Presenter Profiles

Tasha Arvanitis, D. E. Shaw Research

CUWiP - Planning Your Next Steps (breakout session)

Tasha Arvanitis is involved in the development of improved force fields for biomolecular simulation. She holds a B.S. in physics from Harvey Mudd College, where she graduated with highest honors. During her senior year at Harvey Mudd, Tasha worked with a small team of students to design and prototype an alignment system for dynamic transmission electron microscopes. She has also interned at Fermilab and at Yelp as a software engineer. Tasha was captain and coach of her college Ultimate Frisbee team and was a member of the USA Junior Women's team. In her free time, she enjoys reading about the Renaissance, repairing bikes, and spending time in the mountains.

Dr. Jacob Barandes, Harvard University

CUWiP - Graduate School Applications (breakout session)

Jacob Barandes is Director of Graduate Studies for the Science Division at FAS, Associate Director of Graduate Studies for Physics, and Lecturer on Physics. Jacob did his undergraduate work in physics and mathematics at Columbia University, graduating as the class valedictorian. Jacob completed his PhD in physics in 2011 at Harvard, where he studied lower-dimensional compactifications of the Standard Model and systems of multicenter black holes in low-energy type-II supergravity models. In addition to his research in high-energy physics and the foundations of quantum theory, Jacob helps coordinate planning across the science departments at Harvard, advises over 200 grad students in the Department of Physics, and runs a teaching workshop for first-year physics PhD students. Jacob also teaches both graduate-level classes in subjects like general relativity and electromagnetism as well as a course on the concepts of theoretical physics aimed at enthusiastic students in high school and college who are planning on majoring in physics. Jacob has won numerous teaching awards, including the 2013 Alpha Iota Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Maryrose Barrios, Georgia Institute of Technology

SPIN UP - What is it like to take the next step in physics after college?

CUWiP - Graduate School: Making the Most of the Experience (breakout session)

Maryrose Barrios is currently a Physics doctoral student at Georgia Tech. Her research centers around the study of quantum phase transitions and spin dynamics in spin-1 BECs with Professor Mike Chapman. She obtained her bachelor degree in Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. When she’s not in the lab, Maryrose enjoys being outdoors with her dog Blue, or spending time with a good novel.

Prof. Tulika Bose, Boston University

CUWiP - Graduate School Applications (breakout session)

Tulika Bose received her Ph.D. in experimental high energy physics from Columbia University in 2006. Her post-doctoral research at Brown University focused on direct searches for new phenomena at the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron and at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. She has also extensively worked on trigger and data acquisition for both D0 and CMS and has just finished a two-year term as the Trigger Coordinator for the CMS experiment. She is currently serving as the co-convener of the CMS Beyond Two Generations physics group. She is an author of numerous publications in refereed journals and is actively involved in searches for new physics using data collected by CMS. Her work has been recognized by a prestigious Alfred P. Sloan fellowship and a CMS Distinguished Researcher award. Bose has a keen interest in outreach and has given many public lectures and interviews and also organized various events reaching out to high school students. She was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the APS Division of Particles and Fields (DPF).

Dr. Amy Bower, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

CUWiP Speaker

Dr. Amy Bower, Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), received her Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island and her B.S. in Physics from Tufts University. Since joining WHOI in 1988, Dr. Bower has contributed extensively to the Journal of Physical Oceanography, Nature, and the Journal of Geophysical Research, among many other science publications. Her research interests include observation and analysis of large- and meso-scale ocean circulation, structure and dynamics of western boundary currents, and structure of isolated vortices and their role in the distribution of water properties.

Dr. Bower lectures throughout the nation, and serves as a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society and the Oceanography Society. In 2010, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Her many research adventures include trips to the Labrador Sea in the North Atlantic, the Gulf of Aden off the Arabian Peninsula and the waters off the coast of Portugal. From 2003 to 2004, she held the Doherty Chair in Ocean Studies at the Sea Education Association. In 2007, Amy started OceanInsight, an outreach program for visually impaired and blind students. Legally blind herself for more than 20 years, Amy talks to students about how she does scientific research without 20/20 vision and encourages them to find a passion of their own.

Dr. Sandra Brown, Akili Interactive Labs, Inc.

SPIN UP - What is it like to take the next step in physics after college?

CUWiP - Career Panel

Sandra Brown, Ph.D., Esq. is Vice President of Intellectual Property/Legal Affairs at Akili Interactive Labs, Inc.

Dr. Brown has extensive experience in procuring domestic and international intellectual property protection in fields such as computer hardware and software, medical devices, bioinformatics, videogames, semiconductor devices, nanotechnology, and mechanical devices. Dr. Brown’s experience also includes licensing and other transactions, litigation, opinion work, and due diligence analysis of patent portfolios.

