Czars
Current departmental czars, organized alphabetically by last name.

(he/him)

(he/him)
Shubham Chaudhary
Room reservation czar
In my free time, I sit on my desk waiting for messages on the #room_reservation channel.

(he/him)
Aditya Chetan
Room reservation czar
I am a PhD student working on Computer Vision. I love playing Catan and collecting Pokémon cards! HMU for setting up trades! (oh, and also requesting a room!)

(he/him)

(he/him)
Eric Ding
Lunch and learn czar
I’m a CS PhD working with Rachee Singh on datacenter networking. I enjoy cycling and photography :)

(he/him)
Giannis Fikioris
Theory tea czar
Fellowship czar
Giannis here! I’m theory tea and fellowship czar, even though I’ve never made/brought/provided any tea for any of the past Theory Teas.

(she/her)

(he/him)
Mohit Gurumukhani
Social hour czar
Room reservation czar
Think of a random number between 1 and 10. Half the time, people choose from {3, 6, 7}. In my PhD, I study how to generate true randomness from weak random sources. While not doing that, I like to play chess, and just loiter around.

(she/her)
Rebecca Hicke
Czar czar
Hi y’all! I’m a PhD student working on computational humanities / NLP research. I love hanging out with my cats (who my roommate is definitely trying to steal), reading books + talking about them, and sending out Slack messages (the true czar czar requirement).

(she/her)

(he/him)
Anshuman Mohan
Picnic czar
Chicken served at CS Picnic Fall ‘25
Get a whole big thing of full-fat plain Greek yogurt. Add two tablespoons of salt, and a tablespoon each of cumin, ground coriander, dried mint, oregano, dried dill, cayenne, and paprika. Taste. It should taste way too salty, but try to sorta look through that and see if you want more heat (via cayenne), more earthiness (via cumin+coriander), etc. Add 8lbs of boneless skinless chicken thighs, each of which you have cut in half. Massage. Refrigerate overnight, and up to a day. Roast at 375 for an hour. At picnic location, grill for color and smokiness.

(he/him)
Noam (Nomi) Ringach
Czar czar
Hello! I’m a PhD student focusing in saying no to new responsibilities. Unfortunately, this is a new area of research for me and I have failed thus far (hence how I have this czarship). When I’m not baking, hiking, reading a book a friend has forced upon me, cajoling people into taking on a czarship, or updating this website, I like to spend my free time doing research with Eshan Chattopadhyay in pseudorandomness.

(she/her)
Emily Ryu
Theory tea czar
Room reservation czar
hallo friends! im a cs phd student advised by eva tardos and jon kleinberg, broadly interested in algorithmic game theory and mechanism design (especially with behavioral/cognitive biases and learning) but also just cool cs in general. in my free time, i spend large amounts of time holding large cups of coffee or my large cat (or frequently both).
screw capital{ization, ism}

(he/him)
Goktug Saatcioglu
Room reservation czar
Hi! If you have a good dog that wants to help train with my less than stellar dogs, please reach out. We need you. Or, if you (human) would like to train with my less than stellar dogs, I also have tasks available. They are high energy but very cute (Australian Shepherds).

(she/her)
Caroline Sun
Gates 345 seat czar
Hi! I am Caroline who currently helps assign lab seats/tables for graphics & vision graduate students. Let me know if you need a seat in Gates 345.

(he/him)
Zach Susag
Room reservation czar
Hey, I’m Zach! If you receive an indecipherable message from me it was because my cat plopped on my keyboard. Outside of CS I enjoy playing video & board games, barbecuing, and woodworking.

(she/her)
Katherine Van Koevering
Room reservation czar
Katherine is a graduating PhD candidate from Seattle. She will be a postdoc at JHU. Forward any questions to her brother, Spencer.

(he/him)
Spencer Van Koevering
Board games czar
I’m a pl student who has been into board games for a long time. Catan, mtg, Warhammer, Yahtzee. You name it, I play it.

(she/her)
Ayaka Yorihiro
Mentorship czar
PL website czar
Video game czar
My favorite part of the mentorship czar job is seeing all the mentors’ “Favorite Animal, Favorite Food or other Fun™️ Fact” responses! In my free time I enjoy playing viola, singing, and playing tennis + badminton :)

(she/her)
Elaine Yao
Picnic czar
Elaine Here! I believe every great picnic needs good snacks, good company, and a sprinkle of chaos. I’m here to help make that happen :)

(she/her)
Yunya Zhao
Room reservation czar
Remind me to regularly check room reservation requests and reserve rooms.

(they/them)