Ainissa Ramirez, Ph.D., is an award-winning scientist and science communicator, who is the author of The Alchemy of Us (The MIT Press). A graduate of Brown University, she earned her doctorate in materials science and engineering from Stanford. Dr. Ramirez began her career as a scientist at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ, and was later an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Yale. She has written for Forbes, Time, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and Science and has explained science headlines on CBS, CNN, NPR, and PBS. Dr. Ramirez is dedicated to making science understandable to the general public. She speaks widely to audiences of all ages and is currently writing a series of science children’s books. (www.ainissaramirez.com)