Prior to joining Akili, Dr. Brown practiced at an international law firm and as in-house counsel at Hewlett-Packard Company. Her doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) involved applying spectroscopic techniques to study carbon nanotubes and other nanotechnology, conducting polymers, semiconductor materials, and biological systems. As a postdoctoral member of technical staff at Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies, Dr. Brown conducted research in optoelectronic devices. She conducted research in nuclear magnetic spectroscopy of polymer electrolytes as an undergraduate.

Dr. Brown earned her law degree from the Fordham University School of Law, her Ph.D. in Physics from M.I.T., and a B.A./M.A. in Physics from Hunter College of the City University of New York. She is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, and before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Edna Conway, Cisco

CUWiP - Career Panel

Edna Conway serves as Cisco’s Chief Security Officer for its Global Value Chain. In this capacity, she develops and oversees the deployment of Cisco’s strategy to assess, monitor, and continuously improve the security of its global value chain. Cisco's Value Chain Security Program spans its Engineering, Services, Supply Chain Operations and Worldwide Partner organizations. In addition, Conway drives Cisco’s cyber and security protection plan throughout its third party ecosystem.

Conway serves or has served on the company’s Cyber-Security Board, Risk and Resiliency Operating Committee, Global Compliance Governance Committee and Eco Board. She also serves or has served as a leader in various international security, supply chain, and sustainability standards, public-private partnerships, and information and communications industry consortia.

Conway was invited in 2016 to give testimony to the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Presidential Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. She also serves on the Advisory Boards of ADP, LLC ( ADP – Nasdaq), privately held SecurityScorecard and Black Duck Software and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ leading technology industry organization, MassTLC.

Recognized across industries for her expertise, Conway is a frequent speaker for many organizations and companies, including:

• The RSA Conference

• Keynote addresses at the Microsoft Developer Conference

• NATO, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office; Federal Reserve, Dept. of Defense, Dept. of Energy, Dept. of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Environmental Protection Agency

• Stanford University, MIT, University of New Hampshire, The Brookings Institution

Her work has been featured in a range of publications, analyst reports, and case studies some of which are referenced in her LinkedIn profile. Her discussions on key issues can be found on Conway’s Blog.

Recent industry recognition includes 2016 Stevie Gold Awards as Female Executive of the Year Business Products and Maverick of the Year. Earlier in 2016 she received two Golden Bridge Awards: “Woman Executive of the Year - ICT” and Silver Winner for “Best Women Professional of the Year.” She was also named 2016 Chief Security Officer of the Year by Info Security Products Guide at RSA and a 2016 Woman of M2M by Connected World Magazine.

She holds an AB from Columbia University, a law degree from the University of Virginia and additional credentials from MIT and Stanford, Carnegie Mellon and New York Universities.

Prof. Rachelle Gaudet, Harvard University

CUWiP - Finding Mentors (Breakout Session)

Rachelle Gaudet received a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from Université de Montréal. She completed a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, and did her postdoctoral work at Harvard University, training as a structural biologist with the late Paul B. Sigler and the late Don C. Wiley. She has been on the faculty in Harvard’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology since 2002, receiving tenure in 2010. She teaches biochemistry and physical chemistry for the life sciences and is director of undergraduate studies for the Chemical and Physical Biology concentration. Her research in structural biology of membrane proteins provides important insights into the molecular mechanisms of transport and signaling proteins that play important roles in immunity, neuronal development, pain perception, and hearing. She is passionate about advising, training and mentoring, including women and underrepresented minorities at all academic and career levels. She is proud that all her prior graduate student and postdoctoral trainees, and a vast majority of undergraduate trainees remain involved in science and biomedical research through diverse career trajectories. In her spare time she enjoys nature photography, lindy hop and other dance forms, and various other creative outlets.

Prof. Suzanne Gaudet, Harvard Medical School

CUWiP - Balancing Work and Family (Breakout Session)

Suzanne Gaudet is an assistant professor at the Department of Cancer Biology and the Center for Cancer Systems Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Department Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on the quantitative understanding of how cells, in particular cancer cells, dynamically respond to cytokine signals from the immune system. She received a B.Sc. in Biology from Université de Montréal and earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Harvard University working with Daniel Branton. She then joined Peter Sorger’s laboratory at MIT as a postdoctoral associate for the launch of an interdisciplinary research collaborative at the interface of biology, informatics and microdevice engineering. From 2003 to 2008, she worked as a research scientist and scientific coordinator at the Cell Decision Processes Center at MIT and Harvard, taking pride in seeding multiple collaborations between scientists and engineers. She is committed to promoting diversity in science through better mentorship and leadership. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, spending time outdoors and dancing the lindy hop.

