work, Mazmanian and his colleagues have identified one such molecule, a sugar called polysaccharide A, or PSA, which is produced by the symbiotic gut bacterium Bacteroides fragilis. They have termed this molecule a "symbiosis factor," and predict that many other bacterial compounds with diverse beneficial activities await discovery.
To identify the molecule and its action, the scientists used experimental mice and induced changes to their intestinal bacteria by exposing them to a pathogenic bacterium called Helicobacter hepaticus. This microbe causes a disease in the mice that is similar to Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. However, when the animals were co-colonized with B. fragilis, they were protected from the disease--as were animals that were given oral doses of just the PSA molecule.
In particular, Mazmanian and his colleagues found that PSA induced particular immune-system cells called CD4+ T cells to produce interleukin-10 (IL-10), a molecule that has previously been shown to suppress inflammation--and offer protection from inflammatory bowel disease. "Thus, bacteria help reprogram our own immune system to promote health," he says.
"The most immediate and obvious implication is that PSA may potentially be developed as a natural therapeutic for inflammatory bowel disease," says Mazmanian. Inflammatory bowel disease, a constellation of illnesses that cause inflammation in the intestines, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is estimated to affect one million Americans. The rates of inflammatory bowel diseases have skyrocketed in recent years; for example, the incidence of Crohn's disease, a condition that causes debilitating pain, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal symptoms, has increased by 400 percent over the past 20 years.
The current research, along with other work by Mazmanian and June L. Round, a Caltech postdoctoral researcher, suggests that the interplay between various groups of bacteria living in the intestines has profound effects on human health.
This notion gels with the so-called "hygiene hypothesis." The hypothesis, first proposed two decades ago, links modern practices like sanitation, vaccination, a Western diet, and antibiotic use, which reduce bacterial infections, to the increased prevalence of a variety of illnesses in the developed world, including inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, multiple sclerosis, and Type 1 diabetes. However, it is now clear that increased living standards and antibacterial drugs affect not only infectious microbes, but all of the beneficial ones that we may depend on for our well-being.
"Through societal measures we have changed our association with the microbial world in a very short time span. We don't have the same contact with microbes as we have for millions of years--we just live too clean now," Mazmanian says. So while it is useful to eliminate disease-causing organisms, "perhaps disease results from the absence of beneficial bacteria and their good effects," he suggests. "This study is the first demonstration of that. What it hopefully will do is allow people to re-evaluate our opinions of bacteria. Not all are bad and some, maybe many, are beneficial."
The article, "A microbial symbiosis factor prevents intestinal inflammatory disease," will be featured on the cover of the May 29 issue of the journal Nature. Mazmanian's coauthors are June L. Round of Caltech and Dennis L. Kasper of Harvard Medical School.
The Neuronal Computations Governing Strategic Social Interactions
In a strategic game, the success of any player depends not just on his or her own actions, but on the behavior of every other player in the game. To be successful, players must not only pay attention to what other players do, but also how they are thinking.
O'Doherty, an associate professor of psychology, along with graduate student Alan N. Hampton and Peter Bossaerts, William D. Hacker Professor of Economics and Management and professor of finance at Caltech, had volunteers participate in a simple two-player strategy game. In the game, volunteers were assigned to play either the role of an employer or an employee, and were isolated from one another. One of them was placed within a functional MRI machine, which measured brain activity in real time.
During each trial, the participant acting as the employee had to choose to either work or not work, and the employer had to decide to check up on his employees ("inspect"), or to leave them alone ("not inspect"). What each party selects will depend both on their own goals and on their anticipation of the behavior of the other participant. For example, the employer, who is busy with other work, does not want to waste time checking on his employees, but does want to occasionally inspect them to make sure they're not slacking off--and to let them know he's watching. His employees, however, prefer to shirk their duties as much as possible when not being inspected, but would rather be found working when the employer decides to check on them.
