Joseph Azzarelli

Joseph Azzarelli is a graduate student pursuing his Ph.D. in chemistry at MIT, where he focuses on inventing novel classes of low-cost wireless chemical sensors for water, food, agricultural, and industrial applications. Prior to graduate school, he spent one year in Pfizer’s Neuroscience unit in search of therapeutics to treat Alzheimer’s disease. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Montana State University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2010. His broad interests in entrepreneurship, intellectual property, technology-transfer, and the intersection of science, policy, and the free market led to his serving as former president of the MIT Science Policy Initiative. Originally from Illinois, he moved to Evergreen, Colorado at the age of 13 where his passion for fly-fishing, snow sports, and the outdoors flourished. He currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he’s taken up sailing and maintains his connection to open spaces with infrequent excursions to Maine.