Our Presenters This Year

"I am senior instructor at Western Governors University, an online university that centers around training science teachers. I am the instructor for over 20 different science courses ranging from introductory science courses to advanced chemistry courses. I received my bachelor’s degree from Monmouth University in chemistry, then I went to Rutgers University for my PhD and then I did a post-doctoral position at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. My grad school research looked at designing metal catalysts for different chemical reactions and then in my post-doc position, I looked at recycling rare earth metals, the elements on the bottom of the periodic table, from computers and electric cars. In grad school and during my post-doctoral work, I spent a lot of time in the laboratory doing research and using lots of cool chemistry equipment. Now, I get to share my experiences and mentor new science teachers who will work across the country in classrooms. Every day I get to teach different science topics, talk about fun lab activities to demonstrate and help teachers plan the lessons that they will use to inspire students to become future scientists."

"I am responsible for oversight of a robust education program for New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium located on Sandy Hook. Education programs offered include outdoor experiential learning in environmental science and STEM such as field trips, scout programs and summer camp. We also have in-school programs and offer college classes from our location. We have recently developed an apprenticeship program to introduce high school students to aquaculture as an emerging food source and career opportunity. Aside from curriculum development and program implementation, I secure and manage grant-funded programs and build community relations and interactions with stakeholders. I hold a BS in Biology and MS in Wildlife Biology, as well as graduate credits in education."

"I am an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University. I lead a research group in photonic materials - the study of how light interacts with materials - for applications in display, lighting, laser and solar cell devices. I also teach courses in Advanced Optical Materials and Inorganic Chemistry, and serve as the Graduate Program Director for the Materials Science and Engineering department."

"I work as a research specialist in a microbiology lab at Princeton University. We study a type of cell to cell communication in bacteria called quorum sensing. My job is two-fold. Half of my time is spent doing independent research, trying to understand new facets of the quorum sensing field. The other half of my job involves lab management to support the research of the students and postdoctoral fellows who also work in the lab."

"I am a Quality Assurance Director at a major pharmaceutical company. My team provides oversight for Global Customer Complaints for Janssen Pharmaceutical for non combination products (including the J&J Covid Vaccine). I have a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from Monmouth University and a graduate of MAST."

"I work in the field of telecommunications, specifically on the high-speed, long-haul fiber-optic systems that enable the internet, the “cloud”, and landline and cellular phone calls. I work to improve the transmission of the voice and data traffic, which is encoded as bits on light signals and sent over 100’s and 1000’s of kilometers of optical fiber. In college I majored in electrical engineering, and then I went on to graduate school and earned my Masters and PhD, also in “double E”. After finishing my education, for 15 years I did research on optical transmission and conducted experiments in collaboration with colleagues at Lucent Technologies/Bell Labs and AT&T. I enjoyed writing papers for journals and presenting my results at conferences. Then I moved to a development role at AT&T, working as a system engineer and currently as Director of the Optical Platforms Development group. My group works on the design and deployment of the newest optical systems for AT&T’s network. The best parts of my job are having independence and some flexibility with my schedule (important for a working mom), working with smart people (many of whom are from different states and countries), and learning something new every day!"

"Ms. Steponanko is a Project Engineer with significant experience in the design of traffic signals, signing, pavement markings, and roadway and pedestrian lighting in accordance with NJDOT, DelDOT, and numerous New Jersey County design standards and procedures. She has also conducted Highway Safety Manual (HSM) analyses, including benefit/cost ratios. . She also works with stakeholders and participates in Public Involvement Centers (PIC) to address their concerns. Ms. Steponanko also has experience in advancing projects from Concept Development through Construction. In addition to engineering, she is also a Project Manager responsible for the scope, schedule, budget, and submission of high quality study reports / project deliverables."

"For over 19 years, I have worked with Fortune-500 companies (AT&T ,IBM) as well as start-ups (IPSoft, Datanomers) in diverse roles such as Technology Architect, Technical team lead and Senior Software Engineer. I have worked in architecting technology products as well as managed product launches from concept to customer implementation. I have built end to end software solutions that use ML, AI and network automation technologies. I have 4 approved patents from USPTO that solve unique problems in integrating network data with graph databases."

"Hands on Platform Engineering and an IT Leader with experience in Enterprise Application Infrastructure, Cloud Platforms, DevOps and Agile Management. Extensive experience in all phases of the software development life-cycle System Study, Analysis, Design, Programming, Testing, Implementation and Maintenance. As an Engineering Leader, delivered engineering roadmaps end to end lifecycle, designed, and built customer centric products that are resilient, secure, and reusable. Solutioned and migrated monolithic architected services built on IBM MQ and Integration Bus platform to event driven microservices architecture which were build leveraging confluent Kafka and cloud platform like AWS SQS and S3 for data storage. This enabled highly available and reliable data distribution with increased agility of SDLC, improved scalability, failure and resource isolation and cost-and-time effective architecture. Built Container and messaging platforms, patch updates, engineering builds leveraging DevOps automation tools like Puppet, Ansible playbooks and integrated to CI/CD pipelines through Jenkins and Git Repos. Enhanced operational intelligence through self-healing Ansible playbooks and shell scripts. Leveraged collected data for SRE and helped maintain stable environments."

"I work for a pharmacy benefits manager called IngenioRx. My company is responsible for processing your prescription claims. My role is to develop clinical programs for our members around many different drugs and disease states. Sometimes these programs provide education to the patients and other times to the physicians. My goal is to help my patients stay as healthy as possible."

"As a Senior Project Engineer at Earle Asphalt, I focus on managing heavy highway construction projects. I have a degree in Civil Engineering and am working on a Masters in Engineering Management. Day to day I review construction project drawings and create plans and schedules for our crews on how to complete the work. Additionally, I communicate our progress to the owners, coordinate subcontractors, and bid new work."

"I am a Research Engineer in the Coastal Engineering Research Group at Stevens Institute of Technology. We receive research money from various groups and agencies to study and advise on shoreline stabilization projects happening predominantly throughout New Jersey. What that means: Our beaches, coastlines and marshes are eroding. All of these areas protect people and infrastructure and provide for recreation, tourism and other commercial dollars in our state and are, therefore, incredibly valuable. We (our group which includes professors, engineers, scientists and students of all levels from undergraduate through PhD) study them and try to figure out how they can be done better. We do a lot of field research - collecting data on waves and water level and mapping beaches (for this I fly a drone and ride a jetski!) and shorelines to see how they are changing and try to figure out why. We also work on engineering solutions to help them stay where they are or, in some cases, even help them build out or keep up with sea level rise. I also do work through New Jersey Sea Grant as their Coastal Resilience Specialist and try to help coastal communities figure out how they can become more resilient to rising seas and more frequent and/or intense storms."

"I design, run, and analyze clinical trials for new drugs."

"The ReconX Club is one of the largest clubs at HTHS! As researchers, we actively participate in a variety of activities, from regional, state, and international science fairs to research showcases. As leaders of the Research Club, Jue, Katherine, and Yuvna organize many fun and educational events, from invited speaker events to field trips to fundraisers. They each have completed independent research projects related to their fields of interest: physics, environmentalism, and women's health, respectively. As a female-led club, we would love to have more female-identifying students be more interested in research and join our cause!"