MIT Adds Six Women Scholars to School of Engineering Faculty

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has recently announced 15 new faculty members who have joined the School of Engineering. Six of these 15 scholars are women.

Abigail Bodner has been named an assistant professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science; the department of earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences; and the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. She previously served as a Simons Junior Fellow at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.

Dr. Bodner received her bachelor’s degree in geophysics and mathematics and her master’s degree in geophysics from Tel Aviv University. She holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics and Ph.D. in earth, environmental, and planetary sciences from Brown University.

Andreea Bobu has been appointed as an assistant professor in the department of aeronautics and astronautics. She most recently served as a research scientist at the Boston Dynamics AI Institute, where she studied how robots and humans can efficiently interact and come to shared conclusions.

Dr. Bobu is an alumna of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she received her bachelor’s degree in computer science. She holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Samantha Coday has been named assistant professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science. She will also serve as a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory of Electronics.

Dr. Coday is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas where she double-majored in electrical engineering and mathematics. She holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley

Anna Huang has been named assistant professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science, as well as the department of music and theater arts. She studies programming music technology, and previously conducted research with Magenta at Google Brain and DeepMind for eight years.

Dr. Huang earned dual bachelor’s degrees in music composition and computer science from the University of Southern California. She holds a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Yael Kalai has been named professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science. She will also serve as a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Her current research centers around theoretical and real-world applications of cryptography.

Dr. Kalai holds a bachelor’s degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a master’s degree from the Weizmann Institute of Science, and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jessica Stark has joined the department of biological engineering as an assistant professor. She most recently served as an American Cancer Society postdoc at Stanford University. Her research centers around developing technologies to study cell-surface sugars for immunological discovery and immunotherapy.

Dr. Stark is a graduate of Cornell University where she majored in chemical and biomolecular engineering. She holds a Ph.D. in chemical and biological engineering from Northwestern University.