The game is set up such that there is no possibility of a tie, with an equal payoff for both players. "It's a competitive situation," O'Doherty explains, "so each person has to keep anticipating and predicting the behavior of the other person, to outguess them"--and maximize their own profit.
O'Doherty and his colleagues used a simple mathematical model that can solve such a game by taking into account the history of the opponent's choices to work out what that opponent is likely to do next. They found that subjects' actual choices could be predicted well by such a model. Furthermore, a number of brain areas previously implicated in mentalizing, such as the superior temporal sulcus (STS) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), showed changes in their activity over time. These changes are predicted by the mathematical model, suggesting that the brain itself uses mathematical operations similar to that encapsulated in the model to solve the task.
O'Doherty and his colleagues found that activity in the mPFC changed depending on the subjects' success in past trials, while activity in STS reflected how that success compared with how well they thought they'd do. Furthermore, activity in the two brain areas appeared to be linked. "If the subjects were surprised by their prediction success"--if, say, they did more poorly than they had expected--"we saw increased activity in the STS. At the same time, there was increased correlation between activity in the STS and the mPFC," O'Doherty says.
This suggests, he says, that "the STS modulates the activity of the mPFC, telling it to refine its expectations, which can ultimately lead to a change in the subjects' behavior."
The paper, "Neural correlates of mentalizing-related computations during strategic interactions in humans," was published in the May 6 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. The work was partially funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Stellar Death Caught in the Act
Thanks to a fortuitous observation with NASA's Swift satellite, astronomers for the first time have caught a star in the act of exploding. Astronomers have previously observed thousands of stellar explosions, known as supernovae, but they have always seen them after the fireworks were well underway.
"For years we have dreamed of seeing a star just as it was exploding, but actually finding one is a once-in-a-lifetime event," says Alicia Soderberg a Hubble and Carnegie-Princeton Fellow at Princeton University, who is leading the group studying this explosion. "This newly born supernova is going to be the Rosetta Stone of supernova studies for years to come."
Led by Shrinivas Kulkarni, MacArthur Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science and director of Caltech Optical Observatories, Caltech astronomers including graduate student Bradley Cenko and others undertook detailed observations with the automated Palomar 60-inch and the 200-inch telescopes. "It may well be that supernovae occur more commonly than we thought," remarked Kulkarni.
A typical supernova occurs when the core of a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses under its own gravity to form an ultradense object known as a neutron star. The newborn neutron star compresses and then rebounds, triggering a shock wave that plows through the star's gaseous outer layers and blows the star to smithereens. Astronomers thought for nearly four decades that this shock "breakout" produces bright X-ray emission lasting a few minutes.
But until this discovery, astronomers have never observed this signal. Instead, they have observed supernovae brightening days or weeks later, when the expanding shell of debris is energized by the decay of radioactive elements forged in the explosion. "Seeing the shock breakout in Xrays can give a direct view of the exploding star in the last minutes of its life and also provide a signpost to which astronomers can quickly point their telescopes to watch the explosion unfold," says Edo Berger, also a Hubble and Carnegie-Princeton Fellow.
Soderberg's discovery of the first shock breakout can be attributed to luck and Swift's unique design. On January 9, 2008, Soderberg and Berger were using Swift to observe a supernova known as SN 2007uy in the spiral galaxy NGC 2770, located 90 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Lynx. At 9:33 a.m. EST they spotted an extremely bright five-minute X-ray outburst in NGC 2770. They quickly recognized that the Xrays were coming from another location in the same galaxy.
In a paper appearing in the journal Nature on May 21, Soderberg and 38 colleagues show that the energy and pattern of the X-ray outburst is consistent with a shock wave bursting through the surface of the progenitor star. This marks the birth of the supernova now known as SN 2008D.
