Session Description: In this session, Juliana will share her journey from discovering chemistry in high school to her current work modeling components and processes in the fusion fuel cycle at Savannah River National Laboratory. She will discuss how curiosity, research experiences, and mentorship helped shape her path and can open doors to a wide range of STEM careers.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Juliana Rodriguez Antonio is a postdoctoral researcher at Savannah River National Laboratory, where she develops physics-based computational models of fusion fuelcycle components and processes. As an undergraduate, she worked on benchmarking Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods for substituent effects of nickel phosphine benzonitrile complexes for C-C bond activation. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in 2021, and shortly after pursued a Ph.D. in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry from Southern Methodist University. During her Ph.D., she studied chemical bond strengths in molecular systems, protein complexes, and metal-organic frameworks using quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics multiscale simulations.
She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a 2026 CAS Future Leader, a Mustang Fellow, and a Mars Fellow Young Scientist for the 74th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany in 2025. Outside of research, she enjoys reading, watching movies, and spending time with her two younger children.