Serena Debesai

Serena (formerly class of '22, now class of '22.67) is a physics major and math and African and African American studies minor. She is broadly interested in understanding what physics we can extrapolate from studying living systems, as well as how we can use physics principles to model biological systems. Her previous research has included modelling polymer-gel systems, using machine learning to predict the structure of protein-protein complexes, and computational drug discovery. She worked with Asst. Professor Ben Good to develop an analytic model of how environmental heterogeneity influences the diversity of bacterial populations. She is invested in improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in physics, and has served as a PUWMAS officer, a counselor and co-organizer of the SPINWIP program, and a co-instructor for the seminar class Physics 94SI: Diverse Perspectives in Physics.