SigmaCamp 2026: Faculty

Alexander Brook is a biostatistician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lecturer in Radiology at Harvard Medical School. He has a PhD in Applied Mathematics, and used to work in computer vision. Currently, his job is to work with clinical researchers to help them design their research, collect and analyze their data, and report the results.

Andrey is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford and has been at SigmaCamp since the very beginning. Andrey graduated from the University of Toronto in 2019 and completed his PhD in Mathematics at MIT in 2025. Andrey is always open to chat about math, physics, or computer science! He greatly enjoys board games and dancing. Andrey's research is in quantum computing and quantum information theory. He is studying large classes of highly structured quantum error-correcting codes known as mirror codes as well as fault-tolerant circuits and protocols.

Hi I'm Tarika! I work in finance making pricing and predictive models. I have a master's in CS and bachelor's in mathematics from the University of Chicago and I like games + puzzles!

I am currently a grad student studying quantum gravity and string theory, primarily based at Stanford University but also spending a lot of time at the University of Cambridge in the UK. My primary research interests are in how the fabric of spacetime emerges from strongly interacting chaotic quantum systems, and in the nature of black hole microstates within these systems. At Sigma this year I will teach two semilabs - one on Cosmology (the study of the history and eventual fate of our universe) and one on black holes and how we think about them from both a classical and a quantum perspective.

I am always very approachable, especially if you want to chat about physics or hear me rant about tennis :-)

Zohar is a Professor at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook University. He studied at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, where he received his PhD in 2008. Later, he joined the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 2011, Zohar returned to the Weizmann Institute and joined the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics in 2017. His research is on Quantum Field Theory, which has applications in a wide variety of fields in Physics, including Particle Physics and Condensed Matter Physics.

Boris is an accelerator physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). He got his PhD from the Stanford University Department of Applied Physics. His expertise is to design, build, and operate large particle accelerators. These are mostly used as colliders for high energy and nuclear physics research, or serve as light sources that provide powerful X-ray beams to researchers in many different fields of science. Having spent two decades working with light source accelerators at BNL and elsewhere, Boris recently joined the Electron-Ion Collider project at Brookhaven, which will be building the most powerful collider-accelerator in the US. As you might guess, Boris’ job has a lot to do with all aspects of electricity and magnetism, and this is exactly the topic of the Semilab he is teaching at Sigma. For fun, he really enjoys fishing as well as playing ping-pong.

Hi! I am a PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, and I've been at Sigma since 2019. My research lies in the field of laser fabrication of sensing devices in optical fibers for astronomical applications. I am also interested in biology and chemistry, and I am looking forward to discussing everyone’s science-related (and otherwise!) interests and ideas. Outside of academics, I've recently been dabbling in improv, crochet, and running.

Evgenii Boriushkin is originally from Russia where he earned both his MD and PhD degrees with a research interest in vascular biology, angiogenesis, and cancer metabolism. During his career, he works on hidden secrets of biology and applies this knowledge for the development of new therapies. At SigmaCamp, Evgenii will show how the understanding of nature helps to solve scientific and medical problems. In his free time, Evgenii enjoys soccer, volleyball, and hiking.

Dr. Olga R Brook is a diagnostic and interventional radiologist. She serves as section chief of Abdominal Radiology and vice chair of Research at the Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and has authored over 150 publications. Her research focuses on minimally invasive procedures, advanced CT techniques, and improvement in women’s health interventions. This year, Olga will be teaching the "From Heart Rhythms to Peanut Allergies: An Introduction to the Science of Medicine" semilab.

Spending every summer growing up at the Mediterranean coast in Spain led to my passion for the ocean and becoming a biological oceanographer. I obtained a bachelor degree in Marine Sciences at the University of Cádiz (Spain), a master’s degree in marine microbial ecology at the University of Stirling (Scotland), and a PhD in marine virus ecology at the University of Plymouth (England). I investigate microbial host-virus interactions in marine environments. Viruses are the most abundant biological agents in the ocean, but still one of the most unexplored reservoirs of genetic and functional diversity. My overall goal is to understand the genetic basis of viral infections and how they affect life in the ocean. I am constantly awed by new discoveries that reveal the mighty impacts tiny viruses have in modulating life the way we know it.
I am honored to join SigmaCamp again!

