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Virtual Workshop Opportunity on Intentional Gratitude

GWISE is offering virtual sessions to strengthen your gratitude muscles and improve your wellbeing

This April we’re excited to be hosting author and blogger Deborah Hawkins who is leading a virtual two-part workshop on intentional gratitude. The workshop dates are April 14th and April 21st at 8 pm EST and are expected to last an hour each. Fill out this form by April 7 at midnight to RSVP!

What is intentional gratitude and why should you care? Research tells us that having a gratitude practice has many positive effects. It can help you sleep better, bounce back after setbacks and encourage a positive mindset. Intentional gratitude takes these benefits a step further. It is based on several simple concepts.

  • By learning how to bring yourself into a grateful state, you are celebrating your unique character. 
  • Gratitude, at its most powerful, is internally directed (based on how well you know yourself) not as a response to good fortune or luck.  
  • There are things to appreciate all around us. We benefit when we learn how to identify those things.

What will you get out of this workshop? A framework for creating and adapting a gratitude practice – a set of tools – that will support you. The first session on April 14th will cover the concepts of intentional gratitude and guide attendees through developing their own personal gratitude themes.  Between the two sessions, attendees will identify four or five personal themes. In the second session on April 21st, we’ll look at everyday situations and how Your themes might show up in those scenarios. 

Graduate school is a journey full of discoveries – that’s what makes it exciting! But along that journey we experience dark nights of the soul where we question ourselves and what we are doing. Additionally, women in STEM are often a minority in their labs and face unique struggles on top of the pressures of graduate work. That’s why we’re so excited to be hosting this workshop, because we think it can help members of our community get through those challenges.

Last but not least we’d like to make sure everyone knows all our events are open to people of all gender identities. All are welcome!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable and relaxing spring break, and see you at the workshop 🙂

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Gingerbread house party!

Does December make you want to stuff your face full of gingerbread? Do you secretly moonlight as a gingerbread house exterior designer? Or just want to celebrate the end of the semester with a chill group of people?
You’re in luck!! GWiSE is hosting a Gingerbread House-making partay on December 15, 2021 at 5:30 pm, location TBD! To help us get a headcount and buy enough kits, sign up here to RSVP! 

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Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email us at sbu.gwise@gmail.com!

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GWISE interviews LACS Fellowship winner Anna Thonis

Name: Anna Thonis

Education: Double B.S. (2017) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Environmental Science (concentration: Geology) and Sustainability Studies. M.S. (2018) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Biological Sciences. Currently pursuing a PhD in Ecology & Evolution at Stony Brook University.
Research: My research focuses on improving the predictive performance of species distribution models by incorporating hurricane data and field-collected competition data into the models. I am using all ten species of Puerto Rican Anolis lizards as my study system.   
Future goal(s): Following my PhD, I would like to complete a postdoc focusing on tropical lizard conservation. I hope to secure a postdoc that allows me to conduct field work in the Caribbean or in South America (most ideally in Ecuador’s Amazon because there are so many little-studied lizard species there!). My ultimate goal is to secure a professor position. 

Continue reading “GWISE interviews LACS Fellowship winner Anna Thonis”
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Join the 2021-2022 GWISE E-Board!

Join Stony Brook’s #1 group for female-identified grad students in STEM!*

We are holding an info session over zoom on March 9th at 7pm EST.

The GWISE e-board plans events to build community and bring scientists together. We host brownbag lunches, field trips to parks and arboretums, game nights, and an annual research showcase! We also run a vibrant mentoring program and active social media accounts + this website/blog.

Interested in a spot on our e-board? Fill out this form!

*Seriously, we’ve won awards!

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Top Ten Nerdy Memes for Your Valentine

The average nerd love thinks of love as a chemical reaction but the true intellectual knows nothing says “let’s propagate our gene pool” like a good meme or pun on matters of the heart.

Follow along our top tier list of valentine puns that will knock your partner’s goggles off.

  1. Nary a bond stronger than that of positive data and the PI.



2. A truly toxic relationship. Consider couple’s therapy.


3.Classic molecular bonding pun.



4. For the electrical set.



5. Is love a type 1 or type 2 error?



6. Darwin and I both …

Image result for evolution valentine



7.Can someone explain this one to us?

Image result for nerdy valentine meme



Honorable mention :

Image result for nerdy valentine meme



8. :’)

Image result for biology valentine meme



9. For those in a committed relationship with their calculator.

Image result for engineering valentine



10. Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!

Image result for bill nye valentine meme
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Are you a Stony Brook student? Do you have children?

Join Students with Children for their first meeting!

GWISE member and Genetics PhD Candidate Kelly Hills-Muckey is also the president of a new organization: Students with Children. Join them for their first meeting on Friday, February 12 at 1pm. More information is here.

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STEMinist Gift Guide

By: Caitlyn Cardetti

It’s that time of year where blogs are abuzz with gift guides so I thought I’d give a go at it. Here are my suggestions for some awesome women in STEM gifts to give to not only the women in STEM in your life but those who support them. Or to just buy for yourself.

Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with any of these products and receive no compensation. The gift ideas listed are just suggestions that the author has liked.

Continue reading “STEMinist Gift Guide”
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Meet Amani!

