Born in London and raised in Colchester (UK) and Philadelphia (US), Phil is a former Cook House resident and glad to be returning this year. Between high school and university, Phil took a gap year during which he coached a lot of soccer, explored Costa Rica, and spent several months doing community service in Uganda. Following an undergraduate degree from Cornell in Information Science, Phil is currently working towards a Masters in Computer Science. His research largely focuses on mobile systems and interfaces, often with applications to healthcare.

When not in the lab or working as a teaching assistant, Phil enjoys reading, running, spending time with friends old and new, and exploring With with his wife, Margot, a former Cook House Graduate Resident Fellow.

Michelle is a graduate student in Materials Science and Engineering. She is currently working on polymer synthesis and thin film characterization.

Michelle loves the beach, kayaking, sports, hiking or just about anything that takes her outside. She also loves to cook, read, dance and learn new things. Michelle loves to travel and tries to visit a new country each year.

Chizoba will begin her second year as a Graduate Resident Fellow in the Language House and her third year as a student at Cornell Law School.  Chizoba lived in Alice Cook House as a Cornell undergraduate for her sophomore, junior, and senior years, including 1 ½ years in the Spanish Language House. 

Chizoba’s interests include government, law and major league baseball.  Chizoba once again looks forward to meeting this year’s residents and having a great year.

Dan was born and raised in Billings, MT, where he enjoyed everything from fly-fishing, hunting, camping and skiing, which he still enjoys immensely when time allows. After high school, he moved to Greeley, CO, where he graduated in 2007 from the University of Northern Colorado with a BS in chemistry. After that, he moved out east to Ithaca for graduate school in chemistry, where he is a 2nd year in Jón Njarðarson group, working on new synthetic methodology and its potential applications to biologically interesting natural products. When not in lab, Dan is trying to learn how to cook, enjoys listening to new music, going to the gym, and exploring the surrounding area.

Carol grew up in Devon, England. She completed her undergraduate studies in Materials Science at the University of Cambridge during which she spent a year on exchange at MIT in Boston. She then worked in research in Italy before coming to Cornell to study for a Ph.D.

Having joined the Ober research group Carol is now working on developing photoresists for new fabrication techniques. In her spare time she enjoys reading, running, learning Italian and seeing concerts and theatre performances.

Born in Bucharest, Ioana moved to Los Angeles at the age of five. She came to Cornell as an undergraduate, studying Biology (Neurobiology and Behavior) and French. She remained in the Romance Studies department to begin her Ph.D. in French Literature. Now in her third year of the program, her research is focused on 19th century French and comparative postcolonial literatures, mainly from Haïti and Québec.

Ioana is a former Alice Cook House resident (she lived in the Language House for three semesters), and is very glad to be back! When she’s not teaching or working on her research, she enjoys learning new languages, watching films, taking photographs and playing chess.

As an undergraduate, Ioana competed on the Cornell Figure Skating Team, however shortly after finishing second at the Intercollegiate Nationals in 2003, she had to quit due to a back injury and now only skates recreationally.