About Us

2024 YPPDO Coordinator

Fernando Antonio Flor, fernando.flor@yale.edu

Yale Physics Department YPPDO Contacts

Karsten Heeger Faculty Advisor karsten.heeger@yale.edu
Reina Maruyama Faculty Advisor reina.maruyama@yale.edu
Victoria Misenti Program Manager victoria.misenti@yale.edu

Past Coordinators

Mary Lou Bailey

Mary Lou Bailey is an Applied Physics Ph.D, candidate working in biological physics with Simon Mochrie. Specifically, she studies chromatin dynamics in single cells, in collaboration with the King lab in Cell Biology. She is also part of Yale’s Integrated Graduate Program in Physics, Engineering, and Biology (PEB). Mary Lou graduated with a BS in physics and biology from UC Santa Barbara.

Emma Castiglia (GRD ‘22)

Emma Castiglia is a Ph.D. candidate studying high energy particle physics at the ATLAS Experiment, where she looks at Higgs boson decays to two tau leptons.  She graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Physics and Math.  Emma is also the chair of the Graduate Women in Physics+ group and one of the co-chairs for the Equity in the Job Search Symposium.

  • Wen Xiong 
  • Paul Fanto 
  • Kelly Backes 

Past YPPDO Coordinators who are now alumni

Estella Barbosa de Souza (Ph.D ‘20), Founding Member

Estella obtained her Ph.D.  in physics at Yale, focusing on dark matter direct detection with the COSINE-100 experiment. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a B.A. in Physics and Astronomy. At Yale, Estella also worked with other organizations on campus to improve academic and professional development resources, such as the Office of Career Strategy and the Graduate Student Assembly.

Danielle Norcini (Ph.D. ‘19), Founding Member

Danielle obtained her Ph.D. in particle and nuclear physics at Yale. Her research involved detecting tiny particles called neutrinos from nuclear reactors and understanding their properties. She graduated from Penn State Univeristy with a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in philosophy. At Yale, Danielle was a collaborator on the PROSPECT experiment, a McDougal Teaching Fellow, and organizer of the Women in Physics group.