Sinéad Griffin
Visible Spectrum is a series to spotlight talented and dedicated women employees across the Lab
December 3, 2020
Sinéad Griffin is an energy scientist whose work involves exploring how to design new materials for the search for dark matter, as well as understanding new qubit materials for quantum computing.
Outside of the Lab, Sinéad is a semi-professional artist, mostly focused on drawing and acrylic painting, though she has also worked on wood burning and mixed media this past year. She also enjoys the outdoors by hiking, running, and swimming.
What inspired you to work at Berkeley Lab?
I started my doctorate at UC Santa Barbara, but the group relocated to ETH Zurich after just a year. When I won a postdoc fellowship from the Swiss National Science, I chose the Physics Department at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab for its excellence in condensed matter physics, which is my field of expertise. Plus, it was a chance for me to return to California! When the option came to start my research group here in 2018, I was delighted to stay at the Lab.
What does your current scientific project or research entail?
Right now, we’re looking at how we can design new materials and phenomena for the search for dark matter. Alongside this, we are also exploring new qubit materials for quantum computing.
What excites you about your work at the Lab?
My colleagues! I get to work with world-leading scientists and staff from across the Lab on a range of projects that would be much more difficult in a traditional university environment.
For example, my work on dark matter detector design involves working with solid state theorists and experimentalists, particle theorists, and detector experimentalists, all with one goal of designing and making the next generation of dark matter detectors.
I’m proud of the brilliant diverse team that make up my research group. I look forward to seeing what scientific discoveries they will achieve.
Do you have tips you'd recommend for someone looking to enter and/or succeed in your field of work?
Much of my work is at the boundary of traditional scientific disciplines, and with that, there is a need to be creative in unfamiliar territory. That need goes for cross-disciplinary science and for participating in spaces where some groups are underrepresented. My advice for navigating this landscape is to find your unique perspective on a scientific problem and then tackle it fervently.
How can our community engage more women, girls, and other underrepresented groups in STEM?
There is a silly idea that women and other underrepresented minority groups don’t have the same interest in STEM, which is why there is a disparity in involvement of these groups. That’s just ridiculous!
The allure of uncovering the mysteries of the natural world is not something exclusive to specific genders, backgrounds, or other factors. However, engagement in science has been blocked and discouraged for these groups because of social and economic factors. It is up to our community to dismantle the barriers to participation, and importantly, support retainment of these groups in STEM.
