For seven new graduate students at Caltech, it won't be their first time conducting research at the Institute: they all had a head start in summer 2022, as members of the WAVE Fellows program.
Launched in 2015, the WAVE Fellows program is a 10-week summer research program for those undergraduates who have been significantly underrepresented in STEM and higher education. Although open to all applicants, the program aims to foster diversity by increasing the participation of students historically excluded from science and engineering PhD programs and making Caltech's graduate programs more visible and accessible to students not traditionally exposed to Caltech.
Since the start of the program, 35 former WAVE Fellows have matriculated to Caltech for their PhDs, and more than 90 percent have enrolled in graduate programs overall. After an expansion of the program in 2021, Caltech increased the number of WAVE Fellows from 25 to 80 students each summer. With that expansion, the program's success continues to grow.
"The WAVE program has been a powerful way to attract talented scholars to Caltech," says Harry A. Atwater (Otis Booth Leadership Chair, Division of Engineering and Applied Science; Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science; and director, Liquid Sunlight Alliance), who worked with two WAVE Fellows in the incoming cohort.
"I'm delighted that César [Lasalde Ramírez] and Holland [Frieling] discovered Caltech through the WAVE fellowship program, and then chose to join our vibrant and tightly knit community. I'm looking forward to exploring interdisciplinary graduate research with both of them in the coming years."
Get to know the former WAVE Fellows who will return to Caltech for graduate school this fall:
Holland Frieling
Former Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) SURF-the-WAVE prize fellow
Graduate Option: physics
Research Area: "I knew I wanted to join Professor Atwater's group since meeting with him during the WAVE program, and I've actually been able to start research early over the summer. My general research interest is in quantum materials, but right now I'm training to work on two-dimensional black phosphorus, a van der Waals material with interesting optical and electronic properties."
WAVE Faculty Mentor: Nai-Chang Yeh, Thomas W. Hogan Professor of Physics
WAVE Research Project: "My research project title was ‘Scanning Tunneling Microscopy on Strain-Engineered Graphene,' which entailed working with my graduate mentor to rebuild a high-vacuum scanning tunneling microscope to image various samples including graphite, graphene, and strained graphene."
How did your experience in the WAVE program influence your decision to pursue graduate research and/or attend Caltech?
"The opportunity to do research outside of my undergraduate institution helped me gain confidence in my scientific abilities and pushed me to apply to more-competitive graduate programs. I also enjoyed being a part of the Caltech community, with its emphasis on collaboration and inclusion, which ultimately helped me decide to pursue my graduate studies here."
Manuel Holguin
Former Southern California Edison WAVE fellow
Graduate Option: biology
Research Area: "My current research interests remain within structural biology, where I plan to continue to develop my skills in cryo-EM [cryogenic electron microscopy]. This technique provides great opportunities to study my primary interest, protein evolution, of which there are many labs here at Caltech that are also interested in this."
WAVE Faculty Mentor: William Clemons, Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial Professor of Biochemistry
WAVE Research Project: "I was utilizing cryo-EM to study MtMraY, a membrane protein in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. MtMraY was the target for a novel antibiotic drug under development that seemed capable of inhibiting the growth and even killing tuberculosis bacteria."
How did your experience in the WAVE program influence your decision to pursue graduate research and/or attend Caltech?
"Without WAVE, I don't think there is any chance I would have ended up at Caltech. Being a first-gen college student and growing up in the area, Caltech always had this incredible reputation, and before WAVE, it just wasn't somewhere I believed that I could succeed. I was shocked when I received my WAVE acceptance (which was initially a rejection, before being reconsidered and offered a spot nearly a month later), and even more so when I realized that I clicked so well with the research being done and the community. After WAVE, Caltech became my clear first choice, and I am thrilled to be back for my PhD."
César A. Lasalde Ramírez
Former Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) SURF-the-WAVE prize fellow
Graduate Option: materials science
Research Area: "My research interests are in the areas of solar technology and artificial photosynthesis. My goal at Caltech is to integrate my background in electrical engineering with the diverse knowledge I have gained from my research experiences to design tools that contribute to mitigating climate change."
WAVE Faculty Mentor: Harry Atwater, Otis Booth Leadership Chair, Division of Engineering and Applied Science; Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science; Director, Liquid Sunlight Alliance
WAVE Research Project: "During the WAVE fellowship I studied how metal and semiconducting materials could convert carbon dioxide into useful products using the full spectrum of light in a project titled ‘Elucidating Structure-Property Relationships in Metal/Semiconductor Materials for Solar-Driven Carbon Dioxide Conversion.'"
How did your experience in the WAVE program influence your decision to pursue graduate research and/or attend Caltech?
"As a Puerto Rican with little to zero in-person experience doing research at universities in the United States, I was very unsure of applying to graduate school. The WAVE fellowship not only gave me the confidence and skills necessary to apply, but it also showed me the amazing community at Caltech. Now I recommend the WAVE fellowship to every undergrad interested in science and graduate school."
Noah Okada
Former Chen Institute BrainWAVE fellow
Graduate Option: social and decision neuroscience
Research Area: "I'm interested in understanding the intricate interplay between the brain's fear and anxiety circuits and their profound impact on social behaviors. Specifically, I am interested in studying how interactions in digital and virtual environments may impact these emotional circuits. During my time at Caltech I hope to explore these questions by building gamified environments to study the brain."
