Presenter

Ms. Bernard graduated with bachelor degrees in ballet and physics from Texas Christian University, where she completed undergraduate research in computational neuroscience. After performing as a professional ballet dancer for several years, she began to pursue a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Texas at Austin with a research focus in computational plasma physics. At UT, she has worked with multiple scientists in the Institute for Fusion Studies and the Institute for Computational and Engineering Sciences. In 2017, Ms. Bernard received a fellowship from the US Department of Energy to perform research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Greg Hammett using the advanced computational framework, Gkeyll. This research now constitutes the main body of her thesis, which focuses on simulating the edge region of magnetic confinement fusion devices. She has presented her work at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics meetings and the International HPC Summer School 2018 in Ostrava, Czech Republic. In addition to research, she taught introductory courses in physical science at UT and coordinated the UT Physics Circus, an outreach program that brings science demonstrations to elementary schools in the Austin area. She is finishing her thesis research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where she also contributes to development of the Gkeyll code.