2021 Water Summit Leadership
Autumn Deitrick, Co-Director
Autumn Deitrick is a PhD student in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering and is one of this year’s MIT Water Summit Co-Directors! Her research focuses on understanding hydrodynamics in mangrove forests, which are lauded for their blue carbon storage potential. She is really excited to learn more about the ways in which we can adapt to rising sea levels. “Nature is a fantastic teacher, and I hope to learn more about how we can work with nature to develop solutions that can benefit both humans and ecosystems.” Her favorite coast is the East Coast of the US!
James Brice, Co-Director
James is a Masters of Architecture student in the MIT School of Architecture + Planning and is one of this year’s MIT Water Summit Co-Directors. Before coming to MIT, James worked as a zookeeper and aquarist, responsible for the care and welfare of many terrestrial and aquatic animal species. Now as an MArch student, he works to merge species conservation and architectural design through research areas such as coastal resilience, urban ecology, and sustainable building practices on both the landscape and microbial scale. The issues facing our coastlines have sweeping effects on both human and non-human communities, and James is looking forward to bringing leaders in the fields of climate science, coastal planning, ecology, and environmental justice together to share their work and have conversations across disciplinary boundaries. His favorite coast is his home -- the New England coast!
Laura Chen
Planning focuses on water affordability challenges in the US - understanding and evaluating the issues and designing multi-stakeholder solutions. Previously, her research has involved exploring membrane modification techniques to create more energy-efficient gas separation technology and analyzing Boston eviction dynamics. She is excited to be involved in this year's Water Summit planning because coastal regions serve as an exciting interface between the land and the sea and humans and their shared resources. On top of this, these regions are ever-changing and will see even more change in the coming years. Laura's favorite coast is the East coast! (beast coast)!
Nicolette Bugher
Nicolette is a 2nd year PhD student at MIT studying Civil and Environmental Engineering. She works on complex mixture analysis with a focus on improving traditional analytical methods for one pot identification and quantification of organic chemical contaminants, and is excited to see how this year's panels address coastal ecosystems and the effect on public and environmental health. Her favorite coast is the East Coast!
Adrian Mikhail P. Garcia
Adrian is a PhD candidate in the MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science & Engineering. He uses field methods and numerical models to study environmental fluid mechanics, and his thesis is focused on the dynamics and transport processes in short, well-mixed estuaries. He believes that coasts are important environments which provide abundant resources to our communities -- he wants to learn more about how we can sustain them so that they can continue to sustain us. Adrian's favorite coast is Alki beach, West Seattle, across the Puget Sound from downtown Seattle.
Aditya Ghodgaonkar
Aditya is a PhD Candidate in MIT Mechanical Engineering. In his research, he examines how drip irrigation, despite its water efficiency, faces barriers against widespread adoption due to high upfront and operating costs. He works on designing low-cost, clogging resistant emitters to help enable better global accessibility to and adoption of drip irrigation. He is excited about this year's summit because of the opportunity to dive into and learn more about sea-level rise and its impact of coastal communities, governmental policy, agriculture, etc. Additionally, the team's focus on getting globally diverse perspectives is exciting too! Aditya's favorite coast is Goa on the west coast of India -- it’s close to home.
Eakapob Huangthanapan
Eakapob (Pob) is an SMarchS Urbanism student in the Department of Architecture at MIT who is interested in the various aspects of urbanism and architecture, from risk & resilience, ecological, and multi-species coexistence. He is interested in this year's themebecause the topic is very critical both within and beyond his discipline. He is very excited in this multi-disciplinary opportunity to collaborate with both students and experts in tackling this complex and pressing issue. Pob's favorite coast is Phuket island, Thailand!
Kristen Riedinger
Kristen is a Master of Science student at MIT's Civil and Environmental Engineering department. Her research involves collecting water, soil, and produce samples from local Massachusetts farms and analyzing them for a list of potential chemical contaminants. She is excited to learn about new water innovations and ideas with regards to coastal cities and ecosystems, especially in response to climate change and other environmental impacts. Kristen's favorite coast is the coast along Lake Michigan.
Ippolyti Dellatolas
Ippolyti is a PhD student in the MIT Mechanical Engineering department whose research aims at understanding the uneven flow that occurs when rain infiltrates hydrophobic soils vertically. Such uneven flow impedes water retention, optimal filtering of chemicals and can trigger catastrophic landslides. She investigates the origin of this flow in a lab-scale model system, with the goal of engineering solutions to improve homogeneous water retention in soils. Outside of the lab, she is involved in environmental initiatives across the MIT campus, through the MIT Water Club, GSC Sustain and work with the MIT Office of Sustainability. As someone who studies in Boston and has spent a lot of time in Athens - another coastal city - Ippolyti is excited to learn about how the global challenges of coastal cities and ecosystems are addressed throughout the world. Her favorite coast is the Mediterranean!
Elena Perez
Elena is a PhD Student in MIT-WHOI Joint Program studying Physical Oceanography. She studies in climate variability, extreme events, and biophysical interactions. She's interested in applying data science to understand climate, and is excited to learn more about how coastal cities and ecosystems will respond to climate variability and change! Elena loves the East Coast and the coasts of the San Juan islands in the Salish sea.
Benjamin Tiger
Benjamin is a second year PhD student attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program researching paleoclimatology and isotope geochemistry with a strong interest in climate variability and change. He is currently working on a project to reconstruct Indian Ocean hydroclimate through the Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation by using stable isotope and trace metal proxies on a speleothem from Madagascar. Benjamin hopes that by participating in this year's Water Summit, he can better understand the impacts of climate change on coastal communities while learning about some of the powerful mitigation technologies that have been proposed. After all, we could all use some of that climate optimism! Benjamin's favorite coast is Riviera Nayarit, western Mexico.
Bella Carmelita Carriker
Bella is a Master of Architecture student at the MIT Architecture Department. She is interested in the potential for spaces and buildings to function as organisms, fluidly evolving over time, and intrinsically linked to their ecosystems. Having grown up in different cities across the United States, France, Lebanon, Canada, and Colombia, Bella sees the urban environment as an ideal site to uncover complex realities and develop an intersectional practice in ecological preservation, the creation of resource infrastructure, and social equity. As a architect, she is interested about organic forms of water, in nature as well as the built environment, so it will be exciting for this Water Summit to bridge the gap between disciplines and develop new methods of designing alongside engineers, scientists, policy-makers and coastal communities. Bella’s favorite coast is The Gowanus Canal (East Coast).
Lai Wa
Lai Wa is a second 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.