Megan Murphy

Growing up in St. Petersburg, Russia, Elizaveta Levina excelled in math and pursued it in college, though without a clear career plan. It wasn’t until she was assigned to teach an introductory statistics course during her master’s studies that she realized her passion for applying mathematical thinking to real-world problems.

Ruixiao Lu was born and raised in China, where her early fascination with numbers and data led her to a career focused on personalized health care. With nearly 20 years of experience, she has contributed to genomics, diagnostics, and clinical trials, aiming to improve patient outcomes.

Katherine L. Monti’s life has been shaped by variability and a love for mathematics. Born in Chicago and raised in multiple locations, Monti developed an early interest in math.

Nalini Ravishanker grew up in Chennai, India, in a huge extended family that nurtured her love for mathematics. Inspired by talks by leading statisticians at the University of Madras, she decided to pursue a PhD in statistics.

Alexandra Schmidt was born in Nova Friburgo, Brazil. Her interest in computers started at age 13, when she taught herself programming in Basic.

Sonia Thomas’s journey into biostatistics began at the University of North Carolina, where a flier in a math class piqued her interest.

Mei-Cheng Wang’s journey began in Taiwan, where she earned her bachelor’s in mathematics from National Tsing Hua University. In 1981, she moved to the University of California at Berkeley to pursue a PhD in statistics.

Marie Diener-West pursued biology and mathematics at Loyola University of Chicago. It wasn’t until her senior year that a physical chemistry professor suggested graduate school—a simple comment that changed her life.