Women @ Energy: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Creativity, insight, and application are the hallmarks of Dr. Xin Sun’s applied mechanics and computational materials research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Her advances in lightweight and high-strength materials (including steels) and modeling are vital to energy efficiency and renewable energy and have led to notable weight savings in the U.S. automotive industry. Xin is developing simulation and modeling capabilities for solid oxide fuel cells. Her modeling of physics properties are included as part of the solid oxide fuel cell multiphysics modeling code, or SOFC-MP, a commercial software tool, developed at PNNL, used by fuel cell developers. She also uses the continuum damage mechanics model, developed under DOE-funded programs, to understand fracture mechanisms behind transparent armor for the U.S. Army—work that may enable more resilient battlefield vehicles. A prolific contributor to the scientific community, Xin is on the ISRN Mechanical Engineering editorial board and serves as an associate editor on the ASME Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering and American Welding Society Welding Journal. She also mentors staff and interns at PNNL and Washington State University, where she is a mechanical and materials engineering professor. Xin earned a naval architecture and ocean engineering undergraduate degree from China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In only five years, she earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s and doctorate in naval architecture and marine engineering, all from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-xin-sun

Building accurate, intricate computer models that allow scientists and stakeholders to understand the interplay between Earth, water, clouds, and atmosphere is what Dr. Ruby Leung does at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She conducts cutting-edge research and refines models that are vital to predicting climate and understanding the impact of energy policies, new technologies, and our changing climate. As an example, to better simulate climate change effects on hydrologic conditions over mountain watersheds, she developed a unique framework for modeling the regional coupled atmosphere and terrestrial systems. She also applies regional climate models to study hydroclimate processes and climate extremes, and the aerosol effects on regional climate and hydrological cycle. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in atmospheric science from Texas A&M University. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics and statistics from Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she was the only woman in her graduating class of the physics department. Ruby is an outstanding mentor. She works closely with early career scientists and provides them with opportunities to develop new ideas and excel. She also participates as a mentor to many people through the lab's scientist and engineer development program. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-ruby-leung

Dr. Hye-Sook Park has developed experimental techniques in plasma physics, materials science, nuclear physics, and astrophysics that have significantly enriched fundamental science, applied science, and national security science. Hye-Sook is an exemplar of experimental versatility, with a remarkable ability to step across science and technology boundaries to develop new experimental techniques and achieve new results with keen interdisciplinary insights. Hye-Sook began her study of physics at Pfeiffer College in North Carolina. After she obtained her BS in physics in 1981, she became a graduate student at the University of Michigan. She focused on experimental high-energy particle physics, obtaining her PhD in 1985. At that time she accepted a post doc position at the University of California, Berkeley, and then one at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1987. She has been a staff scientist at LLNL since 1989. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-hye-sook-park

Dr. Hai Ah Nam is a computational nuclear physicist working at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) since 2008. Hai Ah’s research focuses on using cutting-edge high performance computing systems like Titan, the world’s fastest supercomputer, to solve large-scale problems in theoretical low-energy nuclear physics. Currently, she is a co-PI on the 6th largest Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) allocation award for computing time on the Nuclear Structure and Reactions project. Hai Ah is also a co-PI and serves on the NUclear Computational Low-Energy Initiative (NUCLEI) Advisory Council, a Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) application partnership focused on integrating computer science, applied mathematics and physics to use high-performance computing to explore the nuclear landscape. She received her Ph.D. in Computational Science jointly from San Diego State University and Claremont Graduate University in 2010. She received her M.S. in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999 and B.A. in Physics from Scripps College in 1997. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-hai-ah-nam

Ashfia Huq is a Lead Scientist of the Powgen beamline in the Chemical and Engineering Materials Division at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Ashfia was born in Bangladesh and after finishing high school in Dhaka, she attended Mount Holyoke College in MA for her undergraduate degree. Ashfia double majored in Physics and Computer Science, then headed to State University of New York at Stony Brook and joined a theory group working on modeling. Following her second year of grad school, she was introduced to the Department of Energy through Professor Peter Stephens, and joined his group for the X-ray beamline at NSLS. Ashfia moved to Argonne National Lab’s Intense Pulsed Neutron Source in 2003 working as a post doc at the General Purpose Powder Diffraction (GPPD) Beamline. In 2006, she was hired as an instrument scientist for the powder diffraction beamline (Powgen) at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and currently serves as their lead scientist. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-ashfia-huq

