Workshop Speakers and Moderators

Jill C. Anderson, M.B.A., Executive Vice President, Operations, Southern California Edison

Ms. Anderson is Executive Vice President, Operations, Southern California Edison, one of the nation’s largest electric utilities. She leads many of SCE’s operations groups — including Transmission & Distribution, Customer Service, Safety, Security, and Business Resiliency, and Operational Services — and is responsible for safely delivering reliable, clean, and affordable power to more than 15 million people in a 50,000-square-mile service area spanning Central, Coastal and Southern California. Most recently, Ms. Anderson was senior vice president of Customer Service. She also served as senior vice president of Strategic Planning and Power Supply at SCE, where she oversaw strategy, resource planning, energy procurement, and management as well as the operations of SCE’s power generation fleet. Ms. Anderson has been a member or director of the boards of Alliance to Save Energy, Boston University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy, and the Energy and Efficiency Institute at UC Davis. Formerly she served on the boards of Smart Electric Power Alliance, Building Energy Exchange, and the Urban Green Council. In 2016, she published an article in Education Week titled, Bridging the Gender Gap in STEM Education. Throughout her career, she’s been recognized for her impact with various public service and leadership awards including Top Executive Women in Business, Women Worth Watching, and 40 Under 40. She received a Master of Business Administration from New York University and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University.

David J. Asai, Ph.D. Senior Director for Science Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Dr. Asai received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Stanford University, a Ph.D. in biology from Caltech, and was a postdoc at Caltech and the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a faculty member and Head of Biological Sciences at Purdue University, and then Stuart Mudd Professor and Chair of Biology at Harvey Mudd College. David’s research group, dubbed the “Asailum,” studied the structural and functional diversity of dyneins. For many years, he taught undergraduates introductory cell and molecular biology. After nearly 25 years as a professor, David joined HHMI in 2008. His team at HHMI designs and runs initiatives to support formal science education at the pre-college, college/university, and graduate levels. Each initiative emphasizes the importance of advancing inclusive diversity in science, which is primarily the responsibility of the institution in which students learn and train.

Gilda Barabino, Ph.D., President and Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, Olin College, President-Elect, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Dr. Barabino became the second president of Olin College in 2020; she previously served as the Dean of The Grove School of Engineering at the City College of New York (CCNY), and as a professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering and the CCNY School of Medicine. Before joining CCNY, she served as Associate Chair for Graduate Studies and Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University as well as Georgia Tech’s inaugural Vice Provost for Academic Diversity. Prior to that, she was at Northeastern University, rising to Full Professor of Chemical Engineering and serving as Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. A biomedical engineer trained in chemical engineering, with broad interest in global health, systems, and interdisciplinary engineering education, Dr. Barabino is a noted investigator in the areas of sickle cell disease, cellular and tissue engineering. She is an internationally recognized thought leader and highly sought speaker and consultant on race/ethnicity and gender in science and engineering, with a focus on creating cultures and climates that support a sense of belonging. Dr. Barabino is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and serves on numerous committees of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), including the Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine; the Health and Medicine Division Committee; and the Committee on Women in Science Engineering and Medicine which she chairs. Dr. Barabino also serves as a member of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Advisory Council for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Advisory Committee for Engineering; the congressionally mandated Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering; and the AAAS Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy, and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Her many honors include the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Award for Service to Society (2019); the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (2018); the Pierre Galetti Award (2017), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering’s highest honor; and an honorary degree from Xavier University of Louisiana (2016).

Suzanne Barbour, Ph.D., Dean of The Graduate School, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill

Dr. Barbour is a lipid biochemist who studies phospholipase A2 enzymes and the biologically active lipids they generate. She is a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Lipid Research. In 2021, she was elected to the first class of Fellows of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In addition to her research, Dr. Barbour is also passionate about graduate education, career development, and broadening participation in STEM disciplines. Before joining UNC, she was dean of the Graduate School at the University of Georgia and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She was program director in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University before she joined the University of Georgia. While on the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University, she led the team that developed the Research Training Programs in the VCU Center on Health Disparities. To date, those programs have trained hundreds of underrepresented scientists, many of whom have gone on to earn Ph.D.s and become independent researchers. In addition to her service on the Committee for Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE) of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Dr. Barbour has also served on the Minority Affairs Committee of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Council of Graduate School’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. She also serves on the Biological Sciences Directorate Advisory Committee of NSF and the Board of Directors of Council of Graduate Schools, as well as the Graduate Education Advisory Committee of the Educational Testing Service. She holds a BS in Chemistry from Rutgers University and a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from The Johns Hopkins University.

Joseph I. Castro, Ph.D., Chancellor, California State University

Dr. Castro serves as the eighth chancellor of the California State University system, the largest public four-year system of higher education in the United States. He is the first Californian and first person of color to serve in this role. Previously he was president of Fresno State, where he led the university to become a national leader in recruiting, supporting and graduating students from diverse backgrounds. Fresno State is routinely among the top public colleges in rankings issued by Washington Monthly, U.S. News and World Report and Money Magazine for its efforts to enhance student achievement as measured by graduation rates and social mobility. The grandson of immigrants from Mexico and the son of a single mother, Dr. Castro was the first in his family to graduate from a university. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in higher education policy and leadership from Stanford University. He is a renowned and gifted scholar in the fields of leadership and public policy, and has mentored hundreds of other scholars and practitioners, including many university presidents and senior officers. Castro has served as the eighth president of California State University, Fresno since 2013. He is the first California native and first Mexican American to be appointed to oversee the 23-campus university.