LIGO Observations Probe the Dynamics of the Crab Pulsar
LIGO Observations Probe the Dynamics of the Crab Pulsar
The search for gravitational waves has revealed new information about the core of one of the most famous objects in the sky: the Crab Pulsar in the Crab Nebula. An analysis by the international LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration to be submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters has shown that no more than 4 percent of the energy loss of the pulsar is caused by the emission of gravitational waves.
The Crab Nebula, located 6,500 light years away in the constellation Taurus, was formed in a spectacular supernova explosion in 1054. According to ancient sources, including Chinese texts that referred to it as a "guest star," the explosion was visible in daylight for more than three weeks, and may briefly have been brighter than the full moon. At the heart of the nebula remains an incredibly rapidly spinning neutron star that sweeps two narrow radio beams across the Earth each time it turns. The lighthouse-like radio pulses have given the star the name "pulsar."
"The Crab Pulsar is spinning at a rate of 30 times per second. However, its rotation rate is decreasing rapidly relative to most pulsars, indicating that it is radiating energy at a prodigious rate," says Graham Woan of the University of Glasgow, who co-led the science group that used LIGO data to analyze the Crab Pulsar, along with Michael Landry of the LIGO Hanford Observatory.
Pulsars are almost perfect spheres made up of neutrons and contain more mass than the sun in an object only 10 km in radius. The physical mechanisms for energy loss and the accompanying braking of the pulsar spin rate have been hypothesized to be asymmetric particle emission, magnetic dipole radiation, and gravitational-wave emission.
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space and time and are an important consequence of Einstein's general theory of relativity. A perfectly smooth neutron star will not generate gravitational waves as it spins, but the situation changes if its shape is distorted. Gravitational waves would have been detectable even if the star were deformed by only a few meters, which could arise because its semisolid crust is strained or because its enormous magnetic field distorts it. "The Crab neutron star is relatively young and therefore expected to be less symmetrical than most, which means it could generate more gravitational waves," says Graham Woan.
The scenario that gravitational waves significantly brake the Crab pulsar has been disproved by the new analysis.
Using published timing data about the pulsar rotation rate from the Jodrell Bank Observatory, LIGO scientists monitored the neutron star from November 2005 to August 2006 and looked for a synchronous gravitational-wave signal using data from the three LIGO interferometers, which were combined to create a single, highly sensitive detector.
The analysis revealed no signs of gravitational waves. But, say the scientists, this result is itself important because it provides information about the pulsar and its structure.
"We can now say something definite about the role gravitational waves play in the dynamics of the Crab Pulsar based on our observations," says David Reitze, a professor of physics at the University of Florida and spokesperson for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. "This is the first time the spin-down limit has been broken for any pulsar, and this result is an important milestone for LIGO."
Michael Landry adds, "These results strongly imply that no more than 4 percent of the pulsar's energy loss is due to gravitational radiation. The remainder of the loss must be due to other mechanisms, such as a combination of electromagnetic radiation generated by the rapidly rotating magnetic field of the pulsar and the emission of high-velocity particles into the nebula."
"Neutron stars are very hot when they are formed in a supernova, and then they cool rapidly and form a semisolid crust. Our observation of a relatively young star like the Crab is important because it shows that this skin, if it had irregularities when it first 'froze,' has by now become quite smooth," says Bernard F. Schutz, director of the Albert Einstein Institute in Germany.
Joseph Taylor, a Nobel Prize-winning radio astronomer and professor of physics at Princeton University, says, "The physics world has been waiting eagerly for scientific results from LIGO. It is exciting that we now know something concrete about how nearly spherical a neutron star must be, and we have definite limits on the strength of its internal magnetic field."
The LIGO project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, was designed and is operated by Caltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the purpose of detecting gravitational waves, and for the development of gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool.
Caltech Helps Open the Universe in WorldWide Telescope
Panoramic images of the sky obtained at Palomar Observatory and by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), plus pointed observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope, form a significant part of the "World Wide Telescope" (WWT), a new product released today by Microsoft aimed at bringing exploration of the Universe and its many wonders to the general public.
