Hi there! My name is Joel Voldman and I’m a faculty member in the EECS Department here at MIT. I lead a research group that works on developing microsystems for studying manipulating cells. I also teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels, currently teaching a junior biophysics course (6.021J) and a graduate course of microsystem design (6.777).

This is my “guest blog”, where I have been invited to comment on admissions from the faculty perspective. Since I also did my graduate work here at MIT, I’ve seen both sides of the admissions procedure: the stress of applying, but also the stress of trying to pick the best students.

What else do I do? I am an amateur potter, meaning that I make objects out of clay. MIT boasts an impressive Student Art Association with a full set of facilities for working with clay, and I have been taking classes there since I was a graduate student. I predominantly make non-functional “objects”, but can occasionally be induced to make something useful.