Rita Colwell, Ph.D., Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

Dr. Colwell, an internationally recognized expert on cholera and other infectious diseases, was the 11th Director of the National Science Foundation; she was the first woman to serve in that capacity. As NSF Director, she oversaw the creation of NSF's ADVANCE program, which was established to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic engineering and science careers. Before going to NSF, Dr. Colwell was President of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and Professor of Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University Maryland and served as a member of the National Science Board. Dr. Colwell has held many leadership and advisory positions in the U.S. Government, nonprofit science policy organizations, and private foundations, as well as in the international scientific research community. She has also held office in many professional societies. Dr. Colwell is the founder and chair of CosmosID, an end-to-end microbiome services company. She is a member of National Academy of Sciences and holds many other honors, including the National Medal of Honor. Dr. Colwell holds a B.S. in Bacteriology and an M.S. in Genetics from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of Washington. Her most recent book is A Lab of One’s Own: One Woman’s Personal Journey through Sexism in Science.

France Córdova, Ph.D., President, Science Philanthropy Alliance

Dr. Córdova is an experienced leader in science, engineering, and education with more than three decades of experience at universities and national labs. She has served in five presidential administrations, both Democratic and Republican. She is an astrophysicist, internationally recognized for her contributions in space research and instrumentation. She has served on both corporate and nonprofit boards, often assuming a leadership position. Prior to joining the Science Philanthropy Alliance, Dr. Córdova was the fourteenth director of the National Science Foundation. As NSF Director, she launched a strategic framework defined by 10 Big Ideas—promising areas of research for targeted investment. She initiated NSF’s Convergence Accelerator to leverage external partnerships to accelerate research in areas of national importance. To broaden STEM participation from traditionally underrepresented groups, she launched NSF INCLUDES, and to date seven other government agencies have joined INCLUDES. Dr. Córdova is the only woman to serve as president of Purdue University, she is also chancellor emerita of the University of California, Riverside, and served as vice chancellor for research and professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Córdova served as NASA’s chief scientist, representing NASA to the larger scientific community. She was the youngest person and first woman to serve as NASA’s chief scientist and was awarded the agency’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal. Córdova received her Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology.

Anthony DePass, Ph.D., President of DePass Academic Consulting, Director of Understanding Interventions that Broaden Participation in Science (UI), Co-Director for the Louis Stokes Regional Center of Excellence for the Study of Stem Interventions at the University of Missouri-Columbia (SOSI Center), Co-Founder and CEO of Career Navideer, and Co-Founder division of Career Navideer’s parent company, Lifestyle Learning

Dr. Anthony DePass was previously a Professor of Biology at Long Island University. For over 25 years, he has developed, led, advised, and evaluated programs that provide enrichment, training, and professional development for participants from middle school through postdoctoral training. His work also targets diversity and inclusion in the STEM workforce. Programs under his direct leadership have generated over $20 million in external funding from various federal and state agencies as well as private foundations. These include a MARC grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the American Society for Cell Biology that provided training and career development activities for participants from over 140 institutions; a NOYCE program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that trained teachers with STEM backgrounds for service in high needs school districts; and his work as PI and Co-Chair of annual conferences on Understanding Interventions that Broaden Participation in Science Careers (UI). These conferences are major venues for the dissemination of scholarship and training related to Interventions leadership, research, and evaluation. He is the Executive Editor of UI’s journal. UI has had the benefits of funding from the NIH, NSF, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Sloan Foundation, and Educational Testing Service (ETS). He received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and molecular and cell biology from the University of Connecticut, and a Master of Science and Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Kaye Husbands Fealing, Ph.D., Dean, Ivan College of Liberal Arts, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Husbands Fealing was formerly the Chair of the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. She specializes in the science of science and innovation policy, the public value of research expenditures, and the underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM fields and workforce. Prior to her position at Georgia Tech, Husbands Fealing taught at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, and was a study director at the National Academy of Sciences. Prior to the Humphrey School, she was the William Brough professor of economics at Williams College. She developed and was the inaugural director of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Science of Science and Innovation Policy program, co-chaired the Science of Science Policy Interagency Task Group, and served as an Economics Program director. Dr. Husbands Fealing is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She serves on the AAAS Executive Board. She currently serves as vice chair on NSF’s Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering, NSF's Education and Human Resources Directorate's Advisory Committee, the General Accountability Office’s Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics Polaris Council, and the Georgia Intellectual Property Alliance. She is a board member of the Society for Economic Measurement. She has served on committees and panels for many organizations, including AAAS, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), the Council of Canadian Academies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the American Economic Association. She was awarded the 2017 Trailblazer Award from the National Medical Association Council on Concerns of Women Physicians. Dr. Husbands Fealing holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, and a B.A. in mathematics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

José D. Fuentes, Ph.D., Professor of Meteorology, The Pennsylvania State University

