Jocelyn Bell Burnell inadvertently discovered pulsars as a graduate student in radio astronomy in Cambridge, opening up a new branch of astrophysics, work recognised by the award of a Nobel Prize to her supervisor.

She has subsequently worked in many roles in many branches of astronomy, working part-time while raising a family. She is now a visiting academic in Oxford and the chancellor of the University of Dundee, Scotland. She has been president of the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society, in 2008 became the first female president of the Institute of Physics for the UK and Ireland, and in 2014 the first female president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She was one of the small group of women scientists that set up the Athena SWAN scheme.

She has received many honors, including a $3 million Breakthrough Prize in 2018. The public appreciation and understanding of science have always been important to her, and she is much in demand as a speaker and broadcaster. In her spare time, she gardens, listens to choral music, and is active in the Quakers. She has co-edited an anthology of poetry with an astronomical theme, Dark Matter; Poems of Space.

Dr. Chris Greenhill joined the Dow Chemical Company in 2020 as a Senior Research Specialist on the Wire & Cable Product Development Team. Since joining, Dr. Chris has led lab-scale and pilot-scale evaluations of alternative materials for long-term heat stabilizers in some of Wire & Cable’s high-volume (300,000 lbs./yr.) power and telecommunications products. Her contributions projected a savings of $1.8MM/yr. for the business. She now serves as the technical focal point for the Electrical market and for cable manufacturers in North America. 

Awarded the prestigious NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2016, she completed her doctoral studies at the University of Michigan. Her work focused on controlling electronic structure in silicon-based and Group III/V semiconductor films through material design (i.e., nano-structuring). Such materials have increasing commercial presence in integrated electronic systems and photonic applications. She also worked installing solar panels on residential homes throughout Southeast Michigan. 

Dr. Chris was born and raised in Tennessee to a family of carpenters and roofers. “By working beside my grandmother in the summers, I developed a unique enthusiasm for her mentorship and building things, as we replaced floor tiles, installed new light fixtures, and connected electrical receptors to circuit breakers. As a teen, I connected those special moments with ideas that I learned in science and math and extended the connection with others through school science projects.” Chris earned a B.S. in Physics in 2014, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering in 2016, and a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering in 2020. She conducted research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) in Ithaca, NY. Dr. Chris enjoys writing, spending time with her family, and serving her community.

In addition to her role as chief scientist at the National MagLab, Greene is the MarieKrafft Professor of Physics at Florida State University. Her research is on quantum materials, focusing on fundamental studies utilizing novel materials growth with planar tunneling and point contact electron spectroscopies to elucidate the mechanisms of unconventional superconductivity.

Greene plays an active leadership role in numerous science organizations. In 2017, as president of the American Physical Society (APS), her presidential theme was science diplomacy on national and international scales and its application to human rights. She is currently on the Board of Directors for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is a vice president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP).

Greene is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a founding member of the Florida Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine. She is also a fellow of the Institute of Physics (U.K.), and AAAS and APS. She has been a Guggenheim Fellow and was awarded the E.O. Lawrence Award for Materials Research from the U.S. Department of Energy, the APS Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award, the Bellcore Award of Excellence, the Five Sigma Physicist Award for Advocacy in Science Policy from the APS and the Tallahassee Scientific Society Gold Medal. She has co-authored over 200 publications and presented over 600 invited talks.

Lia Merminga began her tenure as director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in April 2022. An internationally renowned accelerator physicist, Merminga previously led Fermilab's Proton Improvement Plan II (PIP-II) project, an essential enhancement to Fermilab’s accelerator complex that will provide powerful, high-intensity proton beams, enable the world’s most intense neutrino beam to the flagship Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (LBNF/DUNE), and drive a broad physics research program.

Merminga has held major scientific leadership roles at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California; TRIUMF in Vancouver, Canada; and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Athens, in Greece and master's degrees in physics and mathematics and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. She is a Fermilab Distinguished Scientist, a fellow of the American Physical Society, and a graduate of the DOE's Oppenheimer Energy Science Leadership Program. She has served on numerous international scientific committees and was one of the authors of the 2014 Particle Physics Project Prioritization Project Panel (P5) plan.

Christine Aidala is a physics professor who performs experimental research at large accelerator facilities to study the strong nuclear force, and she also does theoretical research studying the mathematical foundations of physics. She enjoys playing music, biking, and gardening