Dr. Zelda Gills, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company

SPIN UP - Combating Discrimination

CUWiP - Career Panel

Dr. Zelda Gills demonstrates exceptional leadership, great technical competence, a passion for mentoring and a drive for continuous learning.

Dr. Gills is a physicist working as a technical project manager at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. Dr. Gills’ career at Lockheed began in 2003 with engineering, prototyping and testing solutions for airborne communications, radar and defensive systems. She currently leverages expertise in systems engineering and avionics to conceptualize and mature solutions for mission system modification contracts valued at over $100 million each and direct support of aircraft recapitalization programs valued at over $1.5 billion. Over the course of her career, she has led many multi-site/multi-disciplinary technical teams in a variety of industries including optics/photonics, telecommunications, electronics, and avionics. Her humble but firm leadership style allows her to influence her teams to achieve positive results. During her tenure at Lockheed Martin, her achievements have been recognized by nine special recognition awards for technical achievements, teamwork and leadership.

Dr. Gills is a graduate of Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she received her undergraduate degree in physics, supported in part by an American Physical Society (APS) scholarship. While working for Bell Labs, she received a company fellowship and completed her Ph.D. in optics and laser physics at Georgia Institute of Technology where she received the Georgia Tech Presidential Top College of Sciences Doctoral Research Award.

She is recognized by both industry and academia as a thoughtful technical leader and competent technical reviewer. Some examples of her accomplishments in this field include:

1) NSF Division of Materials Research Proposal Review 2012-2014 - Proposal review panelist for Materials Research Instrument Acquisition & Development proposals. Intended to accomplish NSF goal of increasing access to shared scientific/engineering instruments for research & research training in institutions of higher education, museums, science centers, and not-for-profit organizations.

2) American Physical Society (APS) Bridge Program Full Proposal Review Panel 2014 - To select APS funded institutional sites bridging undergraduate and graduate physics education, supported by research, mentoring, and assessment and monitoring resources. Intended to strengthen the pipeline of students completing a terminal degree in physics

3) National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine for the 2015-2016 Term - Dr. Gills was appointed to the Panel on Ballistics Science at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) where the panel of experts reviews ARL research and development programs on a confidential and non-conflict of interest basis. The National Academies publishes a report of the assessment following review for publication.

4) Officer-at-Large, Association of Old Crows (AOC) Professional Organization for Electronic Warfare and Cyber Professionals Georgia Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) chapter - Dr. Gills regularly uses the technical relationships developed in this community to benefit her work and her continuous quest for knowledge and to support others in similar quests.

Dr. Gills credits her hunger for continuous improvement and strong mentors for her success. She passes along this support to others and finds great joys is encouraging young people to be successful, particularly in science and technology.

Dr. Elizabeth Goldschmidt, US Army Research Laboratory

CUWiP - Planning Your Next Steps (breakout session)

Elizabeth Goldschmidt is a physicist in the quantum sciences group at the US Army Research Laboratory. She received her PhD in physics in 2013 from the University of Maryland on a Joint Quantum Institute graduate fellowship, working in the laboratory of Alan Migdall on quantum memory and single photon technologies. After completing her PhD, she was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, studying quantum simulation with ultracold atoms in optical lattices in the laboratory of Trey Porto. Her experimental research program at the Army Research Laboratory focuses on quantum optics and quantum memory in solid-state materials.

Prof. Amy Graves, Swarthmore College

CUWiP Speaker

Amy Lisa Graves (formerly Bug) is Professor of Physics in the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy of Swarthmore College. She has scholarly interests both in computational soft matter physics and in issues of race and gender in science. She received B.A.'s in mathematics and physics from Williams College, and a PhD in physics from MIT. She did postdoctoral work at Exxon Research and Engineering, and at Columbia University. She has served on various committees of the American Physical Society (APS), and has been Chair of the APS Division of Computational Physics. At Swarthmore College, Graves has been Department Chair, and teaches at all levels in the undergraduate curriculum. Over the years, she has developed courses in Mathematical Methods for Physicists, Computational Physics, and Gender and the Physical Sciences. She authored a physics book at the middle/high school level (“Forces and Motion”, 2008). Her research with Swarthmore undergraduates been supported by the Research Corporation, NSF, and Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society. Her research on gender and science has been supported by the Mellon Foundation. Graves and her husband, LG, have a blended family of five children aged 20-38, five grandchildren, two dogs, a rabbit, a fish tank, and some rats.

