Meet the Student Council

The ASA Student Council is composed of a chairperson and 14 representatives who each represent one Technical Committee (TC). Below, you can learn more about each member of the student council.

Student Council Chair: Brijonnay Madrigal

Term: Fall 2023 – Spring 2025
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
bcm2@hawaii.edu
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Brijonnay (Bri) Madrigal is a Ph.D. candidate in the Marine Mammal Research Program at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology. She received a M.Sc. in Marine Science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and a B.S. in Marine Biology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research focuses on the occurrence of anthropogenic noise in the Main and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and understanding the spatial and temporal variability of false killer whales and short-finned pilot whales using passive acoustic monitoring. As a NOAA Dr. Nancy Foster scholar, she is interested in assessing the soundscape and presence of these species inside and outside marine protected areas including the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. She also served as the SURIEA Co-coordinator and enjoys interacting with undergraduate students interested in acoustics.

When Brijonnay is not eavesdropping on whales, she enjoys long runs, spending time at the beach, and being on a boat when she can!

Previous SC Chair: Spring 2020 – Spring 2023: Zane Rusk, Pennsylvania State University

Animal Bioacoustics Representative: Marissa Garcia

Term: Fall 2023-Spring 2025
Cornell University
mg2377@cornell.edu
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Marissa Garcia is a Ph.D. student studying marine acoustic ecology with Dr. Holger Klinck at Cornell University’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics. She is supported by the Sloan and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. She pursued her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, where she received highest honors for her studies in integrative biology, environmental science, and public policy. Her previous work has focused on the development of fully automatic methods for density estimation via passive acoustics, with applications for the conservation of the North Atlantic right whale. Her current research investigates how changing physical and biological oceanographic parameters, driven by global climate change, predict community assemblage of odontocetes detected via passive acoustics. Building on decades of oceanographic research conducted off the central Oregon coast, her current system of interest is the northern California Current. Through a top-down predator perspective, she seeks to understand how odontocetes in this habitat can be sentinels of ecosystem conditions. Harnessing tools from spatial ecology, she aims to acoustically detect beaked whales, sperm whales, and delphinids to create species distribution models, explore species co-occurrence and avoidance, and advance ecological theory.

A public lecture at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California inspired her to pursue bioacoustics at the ripe age of sixteen. Scientific communication is thus deeply embedded in her identity as a scientist, and she has reported on science and environmental issues for the Washington Post, NOAA Sanctuaries, and CalMatters.

When she is not a scientist for the ocean, she is a scientist in her kitchen — brewing coffee concoctions and waxing poetic about the latest beans she’s brewing!

Previous TC Rep: Fall 2020 – Fall 2022: Brijonnay Madrigal, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Architectural Acoustics Representative: Olivia Heui Young Park

Term: Fall 2023-Spring 2025
The Pennsylvania State University, USA
hkp5188@psu.edu
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Olivia is a Ph.D. candidate in Acoustics at Penn State, and is a member of the Sound Perception and Room Acoustics Laboratory (SPRAL). Her Ph.D. research focuses on the effects of noise on cognition, perception, physiology, and listening effort. Olivia attended The Cooper Union and received her B.E. and M.E. in Mechanical Engineering in May 2020. Her master’s thesis was on improving active noise control using a microphone array.

Olivia is passionate about STEM outreach, and in her free time she likes to crochet, sing, and hang out with her cat Haru.

Previous TC Rep: Fall 2021-Spring 2023: E.K. Ellington Scott, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA

Acoustical Oceanography Representative: Jade Lopez Case

Term: Fall 2024 – Spring 2026
University of Rhode Island
jadelcase@uri.edu
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Jade Lopez Case is a Ph.D. student in Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island. She previously received her undergraduate degree from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. Here is where she was first exposed to the world of acoustics and the Acoustical Society of America through conducting musical acoustics research under the guidance of Thomas Moore.

With the help of supportive mentors, she is now pursuing a doctorate degree with a focus in underwater acoustics and acoustical oceanography. Her research, under the guidance of James Miller, focuses on using various acoustic propagation models to develop optimization algorithms that work to resolve environmental parameters in different ocean environments. In addition to conducting independent research, she loves mentoring and collaborating with undergraduate students while practicing her science communication skills.

When she isn’t debugging code, Jade enjoys planning trips, traveling, watching video essays, reading, and searching for the best dirty chai in the country.

