Dr. Shreya Saxena

Shreya is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Florida. Although her Master’s Degree is in Biomedical Engineering and her Ph.D. is in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, make no mistake--Shreya is also a neuroscientist through and through. Throughout her career, from working as an undergraduate on the Blue Brain Project to her Ph.D. and postdoctoral work using control theory to study movement execution, Shreya has seamlessly married computational principles from engineering and biological principles guiding neural activity. As she finishes setting up her lab at UF, Shreya plans to continue using the engineering framework of control theory to understand certain behaviors like our ability to adjust or switch our movements at a moment’s notice. In her interview with Leslie, Shreya doesn’t just talk about her research; she also discusses the importance of having a positive lab culture, gender disparities in STEM, and how she applies control theory to her own life in setting goals and moving forward with purpose.