Join us for a panel discussion and informal chat with women professors, postdocs, and industry professionals about their experiences navigating the transition from student to professional and the implications of these career choices on their relationships.

Appetizers and refreshments after the panel discussion.

PANELIST BIOS: 

Dr. Lisa Klein, Distinguished Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, Rutgers University

In 1981, Dr. Klein was the first woman given tenure at Rutger’s School of Engineering.  Throughout her career, she has championed for the rights and representation of women and minorities in technical fields and has made a lasting difference both at Rutgers and in the Engineering community as a whole. Her innovative work in the field of sol-gel science has resulted in numerous patents and the development of novel energy-efficient ceramic window coatings, and in 1998, she received the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award for her work in sol-gel processing.

 Dr. Celeste Nelson, Professor in Chemical & Biological Engineering and Molecular Biology, Princeton University

Dr. Nelson is a professor and the current Director of Graduate Studies in CBE, where she studies the integration of biological signals in the construction of tissues and organs from the cellular level.  Her lab uses engineered 3D tissues and computational modeling to track cooperation and signaling between cells throughout development. Among her many accolades for her interdisciplinary research and outstanding teaching include a Faculty Scholar award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. 

Dr. Laura Gray, Postdoctoral Researcher in Chemical & Biological Engineering, Princeton University

Dr. Gray is currently a postdoctoral researcher in CBE, jointly in the Brangwynne and Priestly labs.  Her research focuses on glassy polymer kinetics and thermodynamics, which builds on her physics PhD from Emory University.  She is involved in several outreach opportunities in the Princeton community, including coaching a YWCA all-girls robotics team and participating in the Princeton Prison Teaching Initiative. 

 Shanna Pfau, Supervising Discipline Engineer, AECOM

Shanna graduated from Drexel University in 2003 with a BS in Civil and a BS in Architectural engineering and completed her MS in Engineering Management in 2009. She was an active member of Drexel's chapter of SWE as well as with SWE NJ post graduation over the last 13 years. Shanna is a Supervising Discipline Engineer (Structural) at AECOM in Princeton, NJ where she leads teams on power plants and transmission and distribution projects. She is a mother of two ages 5 and 2 1/2, married to an engineer and manages to have some free time to herself to pursue training for races.

Dr. Alisa Sedghifar, Postdoctoral Researcher in the  Lewis-Sigler Institute for Comparative Genomics, Princeton University

Dr. Sedghifar is a postdoc in the Andolfatto lab studying Drosophila population genomics.  She received her PhD in evolutionary genetics at UC-Davis and her undergraduate degree from the University of Melbourne.