Previous TC rep: Fall 2022 – Spring 2024: Miad Al Mursaline, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)

Biomedical Acoustics Representative: Chirag Gokani

Term: Fall 2023 – Spring 2025
University of Texas at Austin, USA
chiragokani@utexas.edu
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Chirag Gokani is a PhD student in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and at the Applied Research Laboratories. He is co-advised by Drs. Mark Hamilton and Michael Haberman and studies vortex beams, radiation force, and bianisotropy. While his work is theoretical, applications of his research lie in biomedical and engineering acoustics.

Chirag received a bachelor’s degree in physics and a minor in music at the University of Texas at Dallas, where his undergraduate research experiences in gravitational waves and milk rheometry prepared him for his graduate studies of waves in fluids, respectively. He was moreover drawn to acoustics for its ubiquity, and he loves the cross-disciplinary nature of the ASA.

In his free time, Chirag enjoys being in thunderstorms, playing in waves at the beach, and getting stuck in traffic jams!

Previous TC Rep: Fall 2021 – Spring 2023: Megan Anderson, George Washington University, USA

Computational Acoustic Representative: Pravinkumar Ghodake

Term: Spring 2023 – Fall 2024
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
mech7pkumar@gmail.com
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Pravinkumar is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), India. He received his master’s (M. Tech) from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), India, in Solid Mechanics and Design.

His research focuses on exploiting nonlinear waves to design nonlinear metamaterials by exploring exciting effects such as harmonic generation, wave mixing, and harmonic scattering through theoretical and computational perspectives. He is designing nonlinear metamaterials using an inverse design approach to control nonlinear elastic waves both in the time and frequency domains. His inversely designed metamaterials have various characteristics like multi-material, periodic, quasi-periodic, non-periodic, direction-dependent, direction-independent, mode-independent, invisible nonlinear inclusions, stretching pulses in the time domain, mode conversion, and so on. He is exploring the design of the spatial (functionally graded) and temporal (time-dependent, 4D Metamaterials) linear and nonlinear metamaterials and their novel responses toward controlling elastic waves.

He enjoys reading books, watching football, and listening to music.

Engineering Acoustics Representative: Matthew Olmstead

Term: Fall 2024 – Spring 2026
The Pennsylvania State University, USA
mjo5585@psu.edu
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Matthew Olmstead is a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Program in Acoustics at Penn State. He is a member of the Sound Innovation of Metamaterials and Biomedical Acoustics (SIMBA) lab led by Dr. Yun Jing, where his research focus is on transcranial photoacoustic imaging of the human brain enhanced by deep learning. He previously earned a B.S.E. at the University of Hartford in 2020, where he majored in Acoustical Engineering & Music with a concentration in Classical Piano.

Outside of the lab, Matthew loves rock climbing, playing volleyball, and singing in choir! He is also a huge fan of animated Disney movies and has moved across the country with his family a total of seven times!

Previous TC rep: Fall 2022 – Spring 2024: Pratik Anirudha Ambekar, University of Washington

Musical Acoustics Representative: May Pik Yu Chan

Term: Spring 2024 – Fall 2025
University of Pennsylvania
pikyu@sas.upenn.edu
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May is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania. She is co-advised by Jianjing Kuang and Mark Liberman, and is primarily affiliated with the Penn Phonetics Laboratory. Her main interests are in the articulatory and acoustic aspects of singing, and their mapping to listeners’ perception. May completed her B.A. at the University of Hong Kong, double majoring in Linguistics and Music, with a minor in German. In her free time, May enjoys singing, crocheting and ice-skating.

Previous TC Rep: Spring 2023 – Fall 2023: Colin Malloy, University of Victoria

Noise Representative: Logan Mathews

Term: Spring 2023 – Fall 2024
Brigham Young University
loganmathews@byu.net
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Logan is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Brigham Young University (BYU). His research focuses on source characterization and physics-based modeling of noise from supersonic jets, including high-performance tactical aircraft and rockets. He previously received a B.S. in Applied Physics from BYU, where he studied far-field noise characteristics of rocket launches.

Outside of the lab, Logan enjoys backpacking, rock climbing, trail running, and cooking.