Dr. Fuentes is an internationally recognized expert in the field of atmospheric science, with particular emphasis on the physical, biological, and chemical processes that control trace gas and energy exchange between vegetated landscapes and the atmosphere. He has designed and successfully deployed observing systems on towers and tethered balloons in places such as the Florida Everglades, the rainforest of Brazil, and the Arctic to investigate the atmospheric transport and chemistry of greenhouse gases. He engages students in hands-on learning in the laboratory and in field research projects, taking students on scientific voyages to places as distant as the high Arctic, the Brazilian rainforest, and the Marshall Islands. He mentors numerous minority students, working with student clubs and organizing workshops designed to attract and retain more minority students in science. He has served as the director of the Penn State University Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) program in climate science. He has served on the Advisory Panel for NASA Global Precipitation Mission and was a founding member of the steering committee for the University of Virginia Excellence in Diversity program, designed to attract and maintain minority faculty. Dr. Fuentes is a member and fellow of the American Meteorological Society, a member of the American Geophysical Union, and serves as a member and Chair of the congressionally mandated Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE). Dr. Fuentes many awards include the American Meteorological Society Charles E. Anderson Award, the Cavaliers’ Distinguished Professorship Award from the University of Virginia, and the Outstanding Faculty Award in the State of Virginia from the Governor of Virginia. Dr. Fuentes earned his Ph.D. from the University of Guelph, Ontario with studies in Micrometeorology and he is an alum of Millersville University.

Cody Anthony Hernandez, Ph.D., Protein Engineer, Evozyne, Chicago

Dr. Hernandez received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in December 2021 and has recently accepted a job as a protein engineer at Evozyne. As a graduate student at the University of Chicago in the lab of Professor Jonathan Staley and a HHMI Gilliam Fellow, he studied pre-mRNA splicing. Before starting graduate school, Mr. Hernandez graduated cum laude from the Honors College at Texas State University with a minor in applied mathematics. During that time, he was awarded an NSF-REU scholarship. Dr. Hernandez served as President of the University of Chicago SACNAS chapter (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science), which he revitalized with Mat Perez-Neut; their efforts resulted in funding for the first Midwest regional SACNAS conference, where they introduced the Recognition for Outstanding Work in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ROWDIE) Award. The Chicago SACNAS Chapter was awarded the Best Professional Development award (2018) and SACNAS Chapter of the Year award (2019). Their efforts also led to a student-led, faculty-supported organization at UChicago called GRIT (Graduate Recruitment Initiative Team), which is focused on the recruitment and retention of racial/ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQA+ students, and students with disabilities. GRIT members recruit at conferences, provide feedback on student applications, and conduct on-campus activities. During his time as director, Dr. Hernandez wrote the open letter to faculty that was signed by all GRIT members; the letter led to the removal of the GRE as a requirement for BSDs applications. There has been an increase of over 25% in URM applications since GRIT’s founding, and GRIT members helped recruit 80% of the URM students in 2018. Moreover, because of GRIT’s success, Mr. Hernandez and Mr. Perez-Neut have begun expanding GRIT across the country, including on-site visits and faculty-student workshops. He is also the co-founder of Transforming Academic Ecosystems, a group of current and former Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellows who provide peer efforts to address the mental health needs of graduate students' from underrepresented groups.

Shalini Kantayya, M.F.A., Film Director, Producer, and Creative Director, 7th Empire Media

Coded Bias, Ms. Kantayya's latest film, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. Coded Bias was broadcast nationally on PBS Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens and is streaming globally on Netflix. The film won a SIMA Award for Best Director, and has been nominated for a Critics’ Choice, a Cinema Eye Honors, and NAACP Image Award, among others. Shalini’s debut feature, Catching the Sun, premiered at the LA Film Festival and was named a NY Times Critics’ Pick. Catching the Sun released globally on Netflix on Earth Day 2016 with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio and was nominated for the Environmental Media Association Award for Best Documentary. She directed the season finale of the National Geographic television series Breakthrough (Executive Producer by Ron Howard) broadcast globally in June 2017. She has also directed for NOVA and YouTube Originals. Shalini is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fulbright Scholar, and an Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Ms. Kantayya received a BA from Hampshire College and an MFA from The City College of New York.

Allyn M. Kaufmann, Ph.D., Innovation and Whitespace Lead, New Product Development R&D for GSK Consumer Healthcare’s US market

Dr. Kaufmann is affiliated with the Quapaw and Pawnee Nations of Oklahoma and currently chairs the Executive Compensation Committee for the Quapaw Nation of Oklahoma. Prior to his position at GSK, he led Intellectual Property and Information Research for Global Healthcare at The Procter & Gamble Company. He began his career in Consumer Healthcare Research and Development at The Procter & Gamble Company, addressing stability challenges in over-the-counter drug products and dietary supplements. Throughout his career, Dr. Kaufmann has directly contributed to over $1 billion in new product launches utilizing experience in Stability Science, Analytical Chemistry, Intellectual Property, External Innovation/Information Research, Product Design and Business Development/Licensing. He has served on the board of directors of SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science) and was a member of the executive committee. He received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Kansas.

Cynthia Lindquist, Ph.D., President, Cankdeska Cikana Community College

Dr. Lindquist was recruited by tribal elders and, in 2003, became President of Cankdeska Cikana (Little Hoop) Community College (CCCC). CCCC is one of 37 tribal colleges and universities in the United States, all having a core mission of teaching and perpetuating a indigenous culture and language. CCCC serves the Spirit Lake Dakota community located primarily in Benson County, North Dakota. Dr. Lindquist believes that the key to success of a tribal college is culturally appropriate support rarely available in standard institutions. She served as the first political appointee to the Indian Health Service in the Clinton administration and then as Director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission. She serves as a member of the North Dakota ethics commission, the board of directors of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, and American Indian College Fund. She is the founding member of the National Indian Women’s Health Resource Center. Dr. Lindquist obtained a bachelor’s degree in Indian Studies/English from the University of North Dakota and a Master’s in Public Administration with an emphasis on tribal health systems from the University of South Dakota. As a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow, Dr. Lindquist earned a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of North Dakota.

