Faces of HPC: Amy Prager
Prof. Amy Beth Prager is an applied mathematician whose research focuses on improving gender (and other forms of) diversity within STEM. She is ABD from Teachers College, Columbia University where she studied university based intervention programs designed to increase female participation in STEM. While at Columbia University she was an Exchange Scholar in mathematics at Princeton University.
Introduction
Amy Prager studied graduate level applied mathematics at MIT, and during her student tenure at MIT, researched the statistical preferences of mercury with respect to varied biologically important ligands at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her current research proposals, seek to replicate the widespread network of female STEM outreach programs of the Global North in the Global South, where such programs are currently virtually nonexistent.
Biography
In my computational and mathematical chemistry research, I use HPC algorithms, paradigms, and techniques constantly, by the very nature of the work. A prime example of the usefulness of HPC in my work is my MIT thesis research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. https://www.dropbox.com/s/9l59i7jb31qs0x6/PDBNOM_poster_RAMS.ppt?dl=0
My primary interest in the 21st century is in CS/STEM outreach to young women and girls, which is derived from my rare perspective on these matters. I am a postoperative transgendered woman, who has been both a male in the technology industry and a female in the technology industry, and I see the vast differences in perception and treatment that I feel no cisgendered person could ever realize. I am extremely passionate about these issues and would welcome the opportunity to be an integral part of any diversity awareness program in the US (my native counry), the UK, or anywhere in the world! Thank you so much for your consideration.