Prof. Evelynn Hammonds, Harvard University

SPIN UP Speaker

Professor Hammonds is the author of Childhood's Deadly Scourge: The Campaign to Control Diphtheria in New York City, 1880–1930 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). She co-edited with Barbara Laslett, Sally G. Kohlstedt, and Helen Longino Gender and Scientific Authority (University of Chicago Press, 1996). She has published articles on the history of disease, race and science, African American feminism, African American women and the epidemic of HIV/AIDS, and analyses of gender and race in science and medicine. She is also the author of the article is "Gendering the Epidemic: Feminism and the Epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the United States, 1981-1999" which appears in Science, Medicine, and Technology in the 20th Century: What Difference Has Feminism Made? (2000).

Professor Hammonds's current work focuses on the intersection of scientific, medical, and socio-political concepts of race in the United States. She is completing a history of biological, medical, and anthropological uses of racial concepts entitled, The Logic of Difference: A History of Race in Science and Medicine in the United States, 1850–1990. She is also completing the MIT Reader on Race and Gender in Science co-edited with Rebecca Herzig and Abigail Bass. Professor Hammonds was named a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer (2003–2005) by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. She has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and a Fellow in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In July 2005, Professor Hammonds was named Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard University, and in March 2008, Professor Hammonds was named Dean of Harvard College.

Professor Hammonds earned a Ph.D. here in the Department of History of Science, an S.M. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a B.E.E. in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in physics from Spelman College. She taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before coming to Harvard. While at MIT she was the founding director of the MIT Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and medicine. Professor Hammonds has been a Visiting Professor at UCLA and Hampshire College.

Prof. Nergis Mavalvala, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

APS CUWiP KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Nergis Mavalvala, Marble Professor of Astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a 2010 recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award, is a physicist whose research focuses on the detection of gravitational waves from violent events in the cosmos that warp and ripple the fabric of spacetime. Mavalvala is best known for her work on the detection of gravitational waves. She was a member of the scientific team that in February 2016 announced the first direct detection of gravitational waves from colliding black holes using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors. Mavalvala has also conducted pioneering experiments on generation and application of exotic squeezed states of light, and on laser cooling and trapping of macroscopic objects to enable observation of quantum phenomena in human-scale systems. Mavalvala received a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from MIT. She was a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at the California Institute of Technology before joining the Physics faculty at MIT in 2002. In her spare time, she loves to bicycle long distances, play squash, and spend time with her family.

Mika McKinnon

CUWiP - Career Panel

CUWiP - Communicating Science (breakout session)

Mika McKinnon is a physicist with a non-linear career path. She's a freelance scientist working in disaster research, field geophysics, and science communication. Mika has a Bachelor's in Physics from the College of Creative Studies at UC Santa Barbara, and a Master's in Geophysics from the University of British Columbia. She's consulted for Natural Resources Canada and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and conducted fieldwork from the glaciers of Canada to the jungles of Africa. Her work has appeared on the sets of Stargate, the pages of New Scientist and Astronomy, and the pixels of io9, Ars Technica, and many others.

Prof. Mary Murphy, Indiana University

SPIN UP - Combating Discrimination

CUWiP - Implicit Bias, Imposter Syndrome, and Stereotype Threat (breakout session)

Dr. Mary Murphy is an Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University and a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University. Her research focuses on understanding how people’s social identities and group memberships, such as their gender, race,and socio-economic status, interact with the contexts they encounter to affect people’s thoughts, feelings, motivation, and performance. In the realm of education,her research illuminates the situational cues that influence students’ academic motivation and achievement with an emphasis on understanding when those processes are similar and different for majority and minority students. In the realm of organizations and tech, her research examines barriers and solutions for increasing diversity in STEM fields. Mary earned a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD from Stanford University. She completed a NSF postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University. In 2012, she joined the faculty of Indiana University and, in 2013, was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science (APS). She is the recipient of over $8 million in federal and foundation grants including a recent $2.2 million NSF CAREER award for her research on strategies to improve diversity in STEM. Her research has been profiled in The New York Times, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, and NPR, among other outlets.

Prof. Kerstin Nordstrom, Mount Holyoke College

CUWiP - Career Panel

Kerstin Nordstrom is a Professor at Mount Holyoke College: one of the “Seven Sisters” colleges, and one that remains an institution for women and gender minorities. Her research is in soft matter physics; her group uses video-analysis and mathematical modeling to understand the behavior of a variety of non-Newtonian flows, from avalanching sandpiles to the flow of polymer solutions in microfluidic channels. She is a member of the APS Committee on the Status of Women in Physics, and has been involved with the group LGBT+ physicists.

