Nusnin Akter: A Role Model for Young Women and Underrepresented Minority Engineers

When it comes to catalysis, Nusnin Akter is not only developing chemicals to speed up the reduction of nitric oxide emissions from diesel engines; she is also teaching and volunteering within her community in hopes of catalyzing change within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) diversity.

“I want other women and underrepresented minorities to get involved in research and for them to realize that they are not alone and can succeed in STEM fields,” said Akter, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in materials science and engineering at Stony Brook University and performing research at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility located at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory.

“I want other women and underrepresented minorities to get involved in research and for them to realize that they are not alone and can succeed in STEM fields.”

As an immigrant and the first in her family to attend graduate school, Akter knows all too well that the path to success is not easy. After finishing high school in her native Bangladesh, she arrived in the United States, with a new language, culture, and educational system all before her. She enrolled at Hunter College in New York, where she completed a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.

Click here for the full story.