Category: STEM Like Me

Karletta Chief is of the Navajo people, and is a hydrologist who at a young age decided to pursue environmental engineering. After attending Stanford University for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering, Chief later returned to school. She obtained a doctorate from the University of Arizona in hydrology and water resources.…

Walter Lincoln Hawkins was an African-American chemist and engineer who was a pioneer of polymer chemistry. Hawkins graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Rensselar Polytechnic Institute before going on to Howard University for a master’s degree in chemistry. He continued his education at McGill University in Canada where he earned a doctoral…

Mary G. Ross was the first female Native American engineer. She was raised in the Cherokee nation capital, Tahlequah. She obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Northeastern State Teacher’s college there before going to Colorado State Teacher’s college for her master’s degree. When the U.S. joined WWII, she moved to California to work…

Danielle N. Lee is a behavioral biologist at SIUE. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Missouri – St. Louis in 2010 and her research focuses on how ecology and evolutionary components contribute to the behavior of animals. One of Lee’s research projects involves exploring the African giant pouch rat’s behaviors. Through…

Shadia Rifa’i Habbal is a professor of solar physics at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. She was raised in Homs, Syria and earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and math from the University of Damascus. She continued her education and obtained a master’s and a doctorate degree in physics from the University of…