Executive Board

Dan Abramov

Director, Founder

Dan is a senior studying Physics and Astronomy. He is one of the telescope operators and tour guides at Northwestern's Dearborn Observatory, and this past summer he worked as a research intern at the Space Telescope Science Institute, focusing on modeling asteroids and dusty disks around white dwarf stars. Dan is also the director and founder of NUSTARS. Outside of academia, Dan enjoys photography, biking, and camping. Future career interests include astronomy, space exploration, and commercial spaceflight.

Rafay Faruqi

Chief Engineer - Rocketry Division

Rafay is a senior in the BM/MS program in Biomedical Engineering focusing his graduate education on Material Science. He is the chief engineer of the USLI team, and actively conducts research in both mechanical engineering and bio-mechanics. He is extraordinarily fascinated by space flight, astrobiology, and AI systems. Apart from research and academia, Rafay loves learning foreign languages, playing soccer, and practicing Muay Thai.

Katie Jaycox

Chief Engineer - Microgravity Division

Katie is a senior studying Earth and Planetary Science and Materials Science Engineering. She is the chief engineer of the micro-gravity team and is intensely interested in human space exploration. Katie splits her time between Evanston and Houston as a coop at NASA's Johnson Space Center and loves her job. When not working on the micro-gravity team, taking classes, or thinking about space, her interests include: running, education equality, hiking, and learning, albeit slowly, how to dance.

Matt Hroma

Chief Engineer - CubeSat Division

Matt is a current sophomore from Downers Grove, IL, studying Physics and Astronomy as well as Mechanical Engineering in McCormick. In addition to his work within NUSTARS as chief engineer of CSLI, Matt is also an active member of the rocketry team. Outside of NUSTARS, Matt is the president of the Northwestern Men's rugby team, risk manager of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity and an assistant in the chemistry laboratory safety department at Northwestern. However, Matt's passion lies in designing new space technologies, space exploration, experimenting with magnetism and observational astronomy. His hobbies also include working out, playing basketball, browsing Reddit, playing guitar, and watching Food Network.

Kevin Rosenthal

Associate Chief Engineer - CubeSat Division

Kevin is currently a freshman Mechanical Engineering student from Cleveland, OH. Kevin is the associate chief engineer on the Cube Satellite Launch Initiative team, in addition to his involvement in Supplies for Dreams, a non-profit student-run organization focused on helping students in the Chicago Public School System. In his free time he enjoys biking, baseball Spanish and listening to the Dave Matthews Band.

Alex Hollenbeck

Associate Chief Engineer - Microgravity Division

Alex is a sophomore studying Computer Engineering and Cognitive Science. One of Alex's biggest passions is design; he is a product design intern for the Segal Design Institute, will be starting as a shop trainer for freshman engineers in the fall, and is pursuing Certificate in Engineering Design. His other activities include a research position with Northwestern artificial intelligence laboratory Qualitative Reasoning Group and an executive position in Sigma Chi Fraternity. In his free time Alex enjoys sailing, cooking, and playing piano.

Andy Kozminski

Associate Chief Engineer - Microgravity Division

Andy is a Junior studying Biochemistry and Earth & Planetary Science. He enjoys long walks on the beach and romantic candle-lit dinners. Favorite movies include While You Were Sleeping, Sixteen Candles, and The Little Mermaid. Favorite books range from 50 Shades of Grey to the short comic book series Land Before Time: A Pokemon Story. This versatile and broad-ranging character happens to also be proficient in 8 languages, including Russian, Swahili and Native Aztec hieroglyphs. Andy's role on the team is of utmost importance -- typist.... In reality, Andy enjoys the Bio that happens on the Micrograv team, and plans to pursue Space Medicine in the future.

Irsal Alsanea

Treasurer

Irsal is a BS/MS Computer Science junior in the McCormick School of Engineering from Chicago, New York, Manila and/or D'mmam, Saudi Arabia (depending on with whom she is talking). She is currently a research assistant for a Computer Science and Communications laboratory at Northwestern, CollabLab (The Collaborative Technology Laboratory). For the past two summers she has interned for Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York, and an electric vehicle start up, HEVT, Inc., in Chicago. She hopes to augment to the success of NUSTARS (as treasurer) with her research and professional skills. Her free time is spent designing websites, and doing Mixed Martial Arts (Muay Thai from Thailand and Eskrima from the Philippines).

