The SURPAS Leadership Team
The SURPAS Leadership Team
The leadership team is a core group of council members who ensure the smooth-running of SURPAS affairs and progress of the postdoc situation at Stanford and nationwide. We work closely with the rest of the SURPAS Council and Committees, as well as Stanford administration (primarily the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA), VPGE, etc.) to make sure the voices and needs of postdocs are well heard and represented.
Leadership positions are yearlong. With the exception of the mid-year co-chair, elections are typically in June for a leadership transition in July. The mid-year co-chair is elected in January with a one year term, to ensure continuity in leadership. To run for leadership positions, you must be a council member, which means you must have attended at least one meeting prior to leadership elections.
Current SURPAS Leadership
Ande Xiaojie Marini
Co-Chair
Dr. Ande Marini is a second-year postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, evaluating optimal mechanical and physical characteristics of collagen scaffolds for treatment of secondary lymphedema. Her eventual goal is to establish better treatments for this disease and others by understanding the mechanobiology interactions between cells and extracellular matrices. Before coming to Stanford University, Ande completed her PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, during which she developed a localizable controlled release system of regenerative extracellular vesicles for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm. In addition to her research during her graduate training, Ande was heavily involved as president of Pitt’s Biomedical Engineering Society Graduate and as president of the Engineering Graduate Student Organization. Through these roles, she was able to advocate for students’ needs and serve as a liaison between the Bioengineering Department and Engineering School and the graduate students.
Meryem Talbo
Co-Chair
Meghali Aich
Communications Director and Web & Social Media Manager
Dr. Meghali Aich is a second-year postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Pediatrics where she studies molecular changes in brain development during metabolic stress and investigates how environmental factors contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders. She earned her Ph.D. from CSIR-IGIB, New Delhi, India, with a focus on Genome Engineering and Stem Cell Biology. Alongside her research, Meghali has actively contributed to science outreach, public engagement, workshops, and training initiatives aimed at empowering students and underserved communities through accessible science education.
As the Communications Director at SURPAS (Stanford University Postdoctoral Association), Meghali combines her scientific expertise with strong interpersonal and leadership skills to foster an inclusive and connected postdoctoral community. She envisions SURPAS as a collaborative platform where effective communication strengthens support, engagement, and professional growth among researchers.
Outside academia, Meghali is passionate about Hindustani classical music, science writing, literature, and travel. She enjoys exploring new cultures, discovering diverse cuisines, and seeking experiences that broaden both personal and scientific perspectives.
Parvathy Surendran
Operations Manager
Dr. Parvathy Surendran is a second-year postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Neurosurgery. She did her PhD in Biotechnology from the University of Kerala/Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Kerala, India. During her PhD work, she studied the role of a transcription factor in cerebellar development and its link to autism by integrating anatomical, omics, and behavioral experiments in conditional knockout mice. For her postdoctoral work at Stanford, she investigates the role of a eutherian-specific microRNA cluster in shaping the development of corticospinal motor projection neurons. As Operations Manager of SURPAS, Parvathy’s goal is to run internal operations smoothly, communicate and coordinate SURPAS’s decisions to all its members, and engage with SURPAS to help it become a valuable space for all postdoctoral scholars. She admires SURPAS for all its efforts to make postdoc experience a sense of community, feeling connected, and an incredible resource, and as an operations manager, she is fulfilling her responsibilities and taking an effort to empower SURPAS to exist and function in the same way to serve as a huge asset to present and incoming postdocs.
Parvathy enjoys spending time with her family, reading, listening to music, dancing, gardening, and practicing yoga.
Brian Anthony Ho
Finance Officer
Dr. Brian Ho is a first-year postdoc, and former PhD student, of Stanford University School of Medicine. Hailing from the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, he developed a fascination with how viruses work, and how these processes could be exploited to stop them. Brian’s research centres on developing small molecule antivirals targeting structural proteins of influenza A virus and understanding their mechanisms of action, with the goal of producing a therapeutic that prevents the virus evolving drug resistance.
Brian cares deeply about the development of the future leaders of science, and ensuring they have the resources they need to achieve their goals. During his PhD at Stanford, he served as a Program Leader for the Stanford Summer Research Program, providing professional development mentorship for 3 cohorts of summer undergraduates. He was also the financial officer for both the Biomedical Association for the Interest of Minority Students (BioAIMS) and the EVGR neighbourhood, in his capacity as a Community Associate. As Financial Officer of SURPAS, he aspires to ensure postdocs have the fiscal resources they need to grow their community and inject some fun into their training at Stanford.
Beyond the lab, Brian likes getting his hands dirty (then thoroughly washing them). As a volunteer mechanic with the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, and by making trips to the local junkyards to mine for car parts, he gives old, tired machines a new lease on life.
Lucrezia Maini
Community Engagement Liaison
Dr. Lucrezia Maini is a first-year postdoctoral scholar and SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation) Fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Her research focuses on exploring novel conductive and reconfigurable materials for implantable devices and neural recording applications.
She completed her PhD in Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich, where her work focused on the integration of acoustic metamaterials in medical devices and sensors. During her doctoral training, she was actively involved in several student committees and associations, including Biomed@MAVT — the biomedical research association within her department – and AIRIcerca, the largest association of Italian researchers worldwide, where she served as Group Leader for activities in Zurich. In these roles, she coordinated events bringing together stakeholders from industry and academia, with a focus on patenting in academia, scientific diplomacy, and biomedical research in Switzerland.
As Community Engagement Liaison Coordinator at the Stanford University Postdoctoral Association (SURPAS), Dr. Maini is committed to strengthening connections across Stanford’s postdoctoral community by fostering collaboration among researchers from diverse backgrounds, promoting SURPAS events, and providing guidance and support to incoming postdocs as they navigate life at Stanford.
Open position
Advocacy Coordinator
JOIN US! In many ways, the advocacy coordinator is a connector position, creating bridges within the council and leadership team, as well as between postdocs and the University at large. This translates to staying up to date with issues postdocs are facing, as well as with the new initiatives and plans around the university. Along with the co-chairs, the advocacy coordinator works closely with the OPA, VPGE, and other offices around campus to ensure that postdoc voices are represented and taken into account. As part of this effort, the advocacy coordinator also oversees the activity of the SURPAS committees, with help from the rest of the leadership board.
Events Coordinator
JOIN US! You will coordinate all the committees/associations’ events, such as the monthly Happy Hours, and maintain the shared calendar. You will be the point of contact if they need help organizing an event and the Liaison with the OPA or other institutions for more significant events. It is an excellent opportunity to meet many people at Stanford or even other universities, and you get to participate in the leadership meeting, where you will learn a lot about what is happening at Stanford!
