Who We Are
Our Mission
To foster entrepreneurship among UC Berkeley’s postdocs and graduate students, through education, awareness, and hands-on opportunities. We connect aspiring entrepreneurs with mentors, resources, and partners. Situated in a vibrant business climate and with access to the greatest pool of postdoc talent in the world, BPEP catalyzes productive collaboration on scientifically complex challenges with lasting economic benefits.
Our Team
The Executive Committee 2024-2025
We are a group of postdocs and visiting scholars with diverse backgrounds.
Executive Director
Dr. Naresh Sunkara
Visiting Scholar & Post-doc Affairs (VSPA), UC Berkeley
Naresh Sunkara is a Visiting Scholar and previously a postdoctoral scientist at UC Berkeley who worked on developing novel technologies for delivery of RNAi therapeutics for fighting viral infections. Naresh is the founder and currently the Executive Director of the Berkeley Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program and the Berkeley Science Fellows Program. Naresh works closely with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the Intellectual Property and Industry Alliances Office (IPIRA) and is a Special Advisor to the Vice Chancellor for Research (Postdoctoral affairs). He has experience founding and working with several startups. He is currently the COO for BioAmp Diagnostics.
Chairs
Sarvesh Kumar
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Berkeley
Sarvesh, currently a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Labs Chemical Science Division, is dedicated to unraveling the intricacies of electron-electron correlation and molecular dynamics within molecules of both fundamental and astrochemical significance. Sarvesh's Ph.D. focused on exploring electron transfer processes within biologically relevant molecules specializing in Applied Atomic and Molecular Physics at NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal. Since 2022, as a Postdoc, Sarvesh finds himself embarking on an exciting journey into the realms of molecular dynamics and astrochemistry. Check out his LinkedIn here.
Marjan Faizi
Quantitative Biosciences, UC Berkeley
Marjan Faizi is a postdoc at the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences at UC Berkeley, where her focus is on applying language models to explore questions related to post-transcriptional regulation. She is a Bioinformatician by training and completed her PhD at the Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany, where she developed mathematical models and optimization problems to study phototrophic growth. Previously, she worked as a Postdoc at Harvard Medical School and developed a Python module for analyzing mass spectrometry data. Beyond her research, Marjan enjoys volleyball, ping pong, and practicing yoga.
Board Members
Shivani Sharma
Associate Chair
Shivani Sharma joined University of California, Berkeley as a Visiting Scholar and is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Scholar in the Chemistry Department. Her present work focuses on developing solutions for critical metal ion entrapment. She completed her PhD from IISER Pune, India and is now at the University of Cambridge as a postdoctoral research scholar where she developed sorbents for the direct air capture of carbon dioxide to mitigate climate crisis. She likes to dance, travel, and read in her free time.
Madhu Talluri
Krishna Chaitanya Kasuba
Vice Chair
Krishna moved to the bay and joined the NeuroBatLab at UC Berkeley in March 2024. During his PhD, he has developed tools to study the mechanobiology of neurons from CNS at ETH Zurich. Before his PhD times, he worked at EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany, on quantitative super-resolution microscopy. Currently, he is fascinated by everything that bats do! Especially how they perform collective navigation and what neural networks enable it. He loves rock climbing, mountaineering, Star Wars, heavy metal music, skateboarding, endurance sports, and science communication.
Dr. Minxi Jiang
Vice Chair
Minxi is a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her work focuses on next-generation environmental biotechnology, integrating engineering design, multi-omics studies, and machine learning to enhance resource sustainability and public health. Specifically, her past research has centered on converting food waste into high-value chemicals and monitoring infectious human viruses through wastewater surveillance. Minxi also participated in the Dubai Graduate Student Entrepreneurship Program and is always interested in exploring ways to translate lab research into small business startups. Check out her LinkedIn here.
Lena Adams
Vice Chair, Social media and webmaster
Lena Adams joined University of California, Berkeley as a Visiting Student Researcher in the Institute of European Studies. She is an EXIST Women Scholar in the Department of Informatics of University of Hamburg. Lena’s academic work lies at the crossroads of information and political science. Her research encompasses diverse areas such as female entrepreneurship, tech investments, policymaking, and international relations. Check out her LinkedIn here.
Our History
We are the Berkeley Postdoc Entrepreneur Program (BPEP), made for, by, and of postdocs at UC Berkeley. We are passionate about educating postdocs on entrepreneurship, fostering collaborations with scientists, faculty, MBAs and the entrepreneur community in the Bay area. In November 2010, Naresh Sunkara came up with the idea of establishing an organization aimed at fostering entrepreneurship amongst postdocs. Upon receiving enthusiastic support from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Visiting Scholars and Postdoc Affairs (VSPA) office, he collaborated and set up an advisory board of faculty members from UC Berkeley, QB3, and the Lester center for entrepreneurship.