WorldWide Telescope is a rich Web application that combines imagery from the best ground- and space-based observatories across the world, stitching together terabytes of high-resolution images of celestial bodies and displaying them in a way that relates to their actual relative position in the sky. Using their own computers, people from all walks of life can freely browse through the solar system, galaxy, and beyond. They can choose which telescope they want to look through, including NASA's Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer Telescopes, to view the locations of planets in the night sky--in the past, present or future--and the universe through different wavelengths of light to reveal hidden structures in other parts of the galaxy. Taken as a whole, the application provides a top-to-bottom view of the science of astronomy.
WorldWide Telescope can be accessed at http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
Thirty-Meter Telescope Focuses on Two Candidate Sites
After completing a worldwide survey unprecedented in rigor and detail of astronomical sites for the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT), the TMT Observatory Corporation board of directors has selected two outstanding sites, one in each hemisphere, for further consideration. Cerro Armazones lies in Chile's Atacama Desert, and Mauna Kea is on Hawai'i Island.
The next step in the site analysis process is the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that will thoroughly evaluate all aspects, including environmental, cultural, socio-economic, and financial, of constructing and operating the Thirty-Meter Telescope in Hawai'i. An environmental impact statement for Cerro Armazones has already been completed and submitted to the Chilean government for their review.
The TMT is currently in the final stages of an $80 million design phase. The plan is to initiate construction in 2010 with first light in early 2018. This project is a partnership between the University of California, California Institute of Technology, and ACURA, an organization of Canadian universities. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has provided $50 million for the design phase of the project and has pledged an additional $200 million for the construction of the telescope, and Caltech and the University of California each will seek to raise matching funds of $50 million to bring the construction total to $300 million.
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GUSH
GSC Teaching and Mentoring awards
From the Chair
The Neurological Basis of Timely Movement
Getting Better with a Little Help from Our Micro Friends
Stellar Death Caught in the Act
LIGO Observations Probe the Dynamics of the Crab Pulsar
Caltech Helps Open the Universe in WorldWide Telescope
Thirty-Meter Telescope Focuses on Two Candidate Sites
The Neuronal Computations Governing Strategic Social Interactions
Do you salsa?
I've always maintained a sideline interest in dance back home in England, but it was only upon arrival to Caltech that I discovered Latin dance culture. The influence of Latin dance is hard to escape in Los Angeles, in fact, Southern California, and Los Angeles in particular, is one of the best places in the world to learn salsa. The city hosts many salsa clubs, each having their own character and promoting different styles of salsa. If you feel like an upscale night out at a world-renown salsa club with flamboyant L.A. style dancers you can venture to The Mayan. But maybe you prefer the fun-loving and free style of Cuban salsa, in which case you can head to Zabumba in Culver City and enjoy the truly absorbing experience of being involved in a Cuban line dance accompanied by Cuban drumming. Whichever style you prefer, you can guarantee that L.A. has a club that meets your preferences. And most importantly, these experiences are only a few miles' drive from Pasadena. Although some students may declare that Caltech is a small school, isolated from the influence of the wider L.A. community, the Caltech Salsa Club is demonstrating otherwise.The Caltech Salsa Club was founded in 2003, by Stephane Lintner, a graduate student from France and an avid Cuban salsa dancer. One day, Stephane recruited friends and offered to teach them. There were many hilarious moments as the group learned the moves, but soon they were out hitting the L.A. clubs. At the time, the Caltech Ballroom Club taught salsa classes, in the classical style with an emphasis on precision footwork. This being a world away from the 'earthy' Cuban style, Stephane formed the Caltech Salsa Club and started offering his own classes. Ever since, the Club has been actively promoting all styles of salsa on campus, providing subsidized classes and salsa social events to the Caltech community.
