Dr. Nadya Mason
(Society of Junior Fellows, Harvard University)

How research opportunities shape scientific careers.

Motion seems to be synonymous with Nadya Mason from her early years as a gymnast in Houston studying with Bela Karolyi and being a member of the gymnastics National Team. Her interest in science was kindled by research opportunities in biochemistry at Rice University, geophysics at Exxon, plasma physics at General Atomics, and then in condensed matter through a CRFP fellowship at Bell Laboratories. Nadya completed her undergraduate work in physics at Harvard (1995) and then went to Stanford to work with Aharon Kapitulnik (Ph.D, 2001).

Nadya returned to Harvard as a MRSEC Postdoctoral Fellow in 2001 and was elected to the prestigious Society of Junior Fellows in July 2002; the Society of Fellows has been an incubator for many of the country’s most distinguished scientists. Nadya continues to share her current experimental research on carbon nanotubes and experience with students (the figure shows her speaking with REU and RET participants in the summer of 2002) as well as traveling with MRSEC faculty to recruit undergraduates to our REU program from other institutions.