Out in Science: Creating Spaces for Success

Carolyn Bertozzi, PhD(she/her)
Carolyn Bertozzi is the Baker Family Director of Sarafan Stanford ChEM-H and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. She is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Her research focuses on profiling changes in cell surface glycosylation associated with cancer, inflammation and infection, and exploiting this information for development of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, most recently in the area of immuno-oncology. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Most recently she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Wolf Prize in Chemistry, and Welch Prize in Chemistry. She was also awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and the Chemistry for the Future Solvay Prize, among many others.

Joanne Engel, MD, PhD (she/her)
Joanne Engel received her BS in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale in 1976, the 5th graduating class of women. She completed an MD-PhD at Stanford, residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and a clinical and postdoctoral fellowship in infectious disease at UCSF. Engel is currently a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology/Immunology at UCSF, where she is also chief of the Division of Infectious Disease and the founding and current co-director of the Integrative Microbiology program. She is passionate about mentoring and training young investigators, especially women and members of the LGBTQI community. Guided by the motto, “the pathogen is the tutor,” her lab focuses on the complex interplay between bacterial pathogens and their human hosts, and has made important contributions to our understanding of how Chlamydia trachomatis alters the cell biology of their host cell. Engel is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Academy of Microbiology. She and her spouse Ellen have a grown son.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, PhD (she/her)
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an associate professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her research in theoretical physics focuses on cosmology, neutron stars, and dark matter. She is also a researcher of Black feminist science, technology, and society studies.

Nature recognized Prescod-Weinstein as one of 10 people who shaped science in 2020, and Essence magazine has recognized her as one of “15 Black Women Who Are Paving the Way in STEM and Breaking Barriers.” A co-creator of the Particles for Justice letter against sexism in particle physics and 2020 Strike for Black Lives, Prescod-Weinstein received the 2017 LGBT+ Physicists Acknowledgement of Excellence Award for her contributions to improving conditions for marginalized people in physics and the 2021 American Physical Society Edward A. Bouchet Award for her contributions to particle cosmology.

Stephanie Miller, PhD (she/her, they/them)
Stephanie Miller is a postdoc and systems neuroscientist in the lab of Jorge Palop at Gladstone Institutes, studying the breakdown of brain waves in mouse models for familial and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. After conducting post-baccalaureate research at NASA, they earned a PhD in biophysics at the University of Maryland, College Park while studying cortical synchrony and neuronal avalanches at the National Institutes of Health. Miller has worked to support the LGBTQ+ community since 2005 with a focus on transgender advocacy. They have also spoken on the topic of scientific mentorship and advocated for scientific funding on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.