Dannie Kiel is an accomplished intellectual property professional with experience in patent litigation, prosecution, and technology transfer. She has previously worked at the UC Davis technology transfer department handling patents for the university and at an international patent prosecution law firm representing clients who invented anything from semiconductors to cat toys. Now she works in patent litigation, defending clients from infringement accusations and working on post-grant procedures through the USPTO. She will be presenting on the various career paths within intellectual property that are available for physics students. Come learn about all the different career paths you can take within this surprisingly rich field.

Dr. Tessa Cookmeyer is an incoming assistant professor at UC Davis who works in theoretical condensed matter physics. She received her B.S. in physics from Haverford college, her Ph.D. in physics from UC Berkeley, and she is currently finishing her postdoc at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. Her research is on novel phases and phase transitions that arise in “quantum materials” where strong electron-electron interactions can enhance quantum mechanical effects. She is particularly interested in quantum magnets, heavy fermion materials, and open quantum systems.

Professor Nancy Aggarwal is interested in precision measurements for fundamental physics. In particular, she uses techniques from Quantum Optics, atomic physics, and condensed matter physics to look for new physics in the form of dark matter candidates or gravitational waves from astrophysical, cosmological, and exotic sources. She is a member of the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) collaboration, LSD (Levitated Sensor Detector) collaboration, and the ARIADNE (Axion Resonant InterAction DetectioN Experiment) collaboration. She is also part of a new global initiative to build detectors for Ultra High Frequency GW detectors.

Darshana, Andrea, Lotte and Artyom are graduate studnets at UC Davis Department of Physics, pursuing fields such as Astronomy, Nuclear Physics, Condensed Matter Physics and Theorectical Physics.

Fernando holds a BS in applied physics from UC Davis, an MBA from Golden Gate University, and a MS in biomedical engineering from UC Davis. He designs optical components and systems for surgical tools.

His career began at C&K Systems (now Honeywell Security Systems). He founded Wavelength Optics which was sold to Reflexite, where he continued working as a Product Manager with international experience. He then joined Invuity, a medical device startup company, where he contributed to over 38 US patents. Invuity went public in 2015 and he now works for Stryker since 2019. 

Shirley Chiang is a distinguished professor at UC Davis Department of Physics and Astronomy. She uses very high resolution microscopy, including scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and low energy electron microscope (LEEM). She is particularly well known for her work on imaging individual small molecules on metals for chemical reactions. The study of the properties of solid surfaces has important implications for the development of new materials, the fabrication of electronic devices, improvement in magnetic storage devices, and the understanding of chemical reactions at surfaces. Professor Chiang's research has had a very high impact on the field, as evidenced by over 11000 citations to her 150 publications.

Robin Diane Erbacher is a professor at UC Davis Department of Physics and Astronomy. She studies the fundamental particles of the universe. She has worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the Tevatron collider at Fermilab and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. Her current research is dedicated to searches for new phenomena with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the LHC, and to operating, maintaining and upgrading the CMS muon detectors.

Patricia Chikotas-Boeshar is a distinguished Sr. Lecturer Emerita. She works in observational astrophysics and stellar spectroscopy. Her research focuses on the search for the smallest stars and substellar objects using data obtained from sources such as the Deep Lens survey and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.

Professor Pantic focuses on the field of particle astrophysics with particular emphasis on the understanding of dark matter. The nature of dark matter still remains unknown and is recognized as one of the greatest puzzles in science today. Her work involves investigating dark matter particle candidates within different extended particle physics models, such as the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), by using three complementary detection methods: production in particle accelerators, direct detection of scattering in terrestrial detectors and indirect detection of products from dark matter particle annihilation in the galactic halo.