Pierre was a Rutgers LSAMP PRELS Scholar (2022 - 2023) working with Dr. Cochran on Using Social Network Analysis to Evaluate the Impact of Communities on Engineering Majors.

Education: Pierre completed her BA in psychology at Rutgers University.

Interests/Future Plans: Pierre is interested in attending a graduate program to investigate the impact of ADHD on marginalized populations and finding accessible methods to help with the symptoms of ADHD.

McDermott earned his Ph.D in Physics focusing on Physics Education Research at Rutgers University. His dissertation examines the identity of neurodivergent physics students under a Critical Disability Physics Identity lens. 

Education: His B.S. degree is from Iowa State University, in Physics.

Interests/Future Plans: McDermott is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Connecticut - Avery Point. His project is funded through the NSF's STEMEdIPRF Grant (#2411711), and focuses on investigating how neurodivergent students perform physics, and on collecting the narratives of neurodivergent physics undergraduates.

Selected Publication(s):

• McDermott, L. G. (2022, September). Introducing political disability identity as a framework for studying disability in physics. In Physics Education Research Conference, 2022.

• McDermott, L. G., Mosley, N. A., & Cochran, G. L. (2024). Diverging nonlocal fields: Operationalizing critical disability physics identity with neurodivergent physicists outside Academia. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 20(1).