Gabriel P. López, Ph.D., Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Immediate Past Vice-President of Research, University of New Mexico

Dr. López served as the University of New Mexico’s Vice President for Research from 2015 through 2020. Previously, Dr. López was a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering where he was the founding director of the NSF’s Research Triangle Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (RT-MRSEC). Prior to Duke, Dr. López was a professor in UNM’s Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering and was the founding director of UNM’s Center for Biomedical Engineering and the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Programs. Dr. López served on the Board of Directors of STC.UNM (formerly known as the Science & Technology Corporation at The University of New Mexico), which manages the commercialization of technologies developed by UNM’s faculty. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a Fellow the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering, an STC.UNM Innovation Fellow and the recipient of the W. Moulton Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Washington, the Stansell Family Distinguished Research Award from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award, an Outstanding University Inventor Award from the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and was named one of 100 Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists in America by Cell Mentor. He is a member of the National Science Foundation Committee on Equal Opportunity in Science and Engineering (CEOSE) and has been active in outreach to, and advancement of, groups under-represented in research. Dr. López’s current research interests include bio-interfacial phenomena, biomaterials, self-assembly and bio-analytical microsystems to address problems in medicine, biotechnology and environmental quality. He received his B.S. from the University of Colorado and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Yo-Yo Ma, American Cellist

Yo-Yo Ma’s multi-faceted career is testament to his enduring belief in culture’s power to generate trust and understanding. Whether performing new or familiar works from the cello repertoire, collaborating with communities and institutions to explore culture’s role in society, or engaging unexpected musical forms, he strives to foster connections that stimulate the imagination and reinforce our humanity. Yo-Yo Ma has a lifelong commitment to stretching the boundaries of genre and tradition to explore music as a means not only to share and express meaning but also as his contribution to a conversation about how culture can help us to imagine and build a stronger society and a better future. In addition to his work as a performing artist, he partners with communities and institutions from Chicago to Guangzhou to develop programs that champion culture’s power to transform lives and forge a more connected world. Among his many roles, Yo-Yo Ma is as a UN Messenger of Peace, the first artist ever appointed to the World Economic Forum’s board of trustees, and a member of the board of Nia Tero, the US-based nonprofit working in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and movements worldwide. Yo-Yo began to study the cello with his father at age four and three years later moved with his family to New York City, where he continued his cello studies with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. After his conservatory training, he sought out a liberal arts education, graduating from Harvard. He has received numerous awards, including the Avery Fisher Prize (1978), the Glenn Gould Prize (1999), the National Medal of the Arts (2001), the Dan David Prize (2006), the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award (2008), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010), Kennedy Center Honors (2011), the Polar Music Prize (2012), and the J. Paul Getty Medal Award (2016). He has performed for nine American presidents, most recently on the occasion of President Biden’s inauguration.

Shirley Malcom, Ph.D., Senior advisor to the CEO, Director of SEA Change at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Dr. Malcom is senior advisor and director of SEA Change, an institutional transformation initiative, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In her more than 40-year tenure at the Association she has worked to improve the quality and increase access to education and careers in STEMM for all women, BIPOC men (Black, Indigenous and People of Color), persons with disabilities and other marginalized groups, as well as to enhance public science literacy. Dr. Malcom is a trustee of Caltech and regent of Morgan State University, an HBCU located in Baltimore, MD. She is a former member of the National Science Board, the policymaking body of the U.S. National Science Foundation, and served on President Clinton’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. Malcom, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, received her Ph.D. in ecology from The Pennsylvania State University, masters in zoology from UCLA and bachelor’s with distinction in zoology from the University of Washington. She has been recognized for her work and service by all of these institutions, being the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from The Pennsylvania State University (2001), the UCLA Medal (2015), and Alumna Summa Laude Dignata of the University of Washington (1998). Malcom is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She holds 17 honorary degrees and is the 2021 recipient of the Gold Key Award of Sigma Xi. Malcom is a former high school science teacher and university faculty member. She serves on the boards of the Heinz Endowments and Public Agenda. She also chairs the board of NMSI, the National Math-Science Initiative. In 2003, Malcom received the Public Welfare Medal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the highest award given by the Academy.

Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, Author

Ms. Bertsch McGrayne is the author of books and articles about scientific discoveries and the scientists who make them. The topics she explores range from Bayesian statistics to biases. She is interested in exploring the cutting-edge connection between social issues and scientific progress – and in making the science clear and interesting to non-specialists. Her books include The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy; Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries; Prometheans in the Lab: Chemistry and the Making of the Modern World; and A Lab of One’s Own (with Rita Colwell). She has written for Science, Scientific American, Discover Magazine, Isis, American Physical Society News, The Times Higher Education Supplement, and Notable American Women. Excerpts of her books have appeared in The Chemical Educator, The Physics Teacher, and Chemical Heritage Foundation Magazine. Ms. McGrayne is a former prize-winning journalist for Scripps-Howard, Crain’s, Gannett, and other newspapers and a former editor and co-author of extensive articles about physics for the Encyclopedia Britannica. In addition to her writing, Ms. McGrayne has lectured internationally to scientific and professional societies, universities and colleges, and to bookstores and book club audiences, as well as doing interviews on BBC Radio, NPR and Newstalk (Irish talk radio), among others. Ms. McGrayne is a graduate of Swarthmore College.

