Women's History Month | Science Societies
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Women's History Month

Women's History Month Honorees

To celebrate various diversity months, the Societies are honoring several of our recent award winners – looking to the future of our sciences. Here we have collected our Womens History Month honorees, which also ran on our social media accounts.

samiradaroub

Samira Daroub, 2021 SSSA Fellow

Lots of things excite me about my career. Teaching and mentoring students is on top of my list. Having students move on to successful careers gives me enormous satisfaction. Collaboration with other scientists and working on challenging projects is invigorating and exciting. It is exciting for me to be at a research center and work with many growers to finds practical solutions for emerging issues. Working in academia gives me freedom to explore new areas of discovery and interact with scientists from all over the world.   

Jean Steiner, 2021 ASA Distinguished Service Award

I work on a NMSU-led project on sustainable beef systems.  As a science coordinator with this tremendous team, I look for connections across elements of the complex project.  I also write and edit as an adjunct faculty member at Kansas State University.  I am fortunate to have a voice in state  water policy as a member of the Kansas Water Authority . My career was greatly enhanced by mentors,  Dr. Edward T. Kanemasu and Dr. Bobby A. Stewart, who demonstrated strong ethics and the power of their personal networks in fostering productive collaboration to tackle big challenges.

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jennifermacadam

Jennifer MacAdam, 2021 CSSA Fellow

I’m excited about a new Smart Foodscapes grant allowing us to improve beef nutrition while reducing cattle methane emissions. We’ll use islands of legumes and other forbs on grass-dominated rangelands to supplement cattle late in the grazing season, when the quality of grasses has decreased. Legumes and forbs grown in the West have elevated non-fiber carbohydrates, allowing cattle to retain more nitrogen and reducing enteric methane emissions as a function of intake.

Ganga Hettiarachchi, 2021 SSSA Fellow

What excites you most about your career? I think the opportunity to do research, teaching, and graduate student training, especially helping and training young women in science and engineering fields. I left a promising research scientist position, scientific career-wise, at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization one-year after getting it to pursue academia because of that.

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yingxueyu

Yingxue Yu, 2021 Encompass Fellow

My advisor, Dr. Markus Flury, is an amazing mentor. He has helped me tremendously to gather and analyze my data, as well as interpreting the results and communicating these results. I have learned from him that no matter how overwhelming the situation looks like, I will be able to deal with the situation by starting right now and by taking one step a time, even just a baby step.

Courtney Nicole Scott, 2021 Bridge Scholar

I am excited to educate students about the significance of sustainability and research ways that society can improve living conditions for trees and soils within urban environments. I believe that sustainable cities with large, robust trees will enhance the quality of life for all living things and help to mitigate the Earth's climate crisis. 

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janevaanitawilliams

Janeva Anita Williams, 2021 Encompass Fellow

I am currently conducting two scientific research projects I am very excited and proud to be a part of: My first project focuses on nitrous oxide fluxes when adding organic amendments to soils. My second project focuses on the sorption properties of biochar affecting different soil enzyme communities. What excites me the most about these two projects is that they will help create solutions to current issues dealing with soil health and good farming practices.

Yulissa Perez Rojas, 2021 Bridge Scholar

As a scientist, you can dream big and collaborate with others to reach your goals. I enjoy hearing about other people’s research projects and bouncing ideas of each other. This leads me to become more curious and explore different branches of STEM. Most importantly, I’m always excited to introduce undergraduate students to research and share my journey as a student/researcher.

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