Ritimukta Sarangi is a Staff Scientist for the Structural Molecular Biology Division at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. She has held this position for three years, working on the design and development of a high-energy beamline with simultaneous polarized single-crystal X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography capabilities. She began this work as an Associate Staff Scientist in 2007, upon her graduation from Stanford University with a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Ritimukta earned her M.Sc. in Chemistry from the India Institute of Technology in 2001, and her B.Sc. in Chemistry with a minor in Physics and Mathematics from Saint Xavier’s College in Kolkata, India. She mentors high school students in Stanford’s RISE program, is a lecturer at the Annual School of Synchrotron Radiation at SSRL, two summer school programs at SSRL, and is a member of several professional organizations. Ritimukta has lectured all over the world, and holds awards from Stanford, Q2XAFS, SLAC, and others. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-ritimukta-sarangi

Young-Kee Kim is the Deputy Director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and a Louis Block Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. As an experimental particle physicist, Young-Kee’s research focuses on understanding the origin of mass for fundamental particles. Since July 2006, she has served as Deputy Director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. In this role, she leads and manages development and implementation of the particle physics strategic plan at Fermilab. She previously served as co-spokesperson for the CDF experiment at Fermilab’s Tevatron, a premier particle physics experiment with more than 600 physicists from around the world. Young-Kee earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Rochester, and a B.S. and M.S. in Physics from Korea University. Her postdoctoral research was completed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2005, Young-Kee received the Ho-Am Prize, Korea’s award given to “those who have made outstanding contributions to the development of science and culture, and enhancement of the welfare of mankind”, and the Guk-Min Po-Sang from the South Korean government in 2008 for her contributions to science and community. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-young-kee-kim

Mayling Wong-Squires is a Mechanical Engineer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. She is currently working in the SRF Development Department of the Technical Division, working closely with scientists in the research and development of optimizing the performance of superconducting radio frequency cavities for future particle accelerators such as Project X. Mayling is the responsible engineer overseeing the infrastructure that bakes the cavities at various temperatures as part of cavity processing. She is also helping in the engineering of the new Vertical Test Stands that test the cavities at cryogenic temperatures. Past projects where she has worked include BTeV, NuMI, and CDF. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-mayling-wong-s...

Kavita Ravi is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow at the Office of Policy and International Affairs (PI). She chairs the Award- and Procurement- related activities in the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance and Equipment Deployment (SEAD) initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial. She is also responsible for strengthening the private sector engagement in SEAD activities. Prior to the AAAS fellowship, Kavita completed the “Leading Clean Energy Ventures” executive program with the New England Clean Energy Council and Boston University and worked with early-stage clean energy ventures in the Boston area. Kavita has 12 years of private sector experience in the Electronic Design Automation industry, leading algorithmic innovations and advanced development of software products with multi-million dollar revenues. She received a Doctorate in Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-kavita-ravi

Joyce Yang is a Technology Manager at DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office. In this role, she is focused on program planning and project management efforts on biochemical and catalytic conversion technologies to make renewable fuels and chemicals from biomass. Previously, Joyce led the algae to hydrocarbon fuel initiative. Her accomplishments include publishing the DOE National Algal Biofuels Technology Roadmap, serving on the External Advisory Board of the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts consortium, and chairing the Interagency Algae Working Group under the Biomass R&D Board. She has written DOE blog entries and concept papers on biobased chemicals and biomanufacturing. Joyce was recently recognized as one of the Top 100 People in Bioenergy by the Biofuels Digest in 2012. Joyce’s efforts on behalf of DOE have been recognized internationally. She is a contributing author for the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation, and served as the US Advisor for the Organizing Committee of the 1st Asia-Oceania Algae Innovation Summit. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-joyce-yang

Yan Li is a Computational Physicist at the Computational Science Center at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her work is mainly focused on developing and applying advanced computational tools to investigate material properties of crystal, surfaces/interfaces and nanostructures. Yan got her Ph.D in Physics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before becoming a staff scientist at BNL, Yan worked at the University of California, Davis as a postodoral researcher. Yan holds a Bachelors of Science in Physics from Peking University in China. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-yan-li

Dr. Aindrila Mukhopadhyay’s interdisciplinary team at the Berkeley Lab is studying signaling and stress response in both environmental and engineered organisms. They are part of the ENIGMA project where their research includes the study of two component signaling in the model sulfate reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough. As part of the Joint BioEnergy Institute they adopt targeted and systems biology approaches to elucidate causes of inhibition during fuel/solvent production from lignocellulose using the host microbes such as Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. They hope to engineer better hosts for metabolite production and develop tools that are universally useful for microbial cellular engineering. Recently they have also become interested in studying signaling and response in cyanobacteria that dominate desert soil crusts. Read her full story at energy.gov/diversity/articles/women-energy-aindrila-mukho...