This week on Episode 26 of STEAM Powered, we speak with Dr Shelly Lesher, Nuclear Physicist.

Dr Shelly Lesher is a Professor and Chair of Physics at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse (UWL) and a Guest Professor at the University of Notre Dame with an active research program in experimental low-energy nuclear physics and developing the next generation of scientists.

Dr Lesher has authored of over 55 scientific publications which focus on understanding the structure of nuclei in journals such as Physical Review C, Physical Review Letters, and Nuclear Physics A. She is also interested in the intersection of physics and human rights and has served as the chair of the American Physical Society’s Committee on International Freedom of Scientists.

At an undergraduate institution, she works on developing the next generation of scientists and educating non-science majors in nuclear issues which includes developing and hosting a podcast on the intersection of nuclear science and society called My Nuclear Life available to the general public. Serving as the Director of the Division of Nuclear Physics Conference Experience for Undergraduate (CEU) program she arranges for undergraduate students to attend a national nuclear physics conference to present their research.

She has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Katholiek Universiteit Leuven in Belgium and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her scientific research is funded by the National Science Foundation. Some recent honors include Fellowship at the American Physical Society and the Yale Presidential Visiting Scholar.

In our conversation, we talk about how nuclear sciences impacts our world and Shelly’s love of shoes.

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