Women's History Month, 2017: Leen Alawieh, CRD

Leen Alawieh earned a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, followed by a one-year postdoc at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She joined the Center for Computational Sciences and Engineering in Berkeley Lab’s Computational Research Division (CRD) in December 2016, where she is a postdoctoral research fellow.

What drew you to working in CRD?
Everyone, from the staff members to division directors in CRD, are friendly, approachable and willing to help. Not to mention, of course, the state-of-the-art research and resources available here. The interdisciplinary nature of the research in CRD with other divisions at the lab was of particular interest to me.

What is your favorite thing about working in CRD or at the lab in general?
The interdisciplinary nature of the research. Researchers across the lab are always discussing their work with each other and are always on the look out to try new potential research collaborations. It is a friendly, well-knit community of researchers.

What lessons have you learned along the way that you would share with other women thinking about working in this field, or in a science/technology/engineering position in general?
Women should always be brave, never be afraid to try out new challenges that take them out of their comfort zones and never be afraid to challenge others regardless of gender. They should approach research from a gender-neutral point of view. They should not let gender biases affect the way they think or determine the type of problems they choose to work on.