Throughout my career, I’ve been heavily involved in organizations supporting STEM students and early-career scientists.
As a staff scientist at Argonne, I continue supporting early-career scientist with mentoring and community-building initiatives such as the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP 2023).
During the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting 2019 I had a chance to discuss the topic of aiming for a career in science with 3 Nobel Laureates in Physics Donna Strickland, Bill D. Phillips, and Wolfgang Ketterle, fellow young scientist and advocate for diversity Niamh Kavanagh, and STEM career consultant Alaina G. Levine.
During the Online Sciathon 2020, I was a leader of a project aiming to create a toolkit for early-career scientists with tips on how to creare, empower, and grow an effective association. Our toolkit is avaliable at earlycareer.science. You can watch the 3-min pitch of our project below.
My blog post and video about Imposter Syndrome.
More to Read
Some of my Twitter threads and LinkedIn posts related to academia and career-development:
- Student, Postdoc, and Then?
- Aiming for Careers in Science
- Careers in National Labs
- A Few Thoughts about SciComm
- Impostor Syndrome in Academia
Berkeley Lab Postdoc Association
Sep 2018 - Mar 2021 Member of the Board
Dec 2018 - Dec 2020 Co-Chair
As a co-chair of the Berkeley Lab Postdoc Association, representing about 1000 postdocs from 6 different STEM Research Areas, I was collaborating on different levels with the Berkeley Lab Postdoc Office and the Bay Area Postdocs to support the postdoc community to help them succeed in future career paths. Our primary goal was to enrich the postdocs’ professional and personal lives through various events and activities, including career-development and community-building programs.
Activities I took a leadership role at the association include:
- Leading the organization of the first Berkeley Lab Postdoc Career Fair for 230 postdocs to promote career opportunities in academia, industry and a national lab setting.
- Promoting cultural diversity among postdocs with the Cultural Lunches project.
- Co-organizing career-development and networking activities, e.g., Postdoc-to-Postdoc series, monthly community-building events, and postdoc orientation.
- Serving as the liaison to other postdoc associations and Berkeley Lab Postdoc Office, e.g., during the National Postdoc Association Annual Conference.
Math and Natural Sciences Student Association at the Jagiellonian University
Sep 2009 - Sep 2011 Ordinary Member
Sep 2011 - Sep 2012 President
Sep 2012 - Sep 2013 Member of the Advisory Board
As a president of the Math and Natural Sciences Student Association of the Jagiellonian University (Koło Matematyczno-Przyrodnicze Studentów UJ) I was supporting STEM students of the Jagiellonian University through science projects, workshops, conferences, and community-building programs. In the years 2009-2013, the association consisted of about 90 active members.