2014 AWIS Chicago Awards Dinner Featured Awardees:

Innovator Award – Dr. Tanya Berger-Wolf, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she heads the Computational Population Biology Lab.

It’s our great pleasure to honor Dr. Tanya Berger-Wolf, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she heads the Computational Population Biology Lab. Her research interests are in applications of computational techniques to problems in ecology, from genetics to social interactions. Dr. Berger-Wolf received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002. After spending some time as a postdoctoral fellow working in computational phylogenetics and doing research in computational epidemiology, she returned to Illinois. She has received numerous awards for her research and mentoring, including the US National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2008 and the UIC Mentor of the Year (2009) and Graduate Mentor (2012) awards.

Motivator Award – Dr. Erin L. Thomas, Gender Diversity Specialist at Argonne National Laboratory.

In addition, we will be honoring Dr. Erin L. Thomas, Gender Diversity Specialist, at Argonne National Laboratory. In her role,she develops institutional approaches for enhancing gender diversity, inclusion, and equity in STEM careers. Before her time at Argonne, Dr. Thomas consulted for Catalyst, Inc., a leading non-­‐profit organization dedicated to advancing womenat work, while conducting her doctoral research. Dr. Thomas‘ research program informs her current role, as its overarchingobjectives are to: 1) ensure that the unique experiences of minority women do not go overlooked in diversity & inclusioninitiatives and 2) develop interventions that disrupt gender-­‐based assumptions and expectations. Her primary line ofresearch examines the intersections of gender and race and the implications of multiple minority statuses in workplace, economic, and social policy contexts. Dr. Thomas‘ research has received recognition and funding from numerousorganizations like the National Science Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American PsychologicalAssociation, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. She received BAs in Psychology and InternationalStudies and an MS, MPhil, and PhD in Social Psychology all from Yale University.