We're back from our surprising hiatus with a very exciting round: Firoozeh, Leticia and Skylar. Their Julia journeys crossed in their engagement with the Julia Gender Inclusive and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) initiatives. We briefly talk about their personal stories before delving into the inclusiveness topic. We discuss the impression and perspective of female participants at a so far male-dominated JuliaCon. The ladies share with us all the activities they have been involved in. And we dive into what problem's they perceive and how everybody in the community can help make Julia a more inclusive community.
Firoozeh Dastur is a theoretical mathematician specializing in algebraic and tropical geometry with a strong focus on leveraging computer algebra systems for advanced mathematical research. Her other interests include high-performance computing (HPC) tools, with a particular goal of making distributed computing accessible to all domain scientists. As a passionate educator, Firoozeh is committed to fostering an inclusive learning environment that empowers the next generation of researchers and innovators. In her spare time, she develops Julia libraries that reflect her interests in distributed computing and computer algebra systems.
Leticia Madureira is a PhD candidate in Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research lies in the computational quantum chemistry field, applying electronic structure methods to elucidate interactions in chemical processes, such as polymerization reactions, photodegradation, etc. She currently collaborates with the Julia Lab in developing fast, free, open-source and efficient computer programs for electronic structure calculations, and expanding the scope of current methods available in the programming language. Some of the packages under development are: BasisSets.jl, OohataHuzinaga.jl, under the HartreeFoca GitHub organization. She aims to leverage computational studies to investigate theoretical paradigms in Chemistry by developing quantum chemical DFT-based algorithms capable of accurately computing electron-electron correlation in molecules through stability analysis of SCF, enabling broader exploration of transition-state theory, excited state dynamics, ground state geometry predictions and bond dissociation calculations. One of her main philosophies is to make theory and computation as accessible as possible, and to promote computational thinking in Chemistry through teaching, as she thinks quality education is an empowerment tool to the current and next generations of scientists, and teaching is the most noble academic activity!
Skylar Gering is a PhD student through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Joint Program. Her research is focused on environmental fluid mechanics, specifically the performance and control of floating offshore wind turbines. She previously worked on climate and sea ice modeling, which led her to start using Julia. She is also a contributor to the computational geometry library GeometryOps.jl. Beyond her research, she is passionate about climate change solutions and promoting equality in scientific/software communities.
Julia Gender Inclusive website: https://juliagenderinclusive.github.io/
Leticia's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@leticiamadureira4023
We're still in the process of ironing out our technical gear and setup as you might have noticed. Bear with us. Eventually, we'll have figured it out.
Recorded on: 2025/01/04
Hosts: Chris Rackauckas, Michael Tiemann
Editor: Stazi
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Sep 4 20251 hr and 12 mins