EGSA
President
Article VII, Section 1a
The President shall serve as the Chairperson of the EGSA Town Hall Meeting, regulate the voting and nomination proceedings, and act as the official spokesperson for engineering graduate students. The President’s vote shall act as tie-breaker at EGSA Executive Board sessions.
Student
Vanessa Thulsiraj, 2010Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Interests
Traveling and reading
Biography
I am a PhD student in Environmental Engineering. My research has focused on microbial source tracking utilizing molecular and rapid methods in coastal watersheds within Southern California and Tijuana, Mexico.
Vice President Internal
Article VII, Section 1b
The Vice President Internal shall be responsible for all academically oriented programs of EGSA, as well as activities instantiated by bodies outside of EGSA with implications to the EGSA General Body, including attendance at the meetings of the HSSEAS Executive Committee, and serve as the Vice Chairperson for the EGSA Townhall Meeting. Vice President Internal is to assume the duties of the President and to represent the EGSA should the President become incapacitated.
Student
Kari Varin, 2010Department
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Vice President External
Article VII, Section 1c
The Vice President External shall assist the President as necessary and serve as a liaison to all other graduate student groups on campus, including the GSA Forum. Vice President External shall also appoint representatives to other executive boards and bodies requiring EGSA representation and act as their liaison to the EGSA Executive Board.
Student
Meghdi Babakhanlou, 2010Department
Bioengineering
Secretary
Article VII, Section 1d
The Secretary is responsible for preparing the agenda for all EGSA meetings in coordination with the President, take minutes at all EGSA meetings and provide the minutes to the Officers and the EGSA members.
Student
Marcia Ferreira, 2010Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Interests
Cycling, traveling, camping, hiking, solving math puzzles, and reading science books.
Biography
I am working towards a PhD in Environmental Engineering (part of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department). My research involves microbiology and geochemistry.
Treasurer / Vice President External
Article VII, Section 1e
The Treasurer is responsible for managing all accounts of the EGSA and maintaining the ledger.
Article VII, Section 1c
The Vice President External shall assist the President as necessary and serve as a liaison to all other graduate student groups on campus, including the GSA Forum. Vice President External shall also appoint representatives to other executive boards and bodies requiring EGSA representation and act as their liaison to the EGSA Executive Board.
Student
David Chilin, 2010, C.V.Department
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Interests
Doing sports, hiking, and going to music shows or surfing the web during downtime in the lab.
Biography
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. I have spent nearly all of my life here in southern California and hope to never leave. I received my B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UC Irvine and then worked for a biotech company in Ventura. My academic research focus now is very different from my specialization in biotechnology (specifically protein purification) with the intention of challenging myself and becoming more well rounded along the way. My research now is in the area of chemical process control using distributed model predictive controllers focusing on fault tolerance. And when I am not in lab, most of my leisure time is spent doing sports, hiking, and going to music shows or surfing the web during downtime in the lab.
Events Coordinator
Article VII, Section 1f
The Events Coordinator is responsible for planning and coordinating events as described in Article II, Section 2:
To encourage the participation of engineers in civic, cultural, and educational aspects of society.
Student
Daniel Goodman, 2010Department
Chemical Engineering
Interests
I love to play and watch Sports and hope to start some EGSA IM Teams during the year. I’m also on a quest with my brother to watch a game in every Major League Baseball Stadium. We’ve seen 24 of the 30 teams play at home (though we have to revisit 4 of them because they’ve opened a new stadium).
I am a huge fan of The Simpsons and made a guest appearance in the recent 20th Anniversary Special. I am also a huge fan of The Beach Boys. The best thing to happen to me since coming to UCLA is having the honor of meeting Matt Groening and Brian Wilson (the creators of my favorite things mentioned above, respectively).
Biography
I was born and raised in San Francisco, and got my B.S. in ChemE at UC Davis. It’s not easy to juggle a research project and a TAship, but somehow I managed to fit in eight hours of TV a day.
Webmaster
Article VII, Section 1h
The Webmaster is responsible for maintaining and updating the EGSA website.
Student
Alexander Afanasyev, 2009Department
Computer Science
Interests
Jogging, eating, sometimes cooking, sometimes playing tennis (just have started to learn how to play)
Biography
I was born and grew-up in a small city in Latvia. Actually, when I was born Latvia was a part of USSR, then became an independent state, and later became a part of European Union :). Anyways, after I finished a high-school, I moved to Russia, and in particular to Moscow, where I was studying to get my bachelor and masters degrees. After that I came to LA and currently working towards my Ph.D. degree in Computer Science department.