Kendall Moore, Ph.D., award-winning documentary filmmaker and Professor in the departments of Journalism and Film Media at Rhode Island University

Dr. Moore is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and Professor in the departments of Journalism and Film Media at Rhode Island University. Before joining the faculty at URI in 2003, she worked as a television journalist focusing on medical, health, race, and environmental issues. Ms. Moore has produced numerous independent documentaries that have aired on PBS and in various film festivals. These include Charm City (1996), Song in the Crisis (2004), Sovereign Nation/Sovereign Neighbor (2006), The Good Radical (2009), Sick Building (2014), Philosophy of the Encounter (fiction, 2016), and Jalen and Joanna: A Lead Paint Story (2017), which won an NAACP award for excellence in documentary filmmaking. She received NSF funding for her current film project Can We Talk? Difficult Conversations with Underrepresented People of Color, a series she began as a Fellow at MIT's Open Documentary Lab. She has received several other grants and awards for her work, including two Fulbright Scholar Awards for work in Tanzania and Jamaica, The Rhode Island Film Fellowship for Outstanding Filmmaking, and the 2015 Metcalf Award. In 2016, she was commended by Crain’s magazine as a professor of merit, in the field of journalism, and she received the Faculty Excellence Award for Diversity at the University of Rhode Island in 2020. She serves on the boards of The Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting as well as The Story Board at Salve Regina University. She also enjoys mentoring women of color interested in documentary film production. Dr. Moore earned her B.A. from Syracuse University in Latin American Studies, an M.A. in Media Studies and documentary film from The New School for Social Research, and her Ph.D. at the European Graduate School for Media and Communication; her thesis focused on race, philosophy, and aesthetics.

Vernon Morris, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Director of the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, New College for Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, Arizona State University

Dr. Morris joined Arizona State University in 2020, Previously, he was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at Howard University. He was the Principal Investigator and Founding Director of the NOAA Cooperative Science Center in Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology (NCAS-M), a thirteen-member academic research consortium that partners with NOAA's National Weather Service (NWS), the National Satellite and Environmental Data Service (NESDIS), and Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) to advance scientific knowledge about the world's atmosphere and societal responses to weather, climate, and air quality phenomena. Dr. Morris also founded the HU Graduate Program in Atmospheric Sciences (HUPAS). HUPAS is the first Ph.D.-degree granting Atmospheric Sciences program at any minority-serving institution and is a national leader in the production of minority Ph.D.s in its field. He has served as Chief Scientist for eleven trans-Atlantic science expeditions (the AERosols and Ocean Science Expeditions – AEROSE) aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) class-1 research vessel, the Ronald H. Brown. Dr. Morris has won numerous academic and scientific honors and has served on a variety of boards and councils. He received BS degrees in chemistry and mathematics from Morehouse College and his Ph.D. in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Willie Pearson, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Sociology in the School of History and Sociology. Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Pearson specializes in the sociology of science and technology and sociology of the family. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech as Chair in 2001, he held a distinguished appointment as Wake Forest Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University and adjunct in Medical Education at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He has published several books on the experience of African American scientists with Ph.D.s, including major studies on chemists and engineers. Dr. Pearson has had a leading role in many activities and policy development roles in relation to the participation of minorities and women in science, including chairing the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), a Congressionally mandated committee at the National Science Foundation (NSF). He served on the President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the Obama administration and has served on committees and advisory boards and panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Sociological Association (ASA), and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). Dr. Pearson is a National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

Clifton Poodry, Ph.D., Courtesy Professor, University of Oregon

Dr. Poodry is a Courtesy Professor at the University of Oregon where he participates in the instruction of an ethics course for graduate students. He was a Professor of Biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz where he also served in several administrative capacities. As a rotating Program Director for Developmental Biology at the National Science Foundation, Poodry developed the minority supplement initiative that was implemented widely by Directorates at NSF and later at the NIH. He was the Director of the Training, Workforce Development and Diversity Division at the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), NIH, where he was responsible for developing and implementing NIGMS policies and plans for research training programs and capacity building programs that reflect NIGMS’ long-standing commitment to research training and the development of a highly capable, diverse biomedical and behavioral research workforce. At NIH he developed the Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) in which postdoctoral fellows, as part of mentored training, teach at minority-serving institutions. He developed a new research initiative designed to understand the efficacy of interventions and thus inform future planning of student development activities. He also developed the Native American Research Centers for Health program in collaboration with the Indian Health Service. As a Senior Fellow in the Science Education Department at HHMI, he led the Gilliam Fellowship Program and an experiment for adoption/adaptation of the UMBC Meyerhoff Program. Dr. Poodry is a native of the Tonawanda Seneca Indian Reservation in Western New York. He earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in Biology at the State University of New York at Buffalo and received a Ph.D. in Biology from Case Western Reserve University. He has served on the advisory boards of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans (SACNAS) as well as the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS).