Lilianne R. Mujica-Parodi is Director of the Laboratory for Computational Neurodiagnostics, Baszucki Endowed Chair of Metabolic Neuroscience, and Professor in Stony Brook University's Department of Biomedical Engineering. She also holds academic appointments in the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Program in Neuroscience, and Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Physics. In addition, she is a Research Staff Scientist and Lecturer in the Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging).
Dr. Mujica-Parodi’s research interests focus on the extension of control theory to allostatic regulation of neural circuits and their interactions with other physiological systems, in health and disease.

Director of the Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnologies and Associate Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Stony Brook University.

Helmut Strey is a Biophysicist who is interested in developing micro- and nanotechnologies for applications in basic and applied research. Specifically, his lab is working on 1) micropatterning techniques for single-cell studies, 2) study of gene circuit dynamics using probabilistic modeling, 3) developing software to simulate the human brain (Neuroblox.org). Helmut received the Dillon medal for research in Polymer Physics from the American Physical Society in 2003. He recently converted to Bayesianism and is passionate about making things, Soccer, Chess, and Table Tennis.

Lena is a molecular biologist. The primary subject of her interest is protein-DNA interactions, and Lena has studied many of them using such state-of-the-art techniques as X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and various spectroscopic methods. However, during her work, Lena came to the conclusion that even the most sophisticated device does not make you smarter: Despite the stunning technological progress, humans’ own brains are still their most powerful tool. The thing Lena likes the most is the company of intellectually like-minded people. Lena and her friends got together every summer to talk about science, art, and music. Then they realized that their group would be incomplete without a young generation, so they invited motivated and talented kids to join their company, which they called Sigma. We are inviting you to become a part of our community!

J. Aníbal Boscoboinik is a scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, specializing in surfaces and nanomaterials. He holds a PhD in Chemistry and conducts research at the intersection of materials science, physics, and chemistry. His work spans a broad range of topics, from unraveling catalytic processes on surfaces to investigating nanoscale confinement effects and developing novel techniques for surface characterization. Beyond the lab, Aníbal pursues a variety of multidisciplinary projects that blend technology with art, finance, and entrepreneurship. He sees his many hobbies as a creative excuse to connect and collaborate with interesting people across fields.

The focus of Mark Lukin's scientific interest is nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) - the molecules responsible for the storage and transfer of hereditary information in living organisms. How does DNA get copied? What happens when DNA molecules breaks? To answer these, as well as many other questions, Mark needs to prepare artificial (modified) nucleic acids and their building blocks, the crazy compounds that normally do not exist in nature. The only way obtain them is to do a chemical synthesis, the thing Mark likes the most. Besides that, Mark loves music, history, Greek philosophy, and science fiction. When he was young, he loved to do simple but spectacular chemical experiments. Recently, he realized he still loves to do that.

Hello! I am a Ph.D. candidate in Bio-Electrical and Computer Engineering, co-advised in Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. My research is focused on soft robotics and polymer development for additive manufacturing. Outside my studies, I play the violin, enjoy bad movies, and build sketch 3D printers and other contraptions. I can't wait to see everyone at the next Sigma Camp.

Dmitri Donetski is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University. He received his PhD in Physics from the St. Petersburg State Technical University and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stony Brook University.
He teaches courses in Digital Logic and Analog Integrated Circuits. His research is focused on the development of optoelectronic devices and integrated circuits based on III-V semiconductor compounds. He enjoys hiking in the mountains and stargazing.

I've been coming to Sigma since the beginning, and I'm really excited to be here for another year. I’m a grad student at MIT studying biological engineering. Outside of STEM, I'm interested in history, mineral water, and linguistics. I also really enjoy playing racket sports, my favorite being Wii Sports tennis, and I'm looking forward to organizing the ping-pong tournament at Sigma again. I’m also looking forward to another season of swimming - I’m a big Silver Lake enthusiast. Can’t wait to see everyone this summer!

