Dr. Federica Coppari is a research scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) studying material properties at extreme pressure and temperature conditions. After receiving a B.S. and M.S. degrees in Physics from the University of Camerino (Italy), she obtained a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (France) in 2010. She then joined LLNL in 2011, where she has been working on developing new diagnostics to study material behavior under laser-driven nano-second compression. Her research interests and expertise include high pressure/high temperature condensed matter, disordered systems, warm dense matter and planetary science. She is the recipient of an Early Career Research Program Award from the DOE Office of Fusion Energy Science (FES) in 2020. She enjoys outreach and science communication, and she works with Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) to enhance educational opportunities for students, foster new research collaborations, and build sustainable relationships between LLNL and MSI.

Dr. Carolin M. Sutter-Fella is a Staff Scientist and Principal Investigator in the Molecular Foundry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) since 2020. She started to built her research program in 2017 enabled by LBNL’s Glenn Seaborg Early Career Fellowship. She received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from ETH Zürich, Switzerland, in 2014 where she worked on the synthesis of chalcogenide thin film solar cells. Before Sutter-Fella joined LBNL, she was a Swiss NSF postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on the fabrication of functional materials and understanding synthesis-property relationships using multimodal in situ techniques as well as development of automated thin film fabrication and characterization workflows.

Corey Gray is a member of the Siksika Nation which is part of the Blackfoot Confederacy. He completed his undergraduate studies at Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt) with B.S. degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics. After undergrad, he was hired in 1998 by Caltech to work for the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) as a detector operator. He joined teams to both build and operate the LIGO gravitational wave detector in Washington state. LIGO made history with the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015, which heralded the beginning of a new field of science: gravitational wave astronomy. In addition to being a LIGO operator, he has also learned to enjoy the importance of science communication, with one highlight of his work being to recruit his mother, Sharon Yellowfly, to translate astrophysics documents into Blackfoot. Corey likes to backpack, travel, salsa dance, cross-country ski, go to pow wows, and kayak (with a wooden kayak he built). He currently serves as a juror for the National Academy of Sciences’ Excellence in Science Communication award.

Camille Stavrakas is a Research and Development engineer at PsiQuantum, a photonics-based quantum computing startup company (Palo Alto, California). Since joining the company in 2021 she has been working at the interface between materials science and integrated quantum photonics, to develop materials and designs of high-purity single photon sources for error-corrected linear quantum computing. She earned her degress in different fields of physics from universities in Paris, Singapore, Uppsala and Cambridge. She completed her PhD in Physics in 2019 at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge. She then carried out postdoctoral research at the Molecular Foundry (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California). While pursuing her PhD research, she worked as a free-lance consultant in emerging technologies with clients such as BAE Systems and the British Ministry of Defense. Outside of the lab she is an amateur violin-maker, beekeeper, scuba-diver, traveler, glider pilot, motorcyclist and more recently circus aerialist.

Dr. Joshua B. Williams is an Associate Professor of Physics and Chair of the Physics Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of South Alabama, followed by a Ph.D. in Physics from Auburn University. His research centers on molecular dynamics during photoionization, exploring electron behavior and molecular fragmentation through advanced experimental techniques. Dr. Williams has contributed broadly to the understanding of how molecules respond to photon interactions through his wide array of publications. As a department chair, he has worked to support departmental growth and foster a welcoming, inclusive environment, while mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students. Outside of his academic work, Dr. Williams enjoys hiking, paragliding, and flying airplanes.