Club members are involved with annual performances, such as the recent Caltech Dance Show, the planning of classes, workshops, on-campus events, and social outings to salsa clubs. The outings to salsa clubs have seen a recent increase in activity, fuelled partly by an influx of new social dancers. The club arranges car-pooling to ensure that the clubs are accessible to everyone who wishes to go.
For the past year the club was fortunate to obtain instruction from Alex Da Silva, the Mayan World Champion 2005. He wowed us with his saucy moves and unique charisma. Most importantly, Alex embodied the fun and cheeky nature of L.A. style salsa, and he enticed the Caltech community to embrace this captivating style of dance. His classes were often varied and unpredictable, and through his vast amount of experience and individual flair he taught some of the hottest salsa moves seen in the clubs today.
For the coming summer, the Caltech Salsa Club is excited to announce that Arlene Santos and Francisco Bugarin of salsAFeroZ Dance Company will be teaching our new series of classes. Since 2003, Arlene and Francisco have shared their passion and love for salsa with the community. They are co-directors of the salsAFeroz Dance Company and are skilled teachers, performers and choreographers. Emphasizing lead and follow techniques, and stressing the importance of salsa as a social dance, they will teach you the skills to dance with any partner. Their teaching style is very down-to-earth and easy to follow, making their classes an enjoyable experience for students of all levels.
For me personally, salsa provides an escape from the daily academic lifestyle at Caltech, and adds spice and variety to the Caltech experience. Salsa, with its addictive rhythms and multiple styles naturally appeals to a world audience and attracts people of all backgrounds. You will share the dance floor with a truly global representation of people. When you feel like Caltech is asking too much of you, go to a Salsa club. Simply walking through the door and wending your way to the dance floor is all that the salsa community asks of you. There are no expectations, no deadlines, just the anticipation that you will have fun. If only for a few hours, you may even forget about the demands of Caltech. All in all, salsa can provide the 'normality fix' that Caltech students crave. And let's face it, basic dance ability is a useful life skill to have.
Summer is all set to be a fantastic time to get involved with salsa, with the new series of classes beginning on June 18th in Dabney Hall at 6.30pm. In addition, the annual Salsa Club party will follow the GSC-sponsored GUSH on July 25th. The renowned DJ Saoco will be spinning the best of raggaeton, merengue, and salsa. For more information, please visit our recently redesigned website at http://salsa.caltech.edu. A recent article by the Economist (here) concludes that salsa is becoming a global dance craze. You're not too late to join the party. Come and learn salsa.
The Caltech Salsa Club gratefully acknowledges the monetary support of the GSC, Caltech Y, and MHF.
Dan Bower, Caltech Salsa Club President and GSC Vice-Chair.
Bellydance
Leela will be teaching an 8-week series this summer, Saturdays 12:45-1:45pm in the Braun gym multipurpose room. The start date is June 21, last class is August 9. cost is $10/class or $45 for the entire series. No previous experience necessary! Email Rose (s3xyr0se@gmail.com) with questions.
Hula
Claire will be leading FREE classes through the summer, Tuesdays 7-8pm in the Central Catalina Rec. Room. The start date is June 10, attend as schedule permits. all levels of experience welcome. For more information, contact Claire at 818/354-9670 or Claire.Marie-Peterson@jpl.nasa.gov.
Beginner American Ballroom
Intermediate International Ballroom
Beginner and Intermediate West Coast Swing
Argentine Tango: Beginner Milonga
I See Hawks in L.A.
Friday, June 20, 8pm. Beckman Mall. This country rock band features three-part harmonies, twang guitar, and acoustic arrangements, with lyrics musing on morality and pre-apocalyptic Los Angeles. Admission: free. Call campus extension 4652 for information.
Perla Batalla
Saturday, June 21, 8pm. Beckman Mall. Grammy-nominated vocalist Perla Batalla takes the timeless songs she heard growing up and molds their rhythmic and melodic forms to create a cross-pollination of trend and tradition. Admission: free. Call campus extension 4652 for information.