Not Just Another Pretty Face

“It was very evident to me that the female students at Caltech were excelling just as well as their male counterparts and were also displaying innate talent and academic brilliance. If anything this gender gap really just spurs me on, I wanna show people that women can ‘do science’ too.” – Moriam Masha

Moriam Masha is one of the coolest people I know. She has shown me that scientists can be women, they can beautiful, and they can be from diverse backgrounds.

I met Moriam while interning in The Stoltz Group at Caltech last summer.  She spent a year with the group immersing herself into research that most people cannot pronounce – let alone understand. Moriam’s project was analyzing the total synthesis of the tetrahydroisoquinoline (an organic compound) alkaloids crispine A, trolline and oleracein E.

Although Moriam is back in England, we have stayed in touch.  She is finishing her final year at University College London (UCL) and considering pursuing a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry.  Whatever – and wherever she chooses to study and work, Moriam will be a huge success!

Original STEM Sister

I have enjoyed all of the professors, students and grad students I’ve worked with at Caltech. However, I “bonded” (nerdy chemistry pun intended) with Moriam.  I love her intelligence, her humor, and her positive outlook.  Moriam would be the perfect sister and interacting with her helped plant the seeds of the STEM Sisterhood concept in my mind. Thus, I was excited when she agreed to be an original “STEM Sister” and help us show the Faces of STEM…Today.

When I founded STEM Sisterhood I wanted to showcase women striving toward or already succeeding in STEM fields. One way we do this is by linking to some great websites and blogs on our STEM Sisterfriends page. A second way is to interview amazing women – starting with our original STEM Sisters. Moriam agreed to be the first, so be sure to check out the whole interview  to learn more about this amazing young woman!