Joan Y. Reede, M.D., Inaugural Dean, Diversity and Community Partnership, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School (HMS), Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and Assistant in Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Reede is responsible for the development and management of a comprehensive program that provides leadership, guidance, and support to promote the increased recruitment, retention, and advancement of faculty from underrepresented groups (URG) at Harvard Medical School. This charge includes oversight of all diversity activities at HMS as they relate to faculty, trainees, students, and staff. In 1990, Dr. Reede founded the HMS Minority Faculty Development Program and also currently serves as faculty director of the Community Outreach programs. In 2008, she became the director of the Harvard Catalyst Program for Faculty Development and Diversity. Prior to coming to HMS, Dr. Reede served as the medical director of a Boston community health center, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Youth Services. She has also worked as a pediatrician in community and academic health centers, juvenile prisons, and public schools. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Medical Society and the New England Board of Higher Education, Dr. Reede founded the Biomedical Careers Program (BSCP). A collaborative, community-based organization, BSCP’s scope of involvement includes academia, private industry, medical centers, public education, and professional societies. BSCP’s goal is to identify, support, and provide mentoring for students, trainees, and professionals from URGs pursuing careers in the biomedical and health sciences. Dr. Reede has created numerous programs to benefit students, residents, scientists, and physicians from URGs, including over 20 programs at HMS as well as programs for students from the middle school through the graduate and medical school levels. She has also designed a training program for middle and high school teachers and developed science curricula for public schools. Dr. Reede has served on numerous U.S. Government, nonprofit science policy organizations, and private foundations, and she is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the recipient of many honors. Dr. Reede graduated from Brown University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She completed a pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and a fellowship in child psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital. She holds an MPH and an MS in Health Policy Management from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and an MBA from Boston University.

Fátima Sancheznieto, Ph.D., Assistant Researcher, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Sancheznieto (she/her) is assistant researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine & Public Health in the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR), President of Future of Research, an organization that engages and empowers early career scientists, and Founder of Labmosphere, an independent website to provide intentionality and accountability to academic training environments. Dr. Sancheznieto received a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at Oxford University, where she was Howard Hughes Gilliam Fellow and studied the environmental signals important for blood stem cell formation during development. She then trained as a peer supporter at the Oxford University counseling center and has since advocated for systemic and cultural changes to improve the mental health and training environments of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. She has served on a working group for the Next Generation Researchers Initiative at the National Institutes of Health and did her postdoctoral research training with Dr. Christine Pfund and Dr. Angela Byars-Winston to study STEM training environments with a focus on underrepresented minority Ph.D. and Postdoctoral training. As an undergraduate at the University of Miami, Dr. Sancheznieto received a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (XROP) award to study in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Karp at Harvard University. After receiving a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering and English, Dr. Sancheznieto spent a year as a Fulbright award recipient in Tanzania studying the prevalence and distribution of trypanosomiasis among Maasai cattle in the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area.

John B. Slaughter, Ph.D., University Professor and Deans' Professor of Education and Engineering, Rossier School of Education and Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California

Dr. Slaughter began as an electrical engineer and went on to lead two universities and heading the National Science Foundation (NSF) as its first African American director, among many other accomplishments. His research in education has been in the areas of higher education leadership, diversity and inclusion in higher education, underrepresented minorities in STEM, and access and affordability. Dr. Slaughter began his career as an engineer at General Dynamics Convair, then moved to work as a civilian at the United States Naval Electronics Laboratory Center ultimately becoming director of the Information Systems Technology Department. Dr. Slaughter served as director of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington, until his appointment as assistant director of the Astronomical, Atmospheric, Earth and Ocean Sciences directorate of NSF. Dr. Slaughter then served as academic vice president and provost of Washington State University but left for his historic appointment in 1980 as the first African American to direct NSF. He returned to higher education as chancellor of the University of Maryland, where he made major advancements in the recruitment and retention of African American students and faculty. As president of Occidental College, he transformed the school during his 11-year tenure into the most diverse liberal arts college in America. He taught courses in diversity and leadership for one year as Irving R. Melbo Professor of Leadership Education at USC before accepting the position of president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), whose mission is to increase the number of engineers of color. Dr. Slaughter is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Hall of Fame of the American Society for Engineering Education, and has received many honors, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Award. Dr. Slaughter holds a B.S. in Computer Sciences from Kansas State University, an M.S. in engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in engineering science from the University of California, San Diego.

Djadé I. Soumana, Ph.D., MBA, Account manager at Cytiva, a Danaher Corporation Life Sciences company

Dr. Soumana is an account manager at Cytiva, a Danaher Corporation Life Sciences company. Cytiva is the new name of the former GE Healthcare Life Sciences biopharma business following its acquisition by Danaher Corporation in 2020. He had been with GE Healthcare for over 3.5 years and was a research hardware specialist when the company was acquired. He was promoted to account manager within a month. He is a board member (and former student) of the Biomedical Sciences Career Program (BSCP) and has been a key member in obtaining corporate support for students in the program. As a research scientist he used biochemical and biophysical tools to determine the atomic basis for drug resistance to protease inhibitor in Hepatitis C Virus He received a BS in biochemistry and Molecular biology at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, his Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and an MBA from Boston University. His honors include Hope Scholarship from BSCP; NIH-Intramural Research Training Award (IRTA); Ruth and William Silen, M.D award in Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, or Physiology; Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award; Carl Storm Underrepresented Minority Fellowship; and National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Ancillary Training Program Scholarship. He was recently selected for the prestigious Danaher Corporation's General Management Development Program.

