Grace Hopper Lecture Series

In support of its educational mission of promoting the role of all engineers in society, the School of Engineering and Applied Science presents the Grace Hopper Lecture Series. This series is intended to serve the dual purpose of recognizing successful women in engineering and of inspiring students to achieve at the highest level. Grace Hopper is a wonderful example of a visionary in her field who exhibited the type of pioneering spirit that is an inspiration to all of us.

In support of the accomplishments of women in engineering, departments within the School invite a prominent speaker to campus for a two-day visit that incorporates a public lecture, various mini-talks and opportunities to interact with undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. This series provides another avenue for recognition of distinguished leaders in engineering and presents role models that help remind all of us why we chose this profession.

Past Speakers in the Series

January 25, 2024: Andrea Goldsmith, Dean of Engineering and Applied Science and the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Princeton University, – “Disrupting NextG”

December 8, 2022: Daphna Shohamy, Kavli Professor of Brain Science, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, – “How Memory Guides Value-Based Decisions”

November 29, 2022: Katrina Ligett, Microsoft Visiting Professor, Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) and Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Hebrew University, – “Data Privacy is Important, But It’s Not Enough”

November 2, 2021: Elza Erkip, Institute Professor in Electrical Engineering, New York University, – “A Communications Perspective on Digital Privacy”

October 28, 2021: Natalia Litchinitser, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics, Duke University, – “Optics on the Nanoscale: Conquering Absorption with Nonlinear Optics”

March 25, 2021: Jennifer A. Lewis, Wyss Professor for Biologically Inspired Engineering, The Wyss Institute, Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, – “Biomanufacturing Vascularized Organoids and Functional Human Tissues”

November 12, 2020: Magdalena Balazinska, Professor and Director of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, – “Video Data Management: From Data Models to Data Storage and Benchmarking”

November 10, 2020: Jelena Vuckovic, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, – “Scalable Photonics: An Optimized Approach”

October 6, 2020: Santosh Kurinec, Professor of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, RIT, – “Emerging Non-Volatile Ferroelectric Memory”

January 16, 2020: Elizabeth Holm, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Melon University, – “Artificial Intelligence for Generating Materials Science Knowledge”

November 14, 2019: Rebecca Mercuri, Founder of Notable Software, Inc, – “A 2020 Vision of U.S. Election Security”

April 4, 2019: Cynthia Reinhart-King, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering, Vanderbilt University, – “Powering tumor cell migration through heterogeneous microenvironments”

December 5, 2018: Cynthia Friend, Professor of Chemistry, Harvard University, – “Understanding Dilute Alloy Catalysts to Improve Electivity: From Surface Chemistry to Catalytic Function”

November 8, 2018: Jie Shan, Professor of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, – “Electrical Control of Magnetism in 2D”

November 16, 2017: Claudia Fischbach, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, – “Engineering Approaches to Study Emerging Roles of ECM Dynamics in Cancer”

October 18, 2017: Susannah Scott, Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, – “Designing Catalysts: A very old idea finally starts to blossom”

October 12, 2017: Amalie L. Frischknecht, Principal Member of Technical Staff, Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies Sandia National Laboratories, – “Pattern Formation and Particle Assembly with Mixed Polymer Brushes”

October 25, 2016: Murial Medard, Cecil H. Green Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT, – “Network Coding – A Personal Account of Combining Theory and Practice”

April 29, 2015: Maria Santore, Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, – “Quantitatively Translating Interfacial Biological Mechanisms to Responsive Polymer Surfaces”

January 29, 2015: Jennifer Elisseeff, Jules Stein Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

November 6, 2013: Xu Han, Assisstant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, – “Optogenetics and Neural Circuit Mapping”

March 28, 2013: Tresa Pollock, Professor, University of California at Santa Barbara, – “A New Tri-Beam Tomography System: How Much Information is Enough?”

February 9, 2012: Rebecca M. Bergman, Vice Presiden, New Therapies & Diagonostics Medtronic, Inc, – “Medical Technology: Opportunities and Challenges for the Next Decade”

January 20, 2011: Christine Ortiz, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Dean for Graduate Education, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, – “Natural Armor: An Encyclopedia of Protective Engineering Designs”

November 23, 2010: Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science, Engineering and Applied Sciences,  Harvard University, – “Provenance Everywhere”

November 17, 2009: Elaine J.Weyuker, AT&T Labs–Research, Shannon Laboratory, – “Bugs – Find Them Before They Find You”

April 2, 2009: Linda Schadler, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – “Towards Design of Polymer Nanocomposites: Using the Interface to Control Polymer Nanocomposite Properties”

March 18, 2009: Sossina M. Haile, Professor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology – “Is There a Role for Nano-Materials in Fuel Cells?”

