Updates from PMB alumni and current students
Naz Nami (BS '08)
Contact: LinkedIn
Naz Nami, PMHNP, is currently working at the Missouri Department of Mental Health, where she specializes in serving individuals with dual diagnoses—intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) alongside psychiatric conditions. Naz is truly enjoying her role, finding it both meaningful and rewarding to work with a population that often faces complex challenges. She continues to advocate for compassionate, individualized care and is grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of her clients every day.
Abby Li (BS '21)
Contact: abby.li@berkeley.edu
After spending three years working in the gene editing industry, I am now a medical student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. My time in research helped me develop my interest in medicine and deepened my appreciation for how science can support patient care.
Dimitri Georgakopoulos (PhD '93)
Contact: dgeorga@aua.gr
Dimitri has been a Professor of Agricultural Microbiology at the Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, since 2002, where he teaches General Microbiology to freshmen and sophomore students. Dimitri's group is currently working on mitigation of frost damage of citrus trees using a model to forecast epiphytic populations of ice nucleation-active bacteria and apply copper sprays to eliminate them on time before frost occurrence. Dimitri is also interested in the involvement of biological ice nucleators, such as bacteria, in precipitation processes in the clouds, and he has collaborated with atmospheric physics scientific groups in Germany and the US (West Texas A&M, Colorado State University). In the past, he has worked with the genetic and biochemical characterization of bacterial antagonists of phytopathogens, which have potential as biocontrol agents.
Aprilgate Wang (BS '16)
Contact: aprilgatewang@gmail.com
After graduating from UC Berkeley, I worked at UCSF in pancreatic research, thinking I would pursue a PhD. It felt like something was missing while I worked long hours distilling proteins and splitting cells, wishing I could do something more for people suffering from cancer. It prompted my switch into medicine. I started medical school at Tulane University in 2020 and graduated with an MD and an MPH in Tropical Medicine in 2024. I am now an internal medicine resident physician at UC Davis Medical Center with plans of completing an infectious disease fellowship after. I absolutely loved my time at Berkeley and wouldn't have had it any other way: I was born in Berkeley (my dad was a graduate student), I met my husband at Berkeley, and we got married at the Redwood Grove in the UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens in 2023. It's a huge part of my life, and I hope to return one day!
Matthew Chan (BS '11)
Contact: Linkedin
When I first graduated from the College, I went into public school teaching Biology. Within a few years, I transitioned to software engineering as first engineer on a deep technology due diligence VC platform. I am now a principal engineer/tech lead at Autodesk.
Kathleen McCowin (BA '72)
Contact: kmccowin@berkeley.edu
I've spent 50 years in patent law for NASA, Becton Dickinson, startups, and with Big Law. My pro bono work is in Public Health, such as tobacco control and tire crumb in plastic turf. Protesting the latter, I spent the night in jail. In 2015, I retired after 17 years at UC and the National Labs, doing tech transfer work. My three children live in Portland, England, and Berkeley. Since I live in San Francisco, I'm very lucky that it was my Berkeley son who gave me my first grandchild last year.
Zinmay Sung (PhD)
Contact: sungr@berkeley.edu
Happily retired after a career as a professor in PMB.
Callum Gilchrist (BS '16)
Contact: cgilchrist93@gmail.com
After working in various labs—agricultural seeds, marine biology, cancer research—I decided to apply my environmental knowledge and desire for adventure into a career change. I now work for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) as a wildland firefighter.
Riva Bruenn (PhD '17)
Contact: rivabruenn@gmail.com
I was granted tenure at Santa Rosa Junior College, a community college in Sonoma County. Happy to talk to current students who wish to pursue community college teaching careers.
Yichi Chen (BS '24)
Contact:ellachenyc@gmail.com
I am currently pursuing a PhD at University of Colorado Anschutz on human medical genetics and genomics.
Daniela Lin (BS '21)
Contact: danilin@berkeley.edu
For the past few years, I've worked as an educational consultant for different companies based in the US, UK, and Germany. After working for a few years, I realized that I wanted to improve my visualization and data analysis skills. As a result, I've decided to go back this fall to get a flexible CS-based Master's degree at the University of Pennsylvania.
James Martin Kalama Hogan (BS '08)
Contact: hogansheroes85@gmail.com
Greetings from Arizona! I am currently employed with the Chemical Analysis Department of Taiwan Semiconductor Arizona. Life in the Mega-Fab has been hectic but rewarding. We are currently producing the majority of the semiconductors going into your iPhones worldwide, and are actively recruiting undergraduate interns and Cal grads. Reach out for more information and networking opportunities within TSMC AZ. Go, Bears!
Aviv Spinner (BS '18)
Contact:avivspinner@gmail.com
I graduated with a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Science from Harvard Medical School, where I researched enzymes in Professor Debora Marks' lab. During my PhD, I completed the Therapeutics Certificate Program and published several papers in machine learning conference proceedings. Now, I work as a Research Fellow at The Align Foundation, continuing my work on protein machine learning models and building scalable, reproducible, and shareable biological datasets!
Lisa Polsby (MS '85)
Contact: lspolsby@netscape.net
I worked as a lab tech for a couple of years then went to Medical School. I worked as a psychiatrist at Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Chicago for 25 years until my retirement in June 2023.
Emma Lalor (BS '24)
Contact: elalor@berkeley.edu
I worked at Eagle Ambulance as an EMT and FTO-II after graduating from Rausser College, and will be attending the California University of Science and Medicine to obtain my M.D. starting this fall. I am excited to learn more about microbes in the body, and to start on my path to becoming a physician!
Robert Hines (BS '09)
Contact: agroeco.onelove@gmail.com
Having applied for graduate school, I decided I could make more of a difference by becoming a farmer. At the end of 2016, my wife Carine Hines (nee Marshall, another 2009 PMB alumnus) and I started Sun Tracker Farm in the beautiful Capay Valley. We grow organic fruits, roots, and shoots. We do what we can to mitigate climate change by growing healthy soils from an integrated farming approach that uses pastured poultry, compost, cover crops, and crop rotation. In my spare time, I am actively involved as a volunteer firefighter and raising our children in the spirit of John Prine's "Spanish Pipedream."
Elena Ochoa (BS '23)
Contact: elenajochoa@berkeley.edu
I just finished working as a postbaccalaureate at UCSF and will be starting a PhD program at WashU in the fall!