Arti Agrawal
She/Her
I am a lesbian and I am a physicist and Associate Professor working in optics.//
I am Indian and grew up in Delhi in an environment that was completely free of LGBTQI culture, role models or references. I didn’t know any one gay in my family, school, university…anywhere. It was hard to reconcile my sexual orientation with my culture or even with my area of study/work: Physics. I still don’t know any out Asian scientists in my field! I work as an Associate Professor at UTS in Australia. I use modelling techniques like Finite Element Method, Finite Difference Time domain etc. to simulate the behaviour of light in optical devices. I also run the Women in Engineering and IT there. I am on the Board for the Optical Society, and the Associate Vice President of Diversity for the IEEE Photonics Society. I think its hugely important to fight for diversity and inclusion in our societies, our workplaces, our profession!