Claire & Matt
Wedding Party
Brittany Yates
Maid of Honor
Brittany met Claire at volleyball summer camp in middle school and they have been inseparable ever since, including being roommates for four years at UF. Brittany is a linguist and speech pathologist who works as the manager of the infant hearing test unit at a hospital in the Panhandle of Florida.
Alaina Petty
Bridesmaid
Alaina and Claire have been close friends since before kindergarten. They bonded over everything from Kitty Surprise toys, to Math Team, to being fellow flautists in band class where Alaina excelled so much that she earned herself a full ride to Tennessee Tech for a music performance degree.
Sally Turner
Bridesmaid
Sally got a PhD in Chemistry by working in the same nanomaterials lab as Matt at UC Berkeley. Claire and Sally got to be friends during this time by having common interests in baking, cooking, and helping out at the local animal shelter.
Alicia Welden
Bridesmaid
Alicia and Claire met in Livermore in early 2020. Key word 2020. They kept each other sane and socialized during the pandemic which provided some pretty intense bonding opportunities. Alicia is a computational chemist who likes R&B, hot yoga, vegan food, and cats.
Ryan Gilbert
Best Man
Ryan is Matt's brother. Ryan is working on his MBA at the University of Florida and he and his wife Morgan are expecting their first child in early September. Ryan enjoys bike camping, playing with Apollo his Burmese Mountain Dog, being a gym rat, and playing as Falco in Super Smash Brothers Melee.
Anders Hansen
Groomsman
Matt and Anders grew up in the same county and met in High School at an awards ceremony. They became close friends in college at UF where both studied Physics. Anders is scientist at Sandia National Laboratories (but in Albuquerque, NM not Livermore, CA like Matt). In his spare time, Anders enjoys cross country skiing and building Tesla coils.
Justin Gerber
Groomsman
Matt and Justin met while visiting grad schools and became friends while at Berkeley. Justin lived with Matt and Claire at the famous House on the Hill and recently married Sarah, another housemate. This year, Justin moved to Denver, CO where he is building a quantum computer at Honeywell. Justin likes going on extended backpacking trips, snowboarding, and ice climbing.
Walker Ziewitz
Groomsman
Walker is Claire's brother. Walker, Claire, and Brittany, the maid of honor, were living together in their college apartment when Matt and Claire first met. Now, Walker is a software developer and lives in Cleveland, OH. Walker enjoys doing things like sewing his own sleeping bag, training to hike 100 miles in 50 hours, and home-brewing beer.
Chris Benson
Groomsman
Matt and Chris were in same cohort of Physics PhDs at Berkeley. They bonded over watching SEC football and reading in their geopolitics book club. Chris is your typical rocket scientist, turned particle physicist, turned technical consultant, turned data scientist. Chris and his wife, Chelsey, are figuring out how to raise a baby during a pandemic.
Daniel Martinez
Officiant
Matt and Daniel met in college during a summer program at the University of Florida. It is also how Claire met Matt, because she met them both at the same volunteering event! For awhile, Daniel lived near Matt and Claire in the Bay Area/Berkeley but recently relocated to Denver, CO where he develops new solar cell materials at a startup company. Daniel enjoys hiking, cooking, preserving the environment, and Star Trek.