Amani Ebrahim

NAME: Amani Ebrahim
EDUCATION: Chemical and Molecular Engineering, Department of Chemical and Molecular Engineering
RESEARCH INTERESTS: Materials Science, Energy Conversion and Storage, Toxic Chemical Decontamination
CURRENT RESEARCH: I study the processes involved in the filtration and decomposition of chemical warfare agents on uniquely engineered nanoporous materials at the atomistic scale. These new materials could be the state-of-the-art technologies to rid the world from the hazards of chemical warfare agents.
FUTURE GOALS: I have many future goals, but they all encompass my love of science and that fact that I want to enrich students and encourage them to pursue studies in the STEM fields.

Continue reading “Meet Amani!”
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Meet Shreyoshi!

NAME: Shreyoshi Chakraborti
EDUCATION: I have graduated with a Bachelors and Masters in Chemistry and Biochemistry with a minor in Mathematics and Physics from University of Calcutta, India, In 2018. The same year I came to Stony Brook in a PhD program in Biochemistry and Structural Biology. Currently I am a third year PhD student in Prof Nicole S Sampson’s lab in Department of Chemistry.
RESEARCH INTERESTS: Finding out novel drug targets
CURRENT RESEARCH: I am working as a PhD student in Dr. Nicole S Sampson’s lab. My project comprises of the Biochemical aspects of cholesterol catabolism by Tb bacteria and finding out novel targets to inhibit virulence and infection of Mtb.
FUTURE GOALS: I want to be an author and scientist. I want to take up writing as a major part of my career. 

Continue reading “Meet Shreyoshi!”
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Meet Cynthia!

NAME: Cynthia Converso
EDUCATION: I received a B.S. in Biochemistry with a minor in Mathematics from SUNY Geneseo in 2016. I started at Stony Brook as a Masters student in Biochemistry and Cell Biology and promptly switched to the Molecular and Cellular Biology PhD program in 2018. I have since chosen the Biochemistry and Cell Biology track. 
RESEARCH INTERESTS: I am interested in understanding how DNA sequence plays a role in relaying which genes should be actively read or silenced. 
CURRENT RESEARCH: I work with Budding yeast cells in order to decipher the role of DNA sequence in the site-specific deposition of a histone variant, H2A.Z, by the enzyme SWR. This plays an important role in telling the cell when and where to start transcribing genes. Miscommunication in this pathway can lead to multiple disorders, including cancer. 
FUTURE GOALS: I plan to branch out in my research to include new organisms to study. After graduation, I plan to join a Postdoctoral program and eventually, become a professor!

Continue reading “Meet Cynthia!”
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Meet Taylor!

Taylor Medwig-Kinney

NAME: Taylor Medwig-Kinney
EDUCATION: I received my B.S. in Biology (Developmental Genetics) and Health Science (Public Health and Community Health Education) from Stony Brook University in 2016. I am currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Genetics at Stony Brook University as well.
RESEARCH INTERESTS: I am interested in the process of cell differentiation, or as I like to describe it, how cells decide what they are going to be when they “grow up.” I am particularly interested in how regulation of gene expression can give rise to many diverse cell types, despite these cells having identical genetic material.
CURRENT RESEARCH: I study how cells become invasive during development of the nematode C. elegans in the Matus Laboratory. This work can provide insights into how cancer cells metastasize and spread to other parts of the body.
FUTURE GOALS: My ultimate goal is to pursue a career in academia as a professor with my own research group, where I can teach and mentor future generations of scientists.

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Meet Greeshma!

Greeshma Balabhadra

NAME​: Greeshma Balabhadra
EDUCATION​: PhD Second year, Applied Mathematics and Statistics. Bachelors in Technology, Mathematics and Computing, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.
RESEARCH INTERESTS​: Quantitative Finance, Deep learning
CURRENT RESEARCH​: My current work focuses on High frequency Trading data identifying volatility patterns and their predictive performance using deep learning methods. My work also includes exploring different approaches of Information Geometry to learn the geometrical structure of families of probability distributions and its applications in Geometric deep learning.
FUTURE GOALS​: I want to pursue my research interests on Sustainable Finance which focuses on financial services integration and investment in ​environmental, social and governance (ESG) into the business or investment decisions for the lasting benefit of both clients and society at large.

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GWISE interviews NSF GRFP winner Tori Peña

GRFP winner Tori Peña
Photo credit: Miriam Sarwana

NAME: Tori Peña
EDUCATION: I earned a B.S. in Biological Anthropology and Psychology from SUNY Binghamton University in 2018.  Currently, I am a third-year Cognitive Science doctoral student at SUNY Stony Brook University under the advisement of Dr. Suparna Rajaram.
RESEARCH: My primary research interest is social memory, specifically how collaborating with others to remember information shapes memory at the individual and collective level.
FUTURE GOALS:  My ultimate goal is to become a professor at an R1 university so I can mentor undergraduate students and conduct research.  Hopefully I can work for a CUNY or SUNY university so I can mentor undergraduate students from a wide range of backgrounds.

Continue reading “GWISE interviews NSF GRFP winner Tori Peña”
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Become a Mentor!

GWISE in collaboration with WISE is proud to announce the WISE mentorship program for the academic year 2020-21. This program will connect undergraduate women in science and engineering with experienced women mentors in similar areas who can share their unique student perspective. The goal of the program is to help both mentors and mentees with their professional and personal development, and to provide both academic and social support to WISE students.

Continue reading “Become a Mentor!”