Bárbara Cruvinel Santiago

I'm an astrophysicist pursuing a physics Ph.D. at Columbia University sponsored by my own NASA fellowship and working on astronomical instrumentation projects. I hold a B.S. in Physics from Yale University as well as an M.A. and an M.Phil. in Physics from Columbia University, have worked at the Nobel-prize-winning LIGO lab at MIT, and am now scheduled to defend my Ph.D. thesis around May 2023. My work right now is tri-fold:

1. My physics research focuses on developing astronomical instruments for ground-based and balloon-borne telescopes, from their electronics to new materials for their detectors, and using them to observe galaxies that are tens of thousands of light-years away from the Milky Way. The work in our lab is both NASA and NSF-funded. We look into the gas in between galaxy disks and dark matter around galaxies to get clues about where we can find most of the ordinary matter in our universe and even how dark matter works.

2. I am currently one of the four inaugural fellows of the Next-Generation Fellowship of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction, an initiative of the American Physical Society to train early-career physicists to advocate against the use of deadly nuclear weapons that our fellow physicists once built. As such, I’m working on a project targeting Brazilian nuclear history and why Brazil should ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition on Nuclear Weapons immediately.

3. I have dedicated most of my career to supporting women and minorities in STEM ever since I experienced harassment in the field myself, especially since I was the only latina in my Ph.D. program of 100+ students for a few years. I have led diversity initiatives through several organizations, including Yale Women in Physics, Columbia Spectra, the Yale Physics Climate and Diversity Committee, the Columbia Physics Graduate Council, the Yale STARS Program, SU(5) and more.

Originally from Brazil, I represented my home country twice at the International Young Physicists' Tournament, where I got a bronze medal at the age of 17 before coming to college in the US on a full-ride need-based scholarship. My media coverage has been extensive on TV, websites, magazines and newspapers in Brazil, where I was once considered one of the 8 young Brazilian female scientists to look out for. You can find all my coverage in the media at https://barbaracrusan.github.i....

Sub-specialties:
Science and technology -- as seen in my bio, I currently am working on my Ph.D. thesis on astronomical instrumentation and new materials for telescope spectrographs, but I have also worked in the LIGO lab at MIT in their quantum optics experiments to improve astronomical detectors on the year they won the Nobel prize for detecting gravitational waves for the first time, spent a summer at CERN (the lab with the particle accelerator that discovered the Higgs boson) doing particle physics research, and developed my senior thesis at Yale on instruments for atomic, molecular and optical physics experiments. I also hold two physics master's degrees from Columbia.

Women in STEM and women's issues -- I spend most of my career in physics advocating for women and minority students in science. I was the president of Yale Women in Physics and helped host the American Physical Society Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics in 2015. I wrote a report on how to support low-income students in physics as a representative in the Yale Physics Climate and Diversity Committee. As the Columbia Physics Graduate Committee President, I successfully advocated for the abolishment of a decades-old qualifying exam in the Columbia Physics Department after writing a data-based report showing how it disadvantaged women. I served as the graduate advisor of Columbia Spectra, an undergrad organization to support women and minorities in physics. I co-founded SU5, a mentoring program to support first-year grad students in the physical sciences so they can thrive regardless of their race and gender. I was a hired peer mentor of the Yale Dean's Office STARS Program assigned to multiple first-year undergrads who were in gender and racial minorities.

Activism and advocacy -- I have worked extensively in advocating for 1. women and minorities in STEM, 2. changing immigration policies to encourage foreign scientists like myself to stay in the US and develop science here, and 3. legislation and executive action to prevent the use of nuclear weapons.

Nuclear -- even though my expertise in physics is in astronomical instrumentation, I have a fellowship under which I work on a project related to Brazilian nuclear history and why Brazil should ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons immediately. Through this fellowship I have also received extensive training on how to advocate for nuclear threat reduction and have interacted with congressional staff to do so. I currently work in the building where the Manhattan Project started, so I feel personally responsible for advocating against the use of such deadly weapons.

Immigration -- I have led groups to meet with congressional staff and House Representatives from multiple states and advocate for change in US immigration policies, specially those pertaining to international students, scholars and scientists.