Samantha Stahl

Secretary - President elect for 2013/2014

Samantha is currently in her second year at Northwestern University where she is studying Electrical Engineering. Samantha is the secretary of NUSTARS, but in addition to her involvement in the club and her classwork she is a member of Northwestern's club tennis team and a DJ for Northwestern's radio station, the goal of which is to play underrepresented music.

James Chang

Webmaster, Electrical Lead - Rocketry Division

James is a junior in Computer Engineering and Musicology from Jacksonville, FL. In addition to his schoolwork, James also plays violin in the non-music major orchestra, the Philharmonia, and piano in his free time. Aside from being the Webmaster and Rocketry Electrical Lead of NUSTARS, James is also the President of the Northwestern University student branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-NU). His extracurricular interests include technology, orchestral music of the last two centuries and conducting, and linguistics.

Brad Winters

Corporate Relations Chair

Brad is a sophomore studying Industrial Engineering and Economics. In addition to NUSTARS, he is involved on campus as a Peer Adviser, member for the Searle Undergraduate Teaching and Learning committee, and Recruitment Chair for the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. This summer, Brad spent his time working at PepsiCo in the Customer Supply Chain department, and hopes to pursue Supply Chain as a potential career path. Brad’s hobbies include working out, playing basketball, eating, and playing Super Mario Strikers.

Rachel Wang

Publicity Chair

Rachel is a sophomore studying Materials Science and Engineering and is the Publicity Chair for NUSTARS.

Matthew Salazer

Mechanical Lead - Rocketry Division

Matthew is a sophomore in Mechanical Engineering from Saddle River, NJ. Apart from his involvement with NUSTARS, he spent this past summer working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement aiding its trial counsel in litigation proceedings. Matthew plans to assist the team in areas concerning rocket design and construction.

Phillip Smith

Science Lead - Microgravity Division

Phillip is a fourth year B.S./M.S. student in Chemical Engineering. As science lead of the microgravity team and a co-op in the Electrochemistry Branch at the NASA Glenn Research Center, his interests embrace the many challenges of long term space exploration. Outside of class, Phillip works in the Northwestern University music library and plays trombone in Basketball Band and Concert Band. His other activities consist of running, biking, driving, and playing guitar

Mirasbek Kuterbekov

Shah Lab Liaison - Microgravity Division

Mirasbek is a senior majoring in Materials Science and Engineering with a concentration in Biomaterials. He is a liaison between the microgravity team and the Shah Biomaterials Lab and has a deep interest in studying the effects of different environmental factors on the behavior of cells and tissues. Mirasbek has worked in the Shah Lab since his sophomore year and has conducted two summer research projects under the guidance of Professor Shah. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, watching British dramas, being outside as much as possible, and making green tea. His future aspiration is to be involved in academia.

Angela Jiang

Education Co-Chair

Angela is a junior studying Computer Science with a focus on computer systems and artificial intelligence. On campus, she serves as an Educational Co-Chair of NUSTARS and a member of McCormick Student Advisory Board. Outside of Northwestern, she devotes time to a educational outreach program she started in Haiyang, China. The goal of the program is to expose the Chinese students to CS through a 2 week summer session and provide continued mentorship, especially for those who dream of coming to America. Her outside interests include drumming, running, playing tennis and studying critical theory. Angela hopes to involve her interests in distributed systems, networking and education in her future career.

Lamar Richards

Education Co-Chair

Lamar is a junior in Mechanical Engineering. He is very involved in the National Society of Black Engineers, and has extensive experience working with and tutoring high school students.

Nicholas Miller

Volunteer Coordinator

Nick is a junior majoring Computer Engineering and minoring in Film. He was an executive member of his high school student council for two years, and an overall member for four, being voted the model member sophomore and senior years. He was also captain of his high school academic team for four years. Nick is the IT person for NU Flipside, which is a minor time commitment. Also, once a week, he volunteers for 1-2 hours through Evanston's Senior Connections program, during which he visits a senior citizen in Evanston and spend time with them. He has done a lot of volunteer work over the years, primarily with senior citizens and mentally handicapped children. Throughout high school, he regularly volunteered at a local nursing home, and more sporadically volunteered at a children's rehab center.