Andrea Liu is a theoretical soft and living matter physicist who received her A. B. and Ph.D. degrees in physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell University, respectively. She was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA for ten years before joining the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania in 2004. Liu is currently Speaker-Elect of the Council of the American Physical Society (APS) and Chair-Elect of the Physics Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is a fellow of the APS, AAAS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Susan Trolier-McKinstry is the Steward S. Flaschen Professor of Ceramic Science and Engineering, Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Director of the Nanofabrication facility at the Pennsylvania State University. Her main research interests include thin films for dielectric and piezoelectric applications. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Ceramic Society, IEEE, and the Materials Research Society, and an academician of the World Academy of Ceramics. She currently serves as an associate editor for Applied Physics Letters. She was 2017 President of the Materials Research Society; previously she served as president of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control Society, as well as Keramos. Twenty-one people that she has advised/co-advised have gone on to take faculty positions around the world.

Dr. Jackie Chini is an Assistant Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Jackie received her B.A. in physics at Drew University, a small liberal arts college, and her Ph.D. in physics from Kansas State University. She conducts discipline-based education research related to teaching, learning and equity in postsecondary physics. She has been PI on four grants from the National Science Foundation, including a prestigious CAREER award for research on physicists’ views of disability in the physics community. She also participates in a faculty online learning community focused on learner-centered teaching in physics for non-physics majors. Outside of physics, Jackie spends her time chasing after a very active three-year-old beside her partner, who is also a physics professor at UCF.

Dr. Saida Caballero-Nieves is an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). Her work focuses on the most massive stars in the universe, which produce the building blocks for life. She studies their multiplicity in order to understand their formation and evolution and determine if there is an upper mass limit of stars. She combines observations with modeling and uses AI to help classification of variable stars. Her research has allowed her to use telescopes around the world and space, including many hours on the Hubble Space Telescope. She is currently serving on the users committee of the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. Growing up visiting the Arecibo observatory inspired her to pursue a career in astrophysics. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Astronomy, Physics, and History from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and a Master in Physics and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Georgia State University. Prior to joining the faculty at Florida Tech, she spent 4 years at the University of Sheffield as a postdoctoral fellow. Currently, she is the director of the Olin Observatory and teaches night-time observational astronomy courses, as well as stellar astrophysics to Florida Tech Seniors and Graduate Students. She involves students in observations of the night sky through small telescopes on campus as well as remote instruments in Hawaii, Arizona, and the Canary Island. Dr. Caballero is very active in outreach and goes to schools to share her love of astronomy. She is in charge of Florida Tech public lectures and continues to engage young students to pursue STEM careers. She keeps instilling the importance of space exploration in the advancement of astronomy and astrophysics in the next generation of scientist.

Laura Greene is the chief scientist at the National MagLab and the Francis Eppes Professor of Physics at Florida State University. Her research is in experimental condensed matter physics with a focus on quantum materials, including topological matter and high-temperature superconductors. As the 2017 president of the American Physical Society (APS), Laura’s theme was science diplomacy and human rights. She serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is a vice president of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. A champion for diversity, she works with teams that promote the success of women and young scientists, particularly in developing countries. She plays many leadership advisory roles for funding agents and institutions and recently was a co-chair of the National Academy’s consensus report: “Frontiers of Materials Research: A Decadal Survey.”