Physical Acoustics Representative: Jack Case

Term: Fall 2023 – Spring 2025
Penn State University
jac7175@psu.edu
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Jack is a Ph.D. candidate in Acoustics at Penn State in the Graduate Program in Acoustics. He is working with Dr. Andrew Barnard and Dr. Daniel Brown on ice fracture acoustic detection and classification using machine learning. Outside of his research, he is interested in noise control, educational acoustics and teaching. He received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hartford. He has been involved with ASA since early 2015, where he has served on student chapter boards ever since. In his free time, he enjoys collecting carnivorous plants, gardening, collecting antiques and hiking.

Previous TC Rep: Fall 2021 – Spring 2023: Ferdousi Rawnaque, Penn State University, USA

Psychological and Physiological Acoustics Representative:
Ann Holmes

Term: Fall 2022 – Spring 2024
University of Louisville
ann.holmes@louisville.edu

Ann (she/her/hers) is a PhD student in Experimental Psychology at the University of Louisville. She works with Dr. Pavel Zahorik in his Auditory Perception Lab, focusing on projects related to multisensory perception and spatial listening in rooms. Prior to graduate school, Ann received her BA in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Case Western Reserve University and worked for two years as a full-time research assistant for auditory neuroscience studies at the Iowa Cochlear Implant Research Center. Ann is also a co-founder of the Louisville chapter of R-Ladies, a global organization whose mission is to promote gender diversity in the R programming community. When she’s not in the lab, Ann can be found strolling through local Louisville parks or tending to her houseplants.

Structural Acoustics and Vibration Representative: Ian Bacon

Term: Spring 2023 – Fall 2024
Brigham Young University
icbacon@byu.edu

Ian started college at the age of 14 and received two B.S. degrees from the University of Texas at Austin in Applied Mathematics and Physics. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Brigham Young University. His research is focused on developing a vibration-based standard to measure the sound power radiated from products that make noise. He also uses his applied math background to improve sound power computation through symmetry.

In his free time, Ian enjoys spending time with his wife, exploring the outdoors, and supporting youth in church and recreational activities. He also enjoys good food and can be found getting a full bowl of ice cream from the freezer or getting some Southern-style fried chicken.

Speech Communication Representative: Sarah Rose Bellavance

Term: Fall 2024 – Spring 2026
New York University
Pronouns: They/She
srb664@nyu.edu
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Sarah is a PhD student in Communicative Sciences and Disorders at New York University. They work with Dr. Susannah V. Levi in the Acoustic Phonetics and Perception Lab and with Dr. Aaron Johnson at NYU Langone’s Voice Center. Sarah’s research focuses on the acoustic and social dimensions of disordered and non-disordered voice qualities using perception experiments and automatic detection methods. They hold a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Vermont and an M.S. in Linguistics from Georgetown University. Before beginning their graduate studies, Sarah worked as a baker for a few years.

In their free time, they still enjoy baking (at a much smaller capacity), knitting, and being outside.

Previous TC Rep: Fall 2022 – Spring 2024: Satwik Dutta, The University of Texas at Dallas

Underwater Acoustics Representative: Natalie Kukshtel

Term: Fall 2023 – Spring 2025
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
nkukshtel@whoi.edu
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Natalie Kukshtel is a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Ocean Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Her current research focuses on studying underwater acoustic propagation at the New England Shelf Break using autonomous underwater vehicles and computational ocean acoustic modeling. Natalie earned her B.S. in Marine Biology from Northeastern University, with minors in Mechanical Engineering and Math. Before starting graduate school, she worked for two years as a mechanical engineer in defense robotics. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, hiking, playing ultimate, baking, and taking care of her houseplants.

Previous TC Rep: Fall 2022 – Spring 2023: William Jenkins, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

Signal Processing in Acoustics Representative: Raymond Plasse

Term: Spring 2024 – Fall 2025
Belmont University
raymond.plasse@bruins.belmont.edu

Raymond is a Master’s student in Audio Engineering Technology at Belmont University. He works alongside studio veteran, Sean Neff, finding integrative solutions to acoustical design, treatment, and construction in Music City, USA. Prior to graduate school, Raymond received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics and B.A. in Music at the University of Nevada, Reno where he also worked as a concert hall technician facilitating the capture of live recordings utilizing dynamic acoustics systems. His current research focuses on the intersection of audio engineering and acoustics, including the accuracy of binaural rendering algorithms, room modeling and analysis software, and computer programming for audio effects plug-ins. When not in the studio, Raymond can be found on the golf course, at the piano, or in a cozy coffee shop soaking in all the vibes.

Previous SC Chair: Spring 2021 – Fall 2023: Sam Bellows, Brigham Young University