Alex Beach is a second year Ph.D. student in Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Alex is an experimentalist working with topological insulator Josephson junctions, and low temperature transport measurements. He is an Illinois Graduate College Fellow, APS Bridge student, and Alfred P. Sloan 2018-19 Scholar. Alex received a Bachelor of Arts in Physics, with a minor in Molecular Engineering from the University of Chicago, and has a Master's degree in Applied Physics from California State University, Long Beach. He has been a volunteer and mentor for students from underrepresented minorities through multiple mentorship programs, and he plans to continue supporting students from diverse backgrounds and encourage them to pursue STEM research.