Two Caltech Graduate Students Named 2025 Quad Fellows

Caltech graduate students Alice Jeffery and Christopher Yeh have been selected as part of the 2025 cohort of Quad Fellows. Jeffery and Yeh are among 37 students selected in 2025, the third year of the initiative started by the governments of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.

In the spirit of cooperation between its participating countries, the Quad program is designed to build connections and promote knowledge exchange among the next generation of scientists and technologists. The program is available to graduate students who are in any year of their studies and who come from any of the four Quad countries as well as Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Fellows receive a stipend to cover academic expenses as well as the chance to participate in networking opportunities with leaders in STEM, public policy, and civil society.

In its third year of supporting graduate students in STEM, the Quad Fellowship has expanded to include those studying at Japanese universities as well as American: 12 students in Japan are joining this year's group of 25, including Jeffrey and Yeh, who attend U.S. universities.

Jeffery, a native of Australia, will begin her graduate studies in applied physics at Caltech this fall. She will work on experimental quantum computing and quantum communications in the lab of Manuel Endres, professor of physics. As part of the application process, she was asked to explain how her work could make the world a better place.

"From a quantum computing perspective, I think that governments and policymakers are very switched on to the national security implications," she says. "But they have lower awareness in general of the potential for quantum technologies to be used in a way that's for the good of all. Hopefully, the fellowship will let me bring a little bit more of that scientific background into the quantum computing conversations that are being had with policymakers."

To Yeh, a fifth-year graduate student in computing and mathematical sciences about to complete his PhD, the fellowship feels like an acknowledgement of the work he has done in his several years at Caltech, both in but especially outside the lab, including serving as a resident assistant at Marks House and as chair of the Graduate Student Council's Sustainability Committee. As part of this latter role, Yeh set up a composting system for the Catalina Community Apartments and started a program to let people check out electric bikes from the Caltech Library. "That is one of the most checked-out items at the library right now," he says.

Yeh's academic work in computer science focuses on algorithms for uncertainty quantification and decision-making. "I'm very motivated by real applications for energy systems and sustainability problems, such as how we design AI algorithms that can help us make better forecasts for energy demand and energy generation, especially renewable energy generation," he says. "And then, based on those forecasts, I'm interested in how we increase efficiency and optimize the energy grid for things like battery storage and EV charging."

To Yeh, the Quad is an honor that represents his past and his future. He hopes, for example, that its support will help him do more research in the vein of a recent project where he developed algorithms to map global poverty more accurately as a way to steer international aid to those most in need. "It's a validation, honestly, of the work that I've done. And one thing that the Quad values is recognizing the role of science as a part of global dialogue. I'm very privileged to have been part of that."