WAVE Faculty Mentor: Dean Mobbs, professor of cognitive neuroscience; Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, Caltech Brain Imaging Center; director, Caltech Brain Imaging Center
WAVE Research Project: "During the WAVE fellowship I worked on the development of a gamified virtual environment to study how the human brain computes escape and reward decisions in situations of threat. This work was part of a larger project focused on investigating how emotions such as fear and anxiety emerge from the brain."
How did your experience in the WAVE program influence your decision to pursue graduate research and/or attend Caltech?
"The WAVE program helped me to see what life as a graduate student could be like. Coming from a low-income family with limited exposure to academia, the WAVE program was pivotal in shaping my perspective and understanding of careers in research, as well as [exposing me to] the dynamic academic environment at Caltech."
Tristan Villanueva
Former Resnick Sustainability Institute WAVE fellow
Graduate Option: mechanical engineering
Research Area: "Throughout my undergraduate studies at Cal [UC Berkeley] and UNAM [Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México], I grew to appreciate the math and theory that goes into solving problems within engineering and physics, which led to my interests in continuum mechanics and dynamics. During my PhD I hope to analyze fundamental problems that have an impact on sustainability by using theory and computation."
WAVE Faculty Mentor: Kaushik Bhattacharya, Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and Materials Science; vice provost
WAVE Research Project: "The title of my project was ‘Crack Nucleation in Lithium-Ion Battery Particles Utilizing a Phase Field Approach.' During my project I formulated equations for simple diffusion-induced crack nucleation using a variational approach, solved two-dimension crack induced by diffusion problems numerically, and analyzed the impact of anisotropic diffusion on symmetric geometries."
How did your experience in the WAVE program influence your decision to pursue graduate research and/or attend Caltech?
"Making a decision on which graduate school I attended was difficult. Ultimately, I knew that I could develop myself academically at Caltech, and my experience through the WAVE program reassured me that I have a home in Pasadena with a community of people that share values I have. I truly had a fantastic time throughout my WAVE experience and made fond memories working out problems on chalkboards, being excited to learn from my postdoc Jean-Michel Scherer and adviser Kaushik Bhattacharya, and spending time with my lab group and WAVE cohort."
Audrey Washington
Former Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) WAVE fellow
Graduate Option: chemistry
Research Area: "My current research interest is studying mechanisms in photo and electrocatalysis facilitated by novel materials. I have previously studied photochemical and electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide and would like to develop projects that are aimed at understanding the exact chemical changes that occur in such reactions. Such studies may reveal interesting activity that could guide future development of photo and electrocatalytic materials."
WAVE Faculty Mentor: Scott Cushing, assistant professor of chemistry
WAVE Research Project: "My project during the WAVE fellowship was entitled ‘Integrating an Ultra High Vacuum Cryostat in Ultrafast XUV Spectroscopy for Charge-carrier Dynamics Analysis.' We utilized the short pulses employed by the ultrafast optical-pump and the XUV probe to study photoactive materials and their charge-carrier dynamics. This provides element-specific information that is normally difficult to obtain in traditional spectroscopy tools. Incorporating a cryostat allows us to study materials that have novel properties at extremely low temperatures."
How did your experience in the WAVE program influence your decision to pursue graduate research and/or attend Caltech?
"The WAVE program heavily influenced my decision to attend Caltech. After spending the summer with the Cushing Lab, I developed relationships that were lasting. When visiting different universities, I could not forget how at home I felt at Caltech, and the WAVE program allowed me to feel comfortable and seen in a rigorous academic environment."
Spencer Winter
Former Information Science and Technology (IST) WAVE fellow
Graduate Option: biology
Research Area: "I'm hoping to continue in the field of molecular programming, designing soft materials with robotic behaviors that are controlled via programmable molecular interactions. The work I already started during my WAVE Fellows experience will be relevant for this long-term goal."
WAVE Faculty Mentor: Lulu Qian, professor of bioengineering
WAVE Research Project: "I was working on a new design for DNA-based circuits. Specifically, I was working to reduce ‘leak' [unintended chemical reactions] in catalytic DNA circuits. My project was titled ‘Allosteric Leak Reduction in Catalytic Strand-Displacement Circuits.'"
How did your experience in the WAVE program influence your decision to pursue graduate research and/or attend Caltech?
"My experience as a WAVE fellow was extremely important to my decision to attend Caltech. The WAVE Fellows program gave me the opportunity to explore a field I was curious about but inexperienced with while feeling like I was making a meaningful contribution. The WAVE Fellows program helped ease me, as someone from a disadvantaged background, into the world of Caltech. The level of community, academic rigor, and support directly contributed to my decision to apply and attend Caltech, and I'm very excited to be back."
The WAVE program is generously supported by on-campus partners, including the Kavli Nanoscience Institute; Resnick Sustainability Institute; Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience; Information Science and Technology initiative; Center for Environmental Microbial Interactions; Institute for Quantum Information and Matter; Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences; and the Liquid Sunlight Alliance; as well as off-campus partners, including the Braun Foundation, Edison International, Facebook, Genentech Foundation, Google, and individual donors.
Learn more about how to support the WAVE Fellows program.
Written by Julia Ehlert