Moderators

Michelle Chung
Communications Specialist, Wisconsin Energy Institute; Podcast host, Propelling Women in Power

Former biology undergraduate and now communications specialist at WEI, Michelle is passionate about amplifying the experiences of fellow women in STEM and finding creative ways to tell the stories behind the research and people of WEI and GLBRC. 

Mary (Meg) Riker
UW–Madison undergraduate student and Wisconsin Energy Institute Communications intern; Podcast host, Propelling Women in Power  

A civil engineering major, Meg is the Wisconsin Energy Institute's go-to science writer for graduate, undergraduate, and postdoctoral researcher profiles. She's also covered everything from energy events on campus to complex scientific research. Riker is passionate about discovering how women in energy science value their careers, professional goals, and work/life balance.

Panelists

Anne-Sophie Bohrer
Training Coordinator, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

Anne-Sophie Bohrer joined GLBRC as Training Coordinator in 2022. In this role, she is responsible for developing and implementing a sustainable and diverse recruitment pipeline for postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, establishing effective training programs to support our trainees’ professional growth, and supporting outreach programs that promote GLBRC’s diversity goals.

Prior, Anne-Sophie received her Ph.D. in Plant Biochemistry from the Paris-Sud University (France) and continued her training at Michigan State University as a postdoctoral researcher for 9 years, including 4 years working for GLBRC in the Switchgrass Productivity team.

Aurora Munguía-López
Postdoctoral Researcher in the Scalable Systems Lab, UW–Madison

Aurora Munguía-López is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Technical Institute of Celaya and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michoacan in Mexico. Her research interests include mathematical optimization, sustainability, social justice, and process modeling. Aurora currently participates in the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics (CUWP) center, which is a multi-disciplinary center funded by the Department of Energy that aims to develop scalable technologies and solutions to mitigate plastic waste. Aurora is also passionate about fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM.

Whitney Loo
Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Whitney Loo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Whitney obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley in 2020 where she worked with Nitash Balsara studying the molecular level physics of block copolymer electrolytes for Lithium metal batteries. Most recently, she was a Postdoctoral Scholar working jointly at the University of Chicago with Paul Nealey and the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab with Ricardo Ruiz. Her postdoctoral research involves the design of novel polymers and nanofabrication techniques for block copolymer nanolithography. 

Her research group at UW-Madison designs polymers for a more sustainable future. Projects include the synthesis and characterization of sustainable polymers as well as the development of sustainable polymer-based devices such as battery electrolytes and fuel cell membranes. 

Rebecca Larson
Professor of Environmental Studies

Rebecca Larson is a professor in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Her research and extension program include all areas of biological waste including manure management, handling and treatment of agricultural waste, diffuse source pollution, agricultural sustainability, collection and processing of municipal organic waste, and waste-to-energy technologies including biogas production from anaerobic digestion. Larson earned her BS, MS, and PhD in biosystems and agricultural engineering from Michigan State University.