LEADERSHIP 2020-2021
Grace Connors, Co-President, Water Night Director
Grace is a masters student in Mechanical Engineering at MIT, which is also where she completed her undergraduate degree. She is working on optimizing solar powered desalination systems in India, and she is particularly interested in the economics of producing water. Grace is the Director of this year’s Water Night.
Chun Man Chow, Co-President
Chun Man is a Chemical Engineering PhD student at MIT. He is interested in separation processes, including water purification and remediation, pollution control, and resource recovery. He currently works on graphene membranes in Prof. Karnik’s lab in Mechanical Engineering. Prior to coming to MIT, he studied Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering at University of California Berkeley.
Laura Chen, Co-President, Water Summit Director
Laura is an undergraduate at MIT studying chemical engineering with a focus on the environment and minoring in public policy. She is passionate about tackling sustainability challenges in the water space from engineering and governance lenses, and has conducted research on membrane modifications for gas and water separation applications and Boston eviction dynamics. She is currently a research assistant for the MIT American Water Shutoffs team. When she’s not thinking about water, she enjoys being a part of the MIT Varsity Field Hockey team and the Terrascope community. Laura was the director of this year’s Water Summit and is helping to lead the newly formed Policy Team.
Alec Bullen, Water Innovation Prize Co-Director
Alec is a second-year MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Alec began his career as an Investment Associate at Cambridge Associates where he worked with corporate pensions and operating pools on asset allocation, investment strategy and policy, and portfolio construction. Alec then spent two years as an equity research analyst at a small Boston-based firm where he covered small and mid-cap companies predominantly in the consumer, online travel, industrials, and transportation and logistics categories. Alec is interested in water as it relates to its sustainable use in manufacturing and the supply chain. Alec is a 2015 graduate from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in history. He enjoys running and spending time outdoors, especially on the water, fishing, surfing, scuba diving, and sailing.
Claire Matthews, Water Innovation Prize Co-Director
Claire is a second-year MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management pursuing certificates in Sustainability and Business Analytics. Prior to Sloan, Claire was working in software. She spent 4 years implementing, supporting, and developing healthcare software, and then two years in operations at a network management software company. She has always had a passion for tech and is excited to be back at Sloan to pursue the intersection of sustainability and tech. In her spare time, Claire enjoys spending her time outdoors hiking and scuba diving. She got interested in water while traveling and interacting with communities who lacked proper access to water. She is excited to be a part of the Water Innovation Prize this year to see how new technology can help resolve this issue.
Nicolette Bugher, Water Summit Networking Director
Nicolette is a PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Delaware where she researched the application of crystal modifiers for brine spill remediation originating from hydraulic fracturing activities. Her research now focuses on water quality through detection and degradation of organic chemical contaminants. Her research includes monitoring potential drinking water contamination at hydraulic fracturing adjacent sites and researching the potential for electrochemical removal of nitrosamine compounds from Massachusetts Superfund sites. Out of lab, she enjoys meeting and connecting with new people, her dog and 2 cats, travelling, and all outdoor activities.
Rachel Ahlmark, Social Media Manager
Rachel is an undergraduate student at MIT studying chemical engineering and economics. She is interested in the applications of engineering in health care and in increasing clean water access. She is currently working as a research assistant. Outside of the water club, she runs on the MIT track & field team.
Nasr Sattar, Club Student Sustainability Coalition Representative
Nasr is a Sloan Fellow MBA candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Before Sloan, Nasr ran a cross-functional team responsible for innovation, product management, pricing, and market intelligence at a technology company focused on delivering solutions in the Gaming and Fintech industries. He has a wide range of innovation experience by defining problems and iterating solutions while exploring and applying technology from varied sectors. Over 8+ years, Nasr has taken numerous hardware and software technology solutions from conception through launch. His natural inventiveness and tinkering nature led him to Sloan to passionately work on water and resource management solutions in the next phase of his career. His academic work – he studied Finance and Information Systems at James Madison University – and his creative thinking lends well to exploring sustainable solutions innovation. His mission is to understand how things work and leave them better than when he found them.
Lai Wa Chu, Club Student Sustainability Coalition Representative
Lai Wa is a first year undergraduate student at MIT whose intended major is Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is currently in the process of figuring out where her passion lies and interested in exploring the topic of climate change and sustainability from a multidisciplinary lens. As the club’s representative in the Student Sustainability Coalition (SSC), her role is to communicate the club’s goals to the other sustainability-related groups on campus when collaborating on projects. Besides being involved in the Water Club, Lai Wa is also a part of Engineers Without Borders (MIT Chapter) and two student-run theater groups.
Devashish Pratap Gokhale, Lecture Series Chair
Devashish is a PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering at MIT, with broad interests in developing soft materials for social good. His current research in the Doyle group focuses on making low-cost sustainable polymers for the elimination of emerging contaminants from water. Before coming to MIT, Devashish studied chemical engineering at IIT Madras in India, where his research focused on micro and nano-materials. When he is not working with water, Devashish enjoys swimming in it.
Anselmo Cassiano, Lecture Series Co-Chair
Anselmo Cassiano has a MBA in corporate communication FIA/USP. He is specialist in Negotiation, Mediation by Program on Negotiation (PON) Harvard Law School, Specialist in Crisis Emergency and Business Continuity by MIT. Specialist in Conflict Management by Princeton University and Strategy, Conflict and Cooperation by Harvard Economics. He also as 1st Lieutenant worked for the United Nations as UN Peacekeepers Force in East Timor. He loves sports and he was MIT Shotokan Karate Captain for several years and now he is MIT Triathlon Captain. Also he is a volunteer at MIT co-ed Sailing program since 2017 and as an original Brazilian is crazy about Soccer. He studies as Research Affiliate Water Diplomacy at MIT and Expert in Humanitarian Response to conflict zone and Refugee rights by Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Amnesty International. He has been a member of Harvard Law School Negotiators and Judge of USA Stockholm Junior Water Prize since 2018. the World’s most prestigious Water Award. He has been a member of MIT Water since 2017 as co-chairman of the Lecture Series.