2025 RSI-WAVE Fellows
Meet the 2025 RSI-WAVE Fellows
This summer we are delighted to welcome a cohort of 6 undergraduate researchers to campus as RSI-WAVE fellows. The Caltech WAVE program was started in 2015 to attract more undergraduates from historically minoritized communities to campus to conduct research while also receiving support and guidance from faculty and current graduate students. The WAVE program was greatly expanded in 2021, thanks to support from research institutes across campus, including the RSI, which sponsored undergraduates doing research across all our research initiative areas.
Hannah Bachmann
Hannah Bachmann is currently a rising senior at the University of Minnesota where she studies Chemical Engineering. This summer, she has been able to participate as a WAVE fellow in the Demeter lab at CalTech. Hannah intends on continuing her education into graduate school where she hopes to do research that will support a more sustainable and healthy world for everyone.
Sherlyn Cazares
Maricellyn McDonald
Maricellyn ‘Rissy' McDonald is a rising junior in the Alice Carson Tisdale Honors College at Claflin University with a double major in Biology and Mass Communications. She has a minor in chemistry and a concentration in journalism. Rissy is passionate about science communications and aspires to make STEM research more accessible for the general public. This summer, she is working in Dr. Victoria Orphan's lab under the mentorship of Dr. John Magyar and Dr. Kelly Luis. Her project focuses on the lab-based spectroscopic imaging of seagrass and macroalgae to inform the interpretation of field-based mapping and monitoring of seagrass beds via spectroscopy.
Emilia Pelegano-Titmuss
Emilia Pelegano-Titmuss is a rising senior at the City University of New York - Hunter College studying Physics, Mathematics, and Geology. This summer she is working under Dr. Joann Stock, Professor of Geology and Geophysics. She is excited to be working on a geologic map of Isla Tortuga, which will include topography, bathymetry, and petrology. Isla Tortuga is located directly on a fracture zone of the Guaymas Basin and contains a geological record of many of the past tectonic events of the Gulf of California, and can therefore provide insight into the tectonic history of this unique area. After completing her undergraduate studies, she plans to pursue a PhD in Geology.
Ian Rocha
Ian Rocha (they/them) is a rising 5th year at Northeastern University (Boston, MA) pursuing their bachelors in Chemical & Environmental Engineering. They are passionate about sustainability, discovery, and innovation. They have completed two six-month long internships at Electric Hydrogen, a start-up manufacturing the worlds most powerful electrolyzers, and at Tender Food, a start-up designing alternative meat products from lab and kitchen. Their technical specialties are within material science, electrochemistry, and fluid dynamics. Currently, they are working in Dr. Julie Kornfield's lab at Caltech as a WAVE fellow studying microfluidic devices and engineered living hydrogels.