Lea Poquerusse is a Master’s student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. After earning her B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from McGill University, she worked in the project development unit of Ameresco, a renewable energy and energy efficiency company in Toronto. Her work was focused on assessing the viability of solar and wind projects from a financial and technical perspective and evaluating emerging technologies such as tidal power. Upon graduation in December 2012, she will be working as a consultant in Navigant Consulting’s Emerging Energy Technologies division. Having volunteered for the MIT Energy Night in 2011, Lea is thrilled to be in a more active role in organizing the MIT Energy Night. Lea is passionate about the energy industry in general and looks forward to making the 2012 MIT Energy Night a true success. Email Lea

Alex Breckel recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering focusing on energy systems analysis. Since his graduation in December 2011, Alex has worked as a research associate with the Webber Energy Group at UT studying solid recovery fuels from waste and novel distributed data centers. He is currently enrolled in MIT’s Technology and Policy Program and is helping prepare the MIT Energy Initiative’s upcoming symposium exploring the interdependency of electricity and natural gas infrastructures. Alex looks forward to meeting and working with all of the Energy Night’s enthusiastic volunteers while learning about the exciting energy research being conducted at MIT. Email Alex

Sid is a second year MBA student at Harvard Business School specializing in early-stage technology investing. Prior to HBS, he co-founded a consumer wireless business in India, and then built energy efficiency products for utility customers at Opower. Sid leads venture capital and entrepreneurship related activities for the HBS Energy club. He believes that commercializing disruptive technologies such as those at the MIT Energy Night will play a major role towards meeting our energy needs and curtailing climate change. Email Sid

Vijay Shilpiekandula is a Research Affiliate with the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering. He received his PhD and MS degrees from MIT, and a BTech from IIT Madras, all in Mechanical Engineering. He has played active roles in various MIT initiatives, including the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge Competition, where as a community manager, he helped build teams of students, faculty, NGOs, and community partners in fostering open innovation and entrepreneurship for developing countries. His interests include Clean Tech, SmartGrid, Green Business, and Energy Innovation for Emerging Markets, especially his home country, India, where he grew up adjusting to constant power cuts and reading off of kerosene lamps and storage battery lights, and where, even till date, it sadly remains business as usual to have about 8-10 hours of regular outages disrupting lives of millions almost every day. Vijay is excited to team up on internal and external publicity for the MIT Energy Night, mainly promoting and engaging in dialogue with academic and business leaders and the public at large about the energy challenges vexing our generation. Email Vijay

Despina is a third year PhD student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at MIT. Having completed her undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering in Cambridge University and MS studies in Geotechnical Engineering at MIT, she is now doing a PhD in Geothermal Energy. Her goal whilst at MIT is to become an expert in the renewable energy sector, as she truly believes that the broader use of clean energy technologies is vital for a sustainable future. Being a volunteer in last year’s Energy night Despina realized the importance of this event, as it not only gives the opportunity to the MIT community to present the very interesting research that is being undertaken but it also brings together people from different backgrounds who share a common passion for energy. Despina is truly fascinated to get actively involved in organizing this year’s Energy night and she will do her very best to make it an unforgettable event. Email Despina

Rachel is a 2nd year PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. She is very interested in alternative energy research and excited to be a content co-director for this year’s Energy Night! While earning her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Cornell University, she worked on tandem quantum dot solar cells and thin film solar cells made from earth-abundant materials. Her current research in the Tisdale Lab focuses on using ultrafast spectroscopy to understand charge transfer at colloidal quantum dot – bulk semiconductor interfaces such as those in quantum dot solar cells. Email Rachel

Simmy Willemann is a Master’s student pursuing a dual degree in Transportation and Mechanical Engineering at MIT. After graduating from Webb Institute with a B.S. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and working in hydrodynamics and computational geometry at Applied Physical Sciences Corp, she came to MIT to research the impact of future energy and market trends on global maritime shipping and vessel design. Simmy is proud to contribute to celebrating the wealth and diversity of energy research at MIT. She is especially passionate about MIT Energy Night’s role in informing students and the public on cutting edge technologies in energy. Email Simmy

Franco Mangiarotti is a PhD student in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department at MIT. Since he started his undergraduate studies in Nuclear Engineering at the Balseiro Institute in Bariloche, Argentina, he is very interested in different energy-related technologies. Franco first studied nuclear fission energy and hydrogen storage; now at MIT he studies fusion energy and works at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, helping develop engineering cabling techniques for high temperature superconductors. He also is very happy to be able to learn from people from different backgrounds at MIT in events such as the MIT Energy Night and the Energy 101 series. Franco is excited to work in the website development of the Energy Night, to help the organizers, volunteers and presenters have a better technological infrastructure and contribute to make this event a true success. Email Franco