Prof. Amanda Peet, University of Toronto

SPIN UP - Combating Discrimination

Amanda Peet is a Professor of Physics and a Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Toronto in Canada. They grew up in the South Pacific island nation of Aotearoa/New Zealand, and hold a B.Sc.(Hons) from the University of Canterbury in NZ along with a Ph.D. from Stanford University in the USA. Their awards include a Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship. Their research is on gravitational string theory, and they appeared in the three-part NOVA PBS documentary "Elegant Universe". They have lived experience of misogyny, ableism, and transphobia, and their website can be found at http://ap.io/home/.

Prof. Kerstin Perez, MIT

CUWiP Speaker

Kerstin Perez is originally from West Philadelphia, and earned her B.A. in physics from Columbia University in 2005. She received her Ph.D. from Caltech in 2011, where her research focused on commissioning the ATLAS pixel detector in preparation for the very first LHC collisions and on understanding hadronic jet physics with initial data. She then returned to Columbia University as an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, developing the GAPS Si(Li) detectors and NuSTAR Galactic Center analysis. In January 2015, she began as an Assistant Professor of Physics at Haverford College, before joining MIT as an Assistant Professor of Physics in July 2016.

In addition to mentoring students in research, Professor Perez has a passion for science education and outreach, placing particular emphasis on connecting with students who, because of cultural factors or lack of exposure, have not considered the career paths that a science education opens.

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, University of Washington

SPIN UP Speaker

Originally from east Los Angeles, Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein holds degrees from Harvard College, University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Waterloo/Perimeter Institute in Canada. One of under 100 Black American ciswomen to ever earn a Ph.D. in Physics and an expert in theoretical cosmology, Chanda is internationally recognized for her anti-racist, feminist, and pro-queer speaking and activism. She currently holds a research position in theoretical physics at the University of Washington and divides her time between Seattle and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her academic work has been published in Classical and Quantum Gravity and Physical Review D, while her social commentary and popular science writing have appeared in Gawker and The Toast. She is also a contributor to books about Black women mathematicians and Jewish organizing with Palestinians. Chanda maintains a blog on science, society, and social justice at Medium.

FOLLOW Chanda @IBJIYONGI

VISIT CPRESCODWEINSTEIN.COM

Prof. Sarah Richardson, Harvard University

CUWiP Speaker

Sarah S. Richardson is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University. She is jointly appointed in the Department of the History of Science and the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. A historian and philosopher of science, her research focuses on race and gender in the biosciences and on the social dimensions of scientific knowledge. She is the author of Sex Itself: The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome (Chicago, 2013) and co-editor of Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age (Rutgers, 2008) and Postgenomics (Duke, 2015).

Dr. Jane Rigby, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

CUWiP - Career Panel

Dr. Jane Rigby is a NASA astrophysicist whose research focuses on the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time and the growth of supermassive black holes. Jane is a civil servant at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington, DC, and serves as a Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. She is Principal Investigator of multiple scientific investigations using the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Keck Observatories, and the Magellan telescopes. She has written more than 90 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and has received multiple awards from NASA, and the Outstanding Alumni Award from the Eberly College of Science at Penn State.

Rigby received her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Arizona, and also holds B.S. degrees in Physics and in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Penn State. She was a Spitzer Fellow and a Carnegie Fellow at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena before coming to NASA.

Rigby is passionate about diversity and inclusion in science. She co-organized the groundbreaking conference Inclusive Astronomy 2015 and serves on the American Astronomical Society’s Committee for Sexual-Orientation andGender Minorities in Astronomy (SGMA) Rigby has given numerous public lectures at venues including TEDxMidAtlantic and the Library of Congress.

She lives in Maryland with her wife and their preschooler. Her website is JaneRigby.net and she tweets @janerrigby.

Nabiha Saklayen, Harvard University

CUWiP - Graduate School: Making the Most of the Experience (breakout session)

Nabiha Saklayen is a physicist, inventor, global citizen, and team builder. As a final-year PhD Candidate in Physics at Harvard University, Nabiha is an expert in pulsed lasers and nanotechnology for biomedicine. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, holds patents, and leads the Biophotonics Team in Eric Mazur’s group. Her research has been recognized through numerous awards and grants, such as the International Fellowship from HHMI and the Catalyst Accelerator from Harvard Medical School. She has given invited talks in Germany and Japan. Nabiha is collaborating on an upcoming book with Susan Hockfield, President Emerita of MIT, and launching a science education campaign through a local nonprofit. Nabiha grew up in different countries and speaks 4 languages.