Christine Nattrass Named APS Woman Physicist of the Month for May 2012
May 1, 2012
Christine Nattrass
UT's Christine Nattrass has been named the American Physical Society's Woman Physicist of the month for May 2012. The program, launched this year, highlights exceptional women physicists, particularly those who have positively impacted the lives and careers of others.
Nattrass joined the physics department as a postdoctoral research associate in 2009 and will become an assistant professor on August 1 of this year. Her research is in heavy ion physics, where scientists collide large nuclei at high energies to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang and, in the process, learn more about nuclear matter. She is part of two collaborations on opposite sides of the Atlantic: the PHENIX group at Brookhaven National Laboratory and ALICE at CERN in Geneva. Alongside her demanding research schedule is a strong commitment to outreach, particularly geared toward women. She has been involved in a conference series for undergraduate women since her graduate school days at Yale, and this January she was chair of the organizing committee for the Southeastern Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (SCUWP), held at UT. She has been involved with several outreach efforts—from elementary schools to the university level—to encourage young women to pursue careers in science and engineering.
Nattrass earned a bachelor's degree in physics, biochemistry, and physical science at Colorado State University in 2003. She finished a Ph.D. in physics at Yale University in 2009. She is the author of more than 75 refereed papers and has given several talks and posters on her work. More information about her research and outreach is available on the APS Woman Physicist of the Month Web site at: http://www.aps.org/programs/women/scholarships/womanmonth/2012.cfm.