Daniela Ushizima, Ph.D.

Dani has conducted research on computer vision and pattern recognition applied to scientific images for 11 years at Berkeley Lab, including samples from investigations in geology, materials sciences, biology, and medicine. In 2015 she was awarded a U.S. Department of Energy Early Career Award to focus on scaling analytics to image-centric experimental data. Her research includes computational methods to investigate images from a variety of scientific domains using experiments, algorithms, and machine learning. This research includes image analysis of new compounds; pattern detection, such as repeating cellular structures; and machine learning, such as X-ray diffraction classification.

What inspires you to work in STEM or operations?

Work in STEM is a critical part of providing information that allows people, organizations, and governments to make better decisions, particularly those that can affect energy development, its use, and the environment.

What excites you about your work at Berkeley Lab?

Berkeley Lab has a wealth of unique information sources coming from first-class scientists and state-of-the-art instruments across imaging facilities, which allows measuring physical phenomena ranging from nanometer to light-years.

How can our country engage more women, girls, and members of other underrepresented groups in STEM or operations?

Our country needs to ensure that children, from infancy on, receive the message that women, girls, and other underrepresented groups can be successful in STEM fields, and that we give these groups the support they need for success.

Do you have tips you would recommend for someone looking to enter your field of work?

For those with a scientific background interested in learning more about data science, UC Berkeley’s Institute for Data Science provides opportunities to engage in scientific investigations. The institute also provides free courses to get productive quickly through focused tutorials such as Software Carpentry workshops, which are also hosted here at Berkeley Lab.

When you have free time, what are your hobbies?

I like to volunteer for STEM-centric initiatives such as Black Girls Code, Science Without Borders, Software Carpentry, and TechWomen. Other hobbies are to camp with my family, play the guitar and the harmonica, and skateboard with my daughter.