December 2, 2008: Anna R. Karlin, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington – “A Survey of Some Recent Research at the Border of Game Theory, Algorithms and Economics”

April 24, 2008: Frances M. Ross, Manager, Nanoscale Materials Analysis Department, IBM TJ Watson Research Center – “Dynamic Electron Microscopy of the Nucleation and Growth of Self-Assembled Nanostructures”

November 8, 2007: Lori Setton, Mary Milius Yoh and Harold L. Yoh Jr. Bass Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University – “Design of Environmentally Responsive Polymers To Form Locally-Delivered Drug Depots For Musculoskeletal Disease”

October 30, 2007: Martha E. Pollack, Dean and Professor, School of Information; Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan – “Intelligent Assistive Technology:  The Present and the Future”

December 4, 2006: Nadine Aubry, Professor and Department Head, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University –  “Some Challenges of Micro-Fluid Mechanics”

October 26, 2006: Jessica Hodgins, Professor, Computer Science and Robotics, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University – “Interfaces for Controlling Human Characters”

January 18, 2006: Molly S. Shoichet, Canada Research Chair in Tissue Engineering, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, Chemistry and Biomaterials, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto – “Tissue Engineering and Drug Delivery Strategies for Spinal Cord Injury Repair”

December 6, 2005: Sangetta N. Bhatia, MD, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – “Application of Micro- and Nanotechnology Tools to Tissue Dysfunction”

September 14, 2005: Daphne Koller, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University – “Probabilistic Models for Complex Domains: Cells, Bodies, and Webpages”

April 2, 2004: Jennifer Widom, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Stanford University – “Old Systems for New Data: Querying XML and Data Streams”

January 27, 2004: Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Janice and Julian Bers Professor of the History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania – “Breaking the Mold: American Women Engineers”

September 18, 2003: Rebecca R. Richards-Kortum, Robert M. and Prudie Leibrock Professor in Engineering, University of Texas, Austin – “Optical Spectroscopy and Imaging for the Early Detection of Cancer”

February 28, 2003: Nancy A. Lynch, Professor of Electrical and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – “RAMBO: A Reconfigurable Atomic Memory Service for Dynamic Networks”

October 28, 2002: T. Kyle Vanderlick, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Princeton University – “Driving Biological Membranes to the Breaking Point: Fundamental Studies using Lipid Vesicles”

April 23, 2002: Karen Sparck Jones, Professor of Computers and Information, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge – “Language and Information: Old Ideas, New Achievements”

April 11, 2002: Banu Onaral, H. H. Sun Professor and Director, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems Drexel University – “Complex Biological Systems”

March 20, 2002: Katherine Crothall, President, CEO and Founder, Animas Corporation – “In Search of the Holy Grail: a Continuous and Accurate Blood Glucose Monitor”

April 12, 2001: Kathryn Uhrich, Professor of Chemistry, Rutgers University – “PolyDrugs and Polymeric Micelles for Drug Delivery”

March 26, 2001: Carol K. Hall, Alcoa Professor of Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University – “Computer Simulation of the Competition between Protein Folding and Aggregation”

March 6, 2001: Barbara J. Grosz, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science, Harvard University – “Getting Computer Systems to Function as Team Players”

About Grace Hopper

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was a mathematician, computer scientist, systems designer and the inventor of the compiler. Her outstanding contributions to computer science benefited academia, industry and the military. In 1928 she graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in mathematics and physics and joined the Vassar faculty. While an instructor, she continued her studies in mathematics at Yale University where she earned an MA in 1930 and a Ph.D. in 1934.

Grace Hopper is known worldwide for her work with the first large-scale digital computer, the Navy’s Mark I. In 1949 she joined Philadelphia’s Eckert-Mauchly, founded by the builders of ENIAC, which was building UNIVAC I. Her work on compilers and on making machines understand ordinary language instructions lead ultimately to the development of the business language, COBOL. Grace Hopper served on the faculty of the Moore School for 15 years, and in 1974 received an honorary degree from the University.