For the 2020-21 academic year, the APSA board is:
President
Akshaya Venkatesh, McMurtry
Akshaya Venkatesh is a junior at McMurtry College, majoring in cognitive science and double minoring in business and biochemistry & cell biology! She serves as a Rice Health Advisor (RHA) for McMurtry, an undergraduate research assistant in the CORE Lab and Uribe Lab, a Tour Guide, and the Student Director of the Peer Academic Advising Program (PAA). In her spare time, she enjoys drinking coffee, watching Grey’s anatomy and spending time with friends and family.
Favorite science joke: What do you call an acid with an attitude? A-mean-oh Acid :))
Vice President
Aadith Vittala, Lovett
I’m a Lovett senior majoring in Physics and Biochemistry, and I’m excited to serve as Rice APSA’s Vice President this year! A few facts about me: I play the piano, read a lot of sci-fi, and love getting into philosophical arguments.
Fun fact: the human brain uses only about 20 Watts, about the same as a small LED lightbulb!
Professional Development Chair
Anna Tutuianu, Duncan
Anna Tutuianu is a Bioengineering major, Medical Humanities minor from Austin, TX. A proud Romanian American, Anna was raised on sarcasm and always has some specialty European food in her fridge. When she’s not dying in Fondy or lab, Anna can be found dancing bhangra at the Rec or bumping Kendrick Lamar on RWRC shifts. Otherwise, Anna will be staying up late watching Netflix documentaries and trying not to kill her plants.
I once catapulted a chicken in an attempt at a live Angry Birds enactment. (Note: the chicken remained relatively unharmed.)
Outreach Chair
Lisa Lin, Bakerrr
Hi! My name is Lisa, and I’m a Bakerite majoring in Biochemistry and Economics. I spend my idle time watching comedy and pondering unfortunate typos (consider: you type “attacked” instead of “attached” in a formal email *eyes emoji*).
My favorite animal is the quokka, and yours will be too once you look it up.
Treasurer
Adelle Jia, Hanszen
I’m currently studying neuroscience, particularly its computational/theoretical aspects. I also am interested in machine learning approaches and data science.
I once cronched on a bee as a child because it got stuck to the chocolate syrup I put on my hotdog.
Secretary
Rishi Shridharan, Will Rice
Rishi is a sophomore who is perfectly incapable of doing most things. His great triumph was in changing a lightbulb on the ceiling, which promptly burned out as soon as he climbed back down the ladder. Rishi spends most of his time interacting with the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, including greeting and conversing with them. Unfortunately, as with most discussions Rishi has, these conversations tend to be monologues, so please interrupt him whenever possible.
I have more hair now, and our running joke through high school was that my hair was actually outgrowths of brain. I wonder what that says about haircuts?…
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Vaishnav Krishnan, MD, PhD