Meet the MICRO Staff!
Prof. Cécile Chazot
Dr. Jessica Sandland
Sam Figueroa
Mrigi Munjal
Cécile A. C. Chazot (she/her/hers) is the Julia Weertman Assistant
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University, where
she leads the Sustainable Polymer Innovation laboratory (SPIn lab). Her research
seeks to develop sustainable polymer-based materials, with an equal focus on
environmental and societal impact. Her focus areas include fiber-based materials,
biopolymers, large-scale processing, structural colors, and engineering education.
She earned her Ph.D. in 2022 from the Department of Materials Science &
Engineering (DMSE) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), under the
supervision of Prof. A. John Hart, and a M.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering
from Mines Paristech (France). She is a co-founder of the MICRO program and leads the initiative at Northwestern University. Cecile’s work lies at the interface of educational initiatives and innovation in materials and manufacturing, which led her to receive the Arthur Nowick Award and a Silver Graduate Student Award at the 2021 Materials Research Society (MRS) Fall Meeting.
Jessica Sandland is a principal lecturer in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), where she leads online learning initiatives-- developing massive open online courses (MOOCs), collaborating with faculty, researching best practices in online learning, and designing blended learning experiences for the MIT community. She has overseen the development of a wide variety of DMSE’s online courses, including 3.086x (Innovation and Commercialization), 3.032x (Mechanical Behavior of Materials), 3.024x (Electronic, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials), 3.15x (Electrical, Optical and Magnetic Materials and Devices), and 3.054x (Cellular Solids). Jessica is one of the co-founders of the MICRO program, leading the initiative at MIT, and she serves as a senior member of Open Learning’s Digital Learning Laboratory. Her current research interests include the utility of peer review in open online courses and the use of humor in MOOCs, and she’s received awards for Best Paper in ‘20 and ‘22 for her contributions to the IEEE LWMOOCs Conference. Jessica also received the 2019 MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs and was a finalist for the 2019 edX prize. Jessica holds a Ph.D. in electronic materials from MIT.
Hi, my name is Sam Figueroa and I am originally from the Silicon Valley in California. I received my B.S. in NanoEngineering from the University of California, San Diego. My research background is in additive manufacturing and metallurgy. My research interests encompass material property characterization, impact resilience, and bioinspired design of 3D nanoarchitected materials for extreme environments. I am an upcoming second year graduate student at MIT MECHE working in the Portela Group for Architected Mechanics and Materials Across Length Scales. Outside the lab, I do competitive weighted calisthenics and parkour, archaeological studies of the ancient Maya on the side and I critique films. As a MICRO Intern from 2021-22, I am super excited to be a mentor!
Mrigi is a rising third-year PhD student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and an SM student in the Technology and Policy Program at MIT. She works with Prof Elsa Olivetti on identifying barriers to the manufacturing scalability of sodium-ion barriers through literature extraction. She completed her Bachelors in Materials Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay in India. Besides research, she enjoys hiking and playing table tennis!
Zek Kelly
Zek Kelly (he/him/his) is from Colorado and received his B.S. in Chemistry from the Colorado School of Mines. He is a second-year PhD student in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. His research interests broadly focus on determining structure-property relationships. Outside the lab, he enjoys seeing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, walking along the lakefront, and playing guitar.