Program Staff

Raja GuhaThakurta
Founder and CrEST Faculty Director

Raja GuhaThakurta (PhD, Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University) is a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. He founded SIP in 2009. He and his students and postdocs have mentored many SIP interns. Raja also has a parent’s perspective: his daughter was a SIP intern. As an offshoot of SIP, Raja and his colleagues started the Creating Equity in STEAM (CrEST) umbrella of initiatives in 2020, which includes (among others): (1) Shadow the Scientists (StS) [2020], a virtual window into researchers and research in action; (2) Python and Research (PyaR) [2018], a free online programming tutorial; and (3) Global SPHERE Network [2017], a community of practice for researchers who engage high school students in STEAM research. Raja has taught astrophysics for UCSC COSMOS and teaches pre-algebra and algebra for Project for Inmate Education (PIE) at Santa Cruz County Jail. He teaches astronomy course at UCSC. His research topics include galaxy formation, mergers, dark matter, stellar populations, etc. using the Keck and Hubble telescopes. He dabbles in art in his (non-existent) free time.

Lily Espinoza
Assistant Director

Lily Espinoza (EdD California State University, Fullerton in Educational Leadership) joined the SIP Team in the Winter Quarter of 2024. She brings over 20 years of experience in fostering access to higher education for students of color and first generation college students. She completed undergraduate degrees at Diablo Valley College and University of California, Berkeley, She also completed graduate degrees at Columbia University and John F. Kennedy University. Dr. Espinoza is a mother and has one son. For fun, Lily enjoys listening to music like Latin Jazz, and hiking the trails around the bay area.

Anand Lallria
Operations Coordinator

Anand Lallria is a capital allocator and a valuable member of the SIP community. He began his involvement with SIP as a program assistant in 2020 as an undergrad at UCSC. In addition to his professional responsibilities, Anand is a zealous reader, runner, and swimmer.

 

Program Assistants: Sanjana Karthick (UCSC ’25) and Shalome Yifru (UCSC ’26)

For questions about the Science Internship Program, please contact the program staff at ucsc-sip@ucsc.edu.

For urgent or time-critical matters only, the program staff may be reached at: (831)459-4440, but please keep in mind that email is likely to be answered more promptly than voicemail.

Special Thanks

We appreciate the excellent contributions of the following individuals toward the building and maintenance of the SIP application management system, website, and program infrastructure:

  • Current

    Former

    • Nina Arnberg (Menlo School; former SIP mentor liaison)
    • Olivia Bott (former UCSC student; former SIP program assistant)
    • Emily Entress Clark (Castilleja School; former SIP and Global SPHERE Network partner liaison)
    • Abbi Davis (former SIP Associate Director of Development)
    • Susan Grasso (Institute for Social Transformation, UCSC; former SIP operations coordinator)
    • Gina Hernan (Math department, UCSC; former SIP operations coordinator)
    • Anand Lallria (former UCSC student; former SIP program assistant)
    • Alexandria Leckliter (Baskin School of Engineering, UCSC; former EPC K–12 STEM Director)
    • Peter Minogue (Office of Research, UCSC; former SIP website developer)
    • Marlee Perez (former UCSC student; former SIP operations coordinator; former SIP CRE)
    • Jessica Rivera (MESA, UCSC; former SIP operations coordinator)
    • Ana Rodarte (MESA, UCSC; former SIP housing coordinator)
    • Carolyn Rosevelt (former SIP operations coordinator)
    • Bob Stillerman (RS International Consulting; former SIP application management system developer)
    • Christy Tall (University Relations, UCSC; UCSC; former SIP Associate Director of Development)
    • Brian Tuan (SIP alumnus; former SIP website developer)
    • Atticus Woodbury (former UCSC student; former SIP program assistant)
    • Joanne Yamaguma (retired from UCSC; former SIP operations coordinator)
    • Mark Chen (former UCSC student; former SIP program assistant)
    • Sierra Schneider (MESA, UCSC; former Assistant Director)

The SIP Team at the 2019 reunion

The SIP Team at the 2022 reunion

The SIP Team at the 2023 reunion