The CMU Alumni Association is committed to highlighting CMU’s exceptional alumnae, faculty, staff and students throughout the year. Each year, Women's History Month provides us with a special opportunity to bring all of our alumni together to recognize, acknowledge and elevate Tartan women and their professional and academic excellence across the various intersections.
Celine Lee (TPR 2013), country manager for Amazon’s Alexa Canada
“I’m extremely proud of the work my team does — from launching new innovative devices to ensuring Alexa’s jokes and cultural references are unique to Canada including which sports teams Alexa’s rooting for!”
Candace Bever (MCS 2004), scientist and manufacturing and logistics manager at InBios
“I develop tools that allow us to ‘see’ — or detect — toxins or viruses that might harm us. By detecting these molecules we can answer questions like, ‘What is making me sick’ and ‘Is there something here that can hurt me?’”
Mina Tocalini (DC 2021), digital production coordinator at Los Angeles Philharmonic
“Every story or concert I engage with through creating content is a chance to connect with the music and people behind it.”
Watch, Listen, Learn
Destenie Nock, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy in the College of Engineering, and her doctoral student Teagen Goforth are working to provide a new framework for energy policymakers as the world looks to transition toward carbon neutrality.
Diving into Conservation
By developing a DNA barcoding method for a small species of invertebrates known as non-biting midges, Mellon College of Science sophomore Sonja Michaluk created a new way for humans to help monitor the health of ecosystems.
“As humans we have a lot of potential to upset our local environment, which often comes back around and can harm our health as well. It's very important to make sure that we keep our ecosystems healthy and have open green spaces for people to access."
High Rewards in Addiction Research
Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences junior Emily Jordan uses computational tools to investigate the reasons why certain people become prone to making addictive decisions.
"Addiction is a prominent health concern. We take on the perspective that addiction plays a role in learning, and we see it as a learning issue. Everyone learns from their successes and failures, their gains and losses. Addiction impairs how an individual learns from these gains and losses, thereby affecting their decision making."
The Genetics of Sleep
Mellon College of Science junior Ruby Redlich researches the evolution of animals’ sleeping patterns and how they relate to genetic markers — causing different behaviors.
"What I find really exciting is that we're able to use computational tools to predict ancestral history. We predict how the current day species may have evolved from their most recent common ancestor, so even though we don't know that, we're able to predict that using these computational tools. Then, we actually factor that information into our analysis."