Richard A. Tapia, Ph.D., University Professor, Maxfield-Oshman Chair in Engineering, Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Director of the Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity, Rice University

Dr. Tapia is internationally known for his research in the computational and mathematical sciences and is a national leader in education and outreach. Dr. Tapia is the sixth individual afforded the title of University Professor in the 100-year history of Rice University. The first in his family to attend college, Dr. Tapia went on to receive B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He first joined the Department of Mathematics at UCLA and then spent two years on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin before moving to Rice University, where he rose to full professor. Dr. Tapia chaired the department for six years. In addition to his faculty appointment at Rice, he holds adjunct faculty positions at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston. He was appointed by President Clinton to the National Science Board (NSB) and he chaired the National Research Council’s Board on Higher Education and the Workforce. His many honors include the National Science Foundation’s inaugural Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, National Science Board’s Vannevar Bush Award, and the National Medal of Science.

Orlando Taylor, Ph.D., Distinguished Senior Advisor to the President, Executive Director, Center for the Advancement STEM Leadership, Fielding Graduate University

Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Taylor served as President for Strategic Initiatives and Research at Fielding, where he was also the Principal Investigator and Director for an NSF-funded grant to advance women in the STEM fields into leadership positions at the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities and at Tribal Colleges. Before that, he served in several senior leadership positions at Howard University and as President of the Washington, D.C. campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. He was one of the architects of the American Association of Colleges & University's (AAC&U) National Science Foundation-funded Preparing Critical Faculty for the Future project. Dr. Taylor has been a national leader for many years on issues pertaining to diversity and inclusion in higher education. He has been a particularly vigorous advocate and spokesperson on topics and issues relating to access and equity and to preparing the next generation of researchers and faculty members for the nation’s colleges and universities. He is the Past President of the Consortium of Social Science Association and the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools. He has served as a member of numerous national boards in higher education, including the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools, which he chaired. Currently, Dr. Taylor is a member of the Board of Trustees of Huston-Tillotson University and a member of the Research Council of the Research Foundation for the State University of New York. Dr. Taylor received his undergraduate degree from Hampton University, a master’s degree from Indiana University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Rati Thanawala, Ph.D. Leader in Practice, Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School; Founder, Leadership Academy for Women of Color in Tech; Founder and Former Senior Partner, Bell Labs Consulting, Nokia

Dr. Thanawala is a Leader in Practice in the Women and Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School and Founder of the Leadership Academy for Women of Color in Tech. She has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale University. In her 39-year career in the tech industry, she has consistently broken new ground. She founded Bell Labs Consulting, a business unit within Bell Labs, that advises tech executives, globally, on building future communication networks. She also has held executive positions in product management and software development at companies including AT&T, Lucent, and Nokia. As she began what she terms her "encore career" as a Fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, she realized that most women of color in technology fields tended to languish at the lower professional levels, and that most first line managers, who have a disproportionately large impact on creating the "local culture" that new hires encounter, are inexperienced and unaware of the challenges and solutions for those at the intersectionality of gender and race. Dr. Thanawala received a grant from the Women of Color in Computing Research Collaborative, funded by Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda Gates company, to interview 40 women of color succeeding in tech. From her research, she developed “14 Levers” that need to be mastered and established a multiyear curriculum for a Leadership Academy for underrepresented college students in tech, which continues through the transition to the workplace and early career. The Leadership Academy was launched with two partners: the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, which has a National Science Foundation grant, and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program, which is bringing its state-of-the-art Negotiations Skills Development expertise to these undergraduates. In 2020 and 2021, 87 students went through the six-week Summer Academy. The program is virtual and national. Last year students from 22 colleges participated. It now offers a unique industry mentorship program for 9 months following the summer academy. Early research results on impact are promising, so the next step is scaling. Dr. Thanawala is also preparing to launch a course for first line managers - focused on what "supportive management" looks like from the perspective of new hires from underrepresented groups, with special emphasis on women of color.

Aradhna Tripati Ph.D., Professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences; and the Institute of Environmental Science and Sustainability. Founding Director, Center for Diverse Leadership in Science. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Dr. Tripati is the faculty director and founder of the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science. She is a climate scientist, and is a full professor at UCLA. She is affiliated with the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES), the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, the American Indian Studies Center, the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), and the California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI). Dr. Tripati was the first woman of color out of 50 faculty in the institute and the two geoscience departments. Her research is on the history and dynamics of changing Earth systems including climate, ice sheets, oceans, the water cycle, carbon dioxide levels; tool development; clumped isotope geochemistry; environmental justice; and STEM education. For her contributions, she has been elected to the California Academy of Sciences and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, Geochemical Society, and European Association of Geochemistry. Dr. Tripati has received numerous awards for her research, education, and outreach programs including a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering from President Obama and the White House Office for Science, Technology, Policy, as well as the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award, and the Bromery Award for Minorities from the Geological Society of America. She has been named a Hellman Fellow and a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow and received the E.O. Wilson Award for Outstanding Science on climate change. She was also awarded a Chair International D’Excellence in Stable Isotopes by IUEM (Institut Universitaire European De La Mer). She is a Royal Society Visiting Fellow at the University of Bristol and was a visiting scientist at the California Institute of Technology for several years. Dr. Tripati received her Bachelor of Science in geological sciences from California State University, Los Angeles, a minority-serving institution, where she received the Aaron Waters Award for Outstanding Senior; she received a Ph.D. in earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz where she was a Gates Millennium Scholar, an Ocean Drilling Program Fellow, and a UC Regents’ Fellow―and she received the Aaron Waters Award for Best Thesis Proposal. She was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, where she held the Thomas Nevile Fellowship in Natural Sciences, a Comer Abrupt Climate Change Fellowship, a National Environmental Research Council Fellowship, and a Marshall Sherfield Fellowship.

Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Ph.D., Founder and President, Intersections SBD Consulting

Dr. Villa-Komaroff is a molecular biologist and diversity advocate, who also has been an academic administrator and business executive. She was one of the early cadre of scientists who first used the ability to join DNA from animals or people to DNA from bacteria to make useful proteins such as insulin, interferons and growth hormone, and to study biological processes and human diseases. She ran a research lab as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Medical School then at Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital, Boston. She then served as Vice President for Research at Northwestern University, and then at The Whitehead Institute, a biological research institute affiliated with MIT. She served as CSO and CEO of Cytonome, a company developing and manufacturing purpose-built cell sorters. She was Chair of the Board of Transkaryotic Therapies, and now serves as a board member of ATCC (formerly American Tissue Culture Collection), Cytonome and the Keck Graduate Institute. She has served on advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), and on the board of directors of the Massachusetts Life Science Center. She represented small business for the U.S. State Department at an Asian-Pacific Economic conference and serves on several academic advisory boards. She is co-founding member of SACNAS (Society for the advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science). She is a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). Her honors include election to the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Hall of Fame, a Lifetime Achievement Award by Hispanic Business Magazine, the 2013 Woman of Distinction from the American Association of University Women and the Elting Morison prize from the MIT Program in Science and Technology. She was one of six women scientists whose work was featured in the PBS series “Discovering Women;” her work was the subject of a one-hour segment entitled “DNA Detective.” She was one of 11 women scientists profiled on the website of the White House Office of Science and Technology during the Obama administration. She received a BA in biology from Goucher College and a Ph.D. from MIT.

Susan Windham-Bannister, Ph.D., President and CEO of Biomedical Growth Strategies, President, Association for Women in Science (AWIS)

A nationally and internationally recognized innovation executive, Dr. Windham Bannister served as founding President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative, an organization created by former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts legislature. Dr. Windham-Bannister’s role was to develop, implement and lead the ground-up strategy for the $1 billion, multi-year investment. Among other activities, she advises the Bioscience Los Angeles County (BioLA) initiative as its Chief Strategy Officer. Dr. Windham-Bannister built her 45-year career on advising major biopharma companies on the tough strategic decisions needed for market access, growth optimization and portfolio management. From 2008-2015 that background aided the launch and growth of the Massachusetts Life Science Initiative, one of the nation’s most recognized ecosystem stories. Dr. Windham-Bannister was named by the Boston Globe as one of the "10 Most Influential Women in Biotech" by the Boston Globe and as by Boston Magazine as one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Boston." She has co-authored two books: Competitive Strategy for Health Care Organizations, and Medicaid and Other Experiments in State Health Policy. She is a frequent speaker at national and international life sciences conferences. Dr. Windham-Bannister received a B.A. from Wellesley College, a Doctorate in Health Policy and Management from the Florence Heller School at Brandeis University, and a Doctor of Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (honoris causa). She served as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School and as a Fellow in the Center for Science and Policy (CSAP) at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.

Nai-Chang Yeh, Ph.D. Professor of Physics, California Institute of Technology

Nai-Chang Yeh’s principal research field is experimental condensed matter physics, with special emphasis on quantum materials and nanoscience. Her research includes work on a variety of superconductors, magnetic materials, and superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures as well as physics and applications of low-dimensional electronic systems such as graphene and carbon nanotubes. She has helped to develop various cryogenic scanning probe microscopes for applications to nanoscience and technology, as well as superconducting resonator technologies that have been applied to high-resolution studies of superfluid phase transitions and Bose–Einstein condensation in helium gas. Dr. Yeh was the first female professor to join the physics department, the first tenured woman professor in physics at Cal Tech, and the first tenured Asian woman professor at Caltech. She cites her mother, a mathematics professor, and her Ph.D. supervisor Professor Mildred Dresselhaus as role models who helped give her confidence in her ability to succeed in physics. She has served as the Fletcher Jones Foundation Co-Director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. She has received many professional honors including: Highlight Yushan Scholar, Ministry of Education, Taiwan; Achievement Award, Tsien Excellence in Education Program, Tsinghua University, China; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Fellow, American Physical Society; Distinguished Alumni Award, Department of Physics, National Taiwan University; Fellow, The Institute of Physics, UK; Faculty Achievement Award, Southern California Chinese-American Faculty Association; Outstanding Young Researcher Award, International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers; Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering; and Sloan Research Fellowship. She has served as a distinguished visiting professor at many institutions around the world. Dr. Yeh has also served on many national and international committees and professional activities. Her current roles include Member, Advisory Committee on International Science and Engineering, National Science Foundation (NSF); Member, Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), NSF; Member, “Sunlight for Everything” Advisory Panel, and Member, External Advisory Committee, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Yeh received her BSc degree from National Taiwan University and her Ph.D. degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation through grant OIA-2140483