Members
The Elkin lab encourages students and researchers from all backgrounds to join us in scientific discovery. Fostering a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and supportive scientific community is paramount to promoting creative research breakthroughs and addressing pressing challenges facing human society.
Masha Elkin
Assistant Professor
(she/her)
Masha Elkin is the D. Reid (1941) and Barbara J. Weedon Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemistry at MIT. Masha was born in Moscow, Russia and grew up outside of Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her B.A. in Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis (2014), working with Prof. Vladimir Birman on the development of amidine-based ligands for asymmetric catalysis. She completed her Ph.D. at Yale University (2019), working with Prof. Timothy Newhouse on the synthesis of meroterpenoid natural products, the study of biomimetic terpene rearrangements, and the development of computational tools for natural products synthesis. She then completed an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley (2023) with Prof. John Hartwig, where her research focused on using machine learning to predict selectivity in transition metal catalysis. She started her independent career at MIT in July 2023, where her group combines catalyst development, natural products synthesis, and machine learning to tackle important chemical challenges.
melkin [at] mit.edu
Katie Pelham
graduate student
(she/her)
Katie grew up in the Catskill mountains in NY and carried out her undergraduate studies at Skidmore College (2020) where she researched Tandem Intramolecular Diels-Alder reactions with Professor Giguere. After graduating, she worked as a medicinal chemist for three years first at a CRO, Curia, and next in the Center for the Development of Therapeutics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Outside of lab, she enjoys being outdoors—hiking, skiing, gardening, and camping. While indoors, she enjoys live music, crafting, baking, reading, or melting her brain to bad TV.
kapelham [at] mit.edu
Jonathan Edward
graduate student
(he/him)
Jonathan grew up in Singapore and completed his BSc in Chemistry at the National University of Singapore in 2023. As an undergraduate research assistant, he worked with Prof. Zhao Yu on asymmetric borrowing hydrogen reactions and atroposelective transformations of biaryl compounds. He also worked with Prof. Zhu Ye on the synthesis of mechanically planar chiral rotaxanes. In his spare time, he enjoys chess, bowling, board games, and watching movies.
joedward [at] mit.edu
Evan Ferry
graduate student
(he/him)
Evan Ferry is a graduate student in the Elkin Group. Evan was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and grew up in New Jersey. He studied chemistry and philosophy at the University of Michigan, where he researched carbonyl-olefin metathesis in the Schindler Group under the mentorship of Dr. Ashlee Davis and Dr. Daniel Steigerwald. In 2022, he was a recipient of the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Outside the lab, Evan can be found hiking, reading, or drawing.
ekferry [at] mit.edu
Giselle Brown
visiting undergraduate student
(She/hER)
Giselle was born in London, UK but raised in San Diego, California. She is currently a senior at University of California, Los Angeles working in the Doyle lab on asymmetric photochemistry. In her free time she enjoys exploring new cafes, visiting museums, and rock climbing. As an MRSP intern she is researching reactivity trends in amide condensation reactions.
gzbrown [at] mit.edu
Lexy Wyne
Administrative Assistant
(she/her)
Lexy has worked as an Administrative Assistant in the chemistry department since January of 2023. Previously, she worked for several years doing direct support for individuals with developmental disabilities. She is currently working on completing her bachelor’s degree at Boston University in Computer Science. When not working or in school, you can often find Lexy spending time outside with her dog, or trying new restaurants in the Boston area.
ajwyne [at] mit.edu
Christine Brooks
Financial Coordinator
(she/her)
Christine Brooks is the Financial Coordinator for the Elkin Lab and has been at MIT for 11 years. When she isn’t politely asking faculty to stop spending money so quickly or asking lab members if they received equipment orders in good condition, she is kept increasingly busy by her 4-year-old son and a pair of orange and white tabby cats who want you to know that they’re not related and absolutely did not choose to be siblings. She enjoys reading mostly non-fiction, agonizing over the Baltimore Orioles, and stopping to read any historical marker that she comes across. Christine recently relocated to Washington, DC for her husband’s work, and as a result is fully remote and readily found via email or Slack.
cbrooks [at] mit.edu
Away from the Bench
Join Us!
Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate students should email Masha at melkin@mit.edu. Please put “Undergraduate Research Interest” in the subject line.
Graduate Students
Postdoctoral Fellows
Prospective postdocs should email Masha at melkin@mit.edu with a cover letter, CV, and research summary. Please put “Postdoc Application” in the subject line.