Scholars – OURS National Scholarships

National Scholarship Recipients

Cooper Jacobus 2024-2025

Cooper Jacobus (’25, Astrophysics and Logic) is passionate about Computational Physics and fascinated with Cosmology and Machine Intelligence. He currently works toward solving problems in Cosmology using Machine Learning methods at UC Berkeley’s Department of Astronomy and Berkeley Lab’s Computational Cosmology Center. His research uses supercomputers to simulate the birth and history of the Cosmos to learn about the nature of gravity and dark matter. He hopes his work will inspire a new generation of scientists and shed light on the grandest mysteries of the universe. Outside of research, Cooper greatly enjoys […]

Alana Yang 2024-2025

Alana Yang (’25, MCB and Data Science) is interested in translational immunology and computational biology. She is an undergraduate researcher in the Doudna Lab, where her research involves developing an assay to streamline diagnosis for novel mutations causing ART-SCID. She is also using computational tools to analyze T cell diversity as an early predictor of whether patients with SCID need a second bone marrow transplant. After graduation, Alana plans on pursuing a PhD in molecular biology.

Samuel Alber 2023-2024

Samuel Alber (’24, Computer Science and Physics) is interested in the mathematics and physics underlying the immune system and plans to pursue a PhD in computational biology. His research involves developing and applying statistical/computational methods for analyzing single-cell multiomics data from immune cells. He also develops computer vision algorithms for analyzing immune cell interactions from microscopy images and videos. Outside of research, Sam enjoys teaching and is currently a teaching assistant for Berkeley’s machine learning course.

Mrunali Manjrekar 2022-2023

Mrunali Manjrekar (Bioengineering/EECS, ’23) is interested in the exciting research being conducted at the intersection of applied engineering biology and computer science working, in order words, at both the benchtop and the desktop. She plans to pursue a PhD in Computational Biology and credits UC Berkeley’s amazing “landscape of opportunity” for providing the resources and opportunities to pursue her interests. She has worked in the Nielsen lab, seeking genetic markers to explain how a particular kind of frog is able to live at high altitudes in the Andes and is […]

Naveen Durvasula 2021-2022

Naveen Durvasula is a sophomore majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Business Administration through the Management, Entrepreneurship, and Technology program at UCB. He’s interested in problems at the intersection of computational learning theory, economics, and machine learning. After graduation, he intends to get a PhD in computer science and (one day) start a company.