Lilia Frenkel is a CTO at ADS (American Data Solutions), working on the next generation of Interactive Manuals. New approaches in handling electronic instructions enable vendors (ranging from commercial airlines to medical professionals) to apply AI and Machine Learning methods to troubleshooting, automate maintenance, training, and facilitate business-to-business social networking using private communication hub. At SigmaCamp, Lilia hopes to excite campers with building fully customizable smart house models using MicroPython, and setting up a local server/network that enables communication between these models without relying on the internet. Lilia loves to play chess, ping-pong, hike and .. work on IoT projects.

Julia has a PhD in Mathematics and Computer Science and MS degrees in Math and Physics. In the first decade of her research activity she has worked in quantum computation and information, studying algorithms for quantum computers. She has then worked nearly a decade in finance before returning to academia, where she is now a Professor working at the interface of data science, machine learning and science at NYU's Center for Data Science and the Courant Institute. Most recently she has worked on Machine Learning, focusing on Neural Nets and Language Models.

I have been a camper or counselor at Sigma Camp since its inaugural year and hopefully for years to come. Throughout the years I've attended Sigma, I have graduated high school, attended Cornell for my undergraduate degree and started a PhD at Stony Brook University in the Computer Science department. I work with robotics or programming semi-labs and set up sports and events like Chessball. I look forward to meeting you all and don't hesitate to come talk with me about any of your scientific or sporting interests.

Sofya received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in mathematics and computer science from MIT. She works in the areas of randomized and approximation algorithms and also data privacy. These areas are part of theoretical computer science. Before joining the faculty at Sigma, Sofya taught at Epsilon Camp and C.A.M.P. (Camp for Algorithmic and Mathematical Play). Her best memories of her childhood are from a math camp she attended in Belarus. As far as her hobbies go, recall that she works on privacy.

Misha is a data scientist and applied analytics practitioner with over 15 years of experience at the intersection of statistics, machine learning, and business decision-making. He holds an MPA from New York University and has spent his career translating large-scale data — including work as a Senior Data Scientist at Meta — into actionable insights. He currently leads the Technical Engagement team at CaliberMind, where he builds models connecting behavioral signals to real-world outcomes.

Adam is a computer scientist at Boston University, where he is a founding member of the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences. His areas of research include cryptography and information privacy. He is known, along with Cynthia Dwork, Frank McSherry, and Kobbi Nissim, as one of the co-inventors of differential privacy, for which he won the 2017 Gödel Prize.

He taught a semilab at SigmaCamp in 2021, and has returned each year since!

Olga Troyanskaya is a professor of Computer Science and Genomics at Princeton University and the director of Princeton Precision Health. She is also Deputy Director for Genomics at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Biology. Her lab develops AI models to decode complex biomedical data to understand what makes cells different, how our genomes encode who we are, and how the complex networks at all levels of biology shape health and disease.

Hello, I am Natalia, a portrait photographer on Long Island, New York, and image creator for small businesses and services.
I am proud to photograph SigmaCamp from 2014.
I love capturing human relations, characters, and emotions, especially when people learn new things, experience the joy of discovery, and share their life's passions.
All of those are abundant at SigmaCamp, that’s why I’m so excited to be part of it.

Sasha is a Brooklyn-based artist who has lived in the New York City area since age one, when his family came to the US from St. Petersburg, Russia. Since graduating from the Cooper Union in 2013 with a degree in Fine Arts, he has continuously worked part-time as an art and art history teacher, and he has experience teaching students of all ages from 3 years old to adult. Alongside teaching art, Sasha has held various full-time jobs including being an Art Handler and Installer at a large auction house, being a designer at a firm specializing in awards and trophies, and even working as a lead pre-K teacher. Currently, he works as a graphics designer and event coordinator and has been moving into the world of User Experience (UX) Design. Outside of work, Sasha is constantly trying to find ways to be creative and enjoys writing songs, making music, and designing games. He also gives museum tours at several NYC museums, primarily at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hello! I am Iris, and I am a strategic business analyst at a tech company called Qlik. I am really interested in data science and in the business side of the tech industry, specifically how we can make product development and production more efficient. I am highly involved in STEM tutoring for girls and how to better encourage more women to pursue their STEM careers. Outside of academics, I love music, dance, art, and baking. I am excited to help make this week unforgettable for all of you!