Speakers

“During her PhD, Professor Burnell was involved in the discovery of pulsars, opening up a new branch of astrophysics – work that was recognised by the award of a Nobel Prize to her supervisor. While working part-time to raise a family she managed the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii as a facility for astronomers in British, Canadian and Dutch universities. She has used telescopes flown on high-altitude balloons, launched on rockets and carried on satellites, and built a radio telescope that was firmly grounded in Cambridgeshire. Jocelyn has been awarded the Oppenheimer prize, the Michelson medal, the Tinsley prize and the Magellanic Premium. The UK’s Royal Astronomical Society has also presented her with the Herschel Medal. The public appreciation and understanding of science have always been important to her. In 1999 she toured Australia giving the Women in Physics Lecture and her appointment to the Open University doubled the number of female professors of physics in the UK. Jocelyn ‘retired’ as Dean of Science at the University of Bath in 2004 and moved to a Visiting Professorship at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellowship at Mansfield College.” – University of Oxford Podcasts

I am a Professor in Ocean and Climate Dynamics in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech. My group’s research revolves around climate modes of variability, multiscale dynamics of geophysical flows and their interactions with biological and chemical tracers. Our work is intrinsically interdisciplinary, and we use climate and ocean models and data science tools to investigate physical drivers in natural systems.

I received my Batchelor Degree in theoretical physics from the university of Torino (Italy) in 1995, and after a ‘gap’ year during which I explored other fields than physics, in 1997 I began my doctoral work in geophysics, specializing in geophysical turbulence and oceanography. After few years of back and forth between the US and Italy, in 2007 I started my tenure track at Georgia Tech, where now I also serve as Associate Chair for Research in my School. In 2011 I was the first woman oceanographer to be awarded the Early Career Nicholas Fofonoff Award by the American Meteorological Society.

Our research is themed around designing and characterizing the surface chemical properties of synthetic and natural stimuli responsive biomaterials to develop multifunctional biomaterial substrates for regenerative medicine, cancer treatment, and personal care products. The two main biomaterials of interest are microgels and hair fibers. Our microgels are colloidal dispersions of micron-sized poly n-isopropylacrylamide (pNIPAM) hydrogel particles. We aim to create 3D cell scaffolds of these microgels to recreate the native microenvironment for cell cultivation and thus probe malignant cell behavior in abnormal tissues. Hair is a unique natural biomaterial that maintains its own morphology, influenced by its innate surface chemical properties. We use existing polymer fiber characterization strategies to identify new geometric and structural parameters that are more representative of all curl patterns and thus correlate with their indigenous mechanical and interfacial surface properties.

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Spelman College. I received my Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering at North Carolina State University, and I have a rich, interdisciplinary research background in polymer materials chemistry, nanocomposite interfacial behavior, and biophysics of collective cell behavior, after completing several postdocs at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Zelda Gills joins the Lockheed Martin Space Program Management Strategy and Execution organization with over 19 years of technical experience at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and more than 30 years industry experience.

Dr. Gills’ career at Lockheed began in 2003 with engineering, prototyping and testing solutions for airborne communications, radar and defensive systems. She currently leverages expertise in systems engineering and avionics to conceptualize and mature solutions for mission system modification contracts valued at over $100 million each and direct support of aircraft recapitalization programs valued at over $1.5 billion. Over the course of her career, she has led many multi-site/multi-disciplinary technical teams in a variety of industries including optics/photonics, telecommunications, electronics, and avionics.

Prior to joining Lockheed Martin in 2003, Zelda Gills held technical leadership roles at two telecommunications technology start-up companies and Lucent Technologies Bell Labs (formerly known as AT&T Bell Labs) and is a Ph.D. physics graduate of Georgia Tech in the area of nonlinear optical and lasers. She holds a patent for all optical switching and has diverse work experiences in infrared signature analysis of celestial bodies and targets of interest at MIT Lincoln Labs; thin film optical materials characterization for optical computing at Bell Labs in New Jersey and digital RF modulation for high density ‘wired’ communications at a local start-up.

She is a graduate of Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she received her undergraduate degree in physics, supported in part by an American Physical Society (APS) scholarship. With the support of a Bell Labs fellowship, she completed her Ph.D. in optics and laser physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. While working for Bell Labs, she received a company fellowship and completed her Ph.D. in optics and laser physics at Georgia Institute of Technology where she received the Georgia Tech Presidential Top College of Sciences Doctoral Research Award. She is recognized by both industry and academia as a thoughtful technical leader and competent technical reviewer for the National Science Foundation; the National Academies of Sciences Panel on Ballistics Science at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL); and Association of Old Crows (AOC) Professional Organization for Electronic Warfare and Cyber Professionals Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dr. Gills is blissfully married to her college sweetheart for over 25 years. Family and faith play a large part in her life. She and her husband have passed along their servant leadership ethos and drive for excellence to their three children. Their daughter has studied Chemistry and Molecular Biology and enjoys a career in public health in Washington state. Their eldest son studied Mechanical Engineering and enjoys a career in aerospace / propulsion in the defense industry. The youngest son will be graduating with a degree in Computer Science and has thrived in commercial software and cyber security assignments. Dr. Gills credits her hunger for continuous improvement and strong mentors for her success. She passes along this support to others and finds great joys is encouraging young people to be successful, particularly in science and technology.