FEATURED SPEAKERS

DR. KIMBERLY FOSTER
Kimberly Foster (formerly Turner) became the new Dean of the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering on August 1, 2018. Foster grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 1994. She then studied Theoretical & Applied Mechanics at Cornell University, receiving a PhD in 1999.

DR. SHERY WELSH
Dr. Shery Welsh, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is Director, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Arlington, Virginia. In this role, she leads the management of the Department of the Air Force’s global basic research investment. Dr. Welsh brings over 34 years of experience from the DoD as a federal employee for the Department of the Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency.

DR. DONNA STRICKLAND
Donna Strickland is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo and is one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 for developing chirped pulse amplification with Gérard Mourou, her PhD supervisor at the time. They published this Nobel-winning research in 1985 when Strickland was a PhD student at the University of Rochester in New York state. Together they paved the way toward the most intense laser pulses ever created.

LEAH BROUSSARD
Dr. Leah Broussard performs precise measurements of the properties of the neutron at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to better understand the fundamental interactions of nature. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with majors in math and physics from Tulane University, and was introduced to the field of fundamental neutron physics when she participated in a summer undergraduate research program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In her doctoral research at Duke University, she studied the beta decay of both the neutron and the nucleus to better understand the weak interaction, and led an experiment which significantly improved the measured precision of the half-life of 19Ne. She got her postdoctoral training at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Seaborg Fellow, and was later awarded the Science Campaigns Seaborg Fellowship for developing new applications of actinide research using ultracold neutrons. She joined ORNL as a Wigner Fellow where she spearheaded a new program of research to search for exotic properties of the neutron. Today she is developing two next-generation neutron physics experiments at ORNL as part of research funded by a Department of Energy Early Career Award. One will study the beta decay of the neutron with unprecedented precision. The other will perform the world's most ambitious search for the neutron's electric dipole moment, and shed light on the puzzling matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe.
PANELISTS
Jennifer Adelman-McCarthy
Workflow Team Leader, Operation Support Team Leader for CMS, Visiting Scientist Coordinator, Fermilab
University of Minnesota Duluth
Master’s degree, Physics, Math
St. Cloud State University
Bachelor’s Degree, Physics
Azida Walker, PhD
Associate ProfessorÂ
PhD, Physics, Tulane University, New Orleans (2003)Â
Research:Â
Biological Physics; Molecular Biophysics. My recent research in Molecular Biophysics involved the characterization of the biophysical properties of the Store Operated Calcium Channel (SOCE), in the Xenopus Laevis oocyte.