the Program Booklet - IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology ...

2012 GHTC Page 40
Gretchen Kalonji, Assistant Director General for National
Sciences, UNESCO
An American materials scientist, she has developed strong
international links in science, in particular in China, India
and the Pacific Region. She is strongly committed to
promoting science in Africa and has worked with several
African universities. Her work in educational
transformation has taken her to university positions in
France, Japan and China.
Gretchen Kalonji assumed the position of Assistant Director General for Natural
Sciences at UNESCO effective July 1, 2010. Prior to joining UNESCO, starting
in 2005, Kalonji served in various leadership roles at the University of
California, including as Director of International Strategy Development at the
UC Office of the President, where her responsibility was to lead in the design
and implementation of the first coordinated and comprehensive international
strategy for the ten-campus UC system, and as Director of System wide
Research Development. Kalonji came to the UC from the University of
Washington, where she served as Kyocera Professor of Materials Science from
1990 - 2005.
Prior to joining UW, Kalonji served as Assistant and Associate Professor in the
Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, where she earned her
B.Sc. degree in 1980 and her Ph.D in 1982. Professor Kalonji’s areas of
materials science expertise include symmetry constraints on the structure and
properties of crystalline defects, phase transformations and microstructural
evolution. Kalonji also has extensive experience in innovations in science and
engineering education, as well as in new models for international research
collaboration. Her work, both in materials science and in research and
educational innovation, has been recognized with multiple honors and awards.
She holds or has held visiting faculty appointments at the Max Planck Institute
(Stuttgart), the University of Paris, Tohoku University, Sichuan University,
Tsinghua University and the newly established Peking University Graduate
School in Shenzhen.
Dr. Christine Lee has extensive research experience in
rapid, field-portable detection methods for assessing
pathogen surrogates in the context of water quality and
pollution as well as bioterrorism and sterilization efficacy.
Her postdoctoral work at JPL also includes understanding
microbial communities in extreme environments such as
those in Mt. Kilimanjaro glaciers and Antarctic Dry Valley
soil towards astrobiology goals. She has conducted
fieldwork in Bangladesh, Tanzania, Mexico, and Antarctica.
Christine actively participated in the UCLA Chapter of Engineers without
Borders for five years during which she was part of a project to donate a