WOMEN OF COLOR AWARD WINNERS
hinese born Meina Xu, Ph.D., is a gifted innovator. She has made significant achievements in telecommu- nications and U.S. military satellite communications throughout her extraordinary career, ranging from start-ups to aerospace and defense programs. Her professional associa- tion with Northrop Grumman began more than 15 years ago when she accepted a summer internship position in the communications department, following the completion of her bachelor’s degree. She worked on complex telecommu- nication system performance modeling and prediction. She was so prolific that the project was able to make double the anticipated progress that summer.
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Dr. Xu put herself through her engineering education by working at a restaurant and being a teaching assistant, all while taking classes. She holds three degrees in electrical engineering. As a postdoc, Dr. Xu co-founded a small firm targeting the fiber optic communication market. She grew the company into a $50 million concern by contributing technical innovations as well as securing funding and hiring key personnel. In 2001, she returned to Northrop Grumman with the same enthusiasm, motivation and personal commit- ment. As a member of the technical staff, she has been a key participant in numerous government technology contracts and winning technology development proposals. She has led Northrop Grumman Aerospace System teams, written classi- fied and unclassified proposals, and made individual technical contributions in a variety of areas.
Currently, she leads a team of system engineers who are developing system performance analysis, modeling and end- to-end simulations for Advanced Extremely High Frequency communication link performance in both hostile jamming and signal fading environments. Measured by a body of work that includes four patents, (one international and three pend- ing applications), Dr. Xu’s accomplishments have benefited local economies and enhanced national security.
nn Ferrie’s dedication to science and technology has made her exceptionally innovative. She’s earned two granted patents, 17 patent applications, 25 invention disclosures, 18 published papers, and 39 internal techni- cal reports since she joined Corning in December of 2000. Before she came to the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics, she’d earned four granted patents and four patent applications.
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Ms. Ferrie’s pioneering work opened new avenues for re- search in cell biology and drug discovery, leading to the com- mercialization of Corning’s Epic System, which is based on optical biosensor technology. The system performs biochemi- cal and cell-based drug discovery and offers drug developers the ability to evaluate promising new drug targets. It also enables the observation of direct biological interactions not previously detectable in high-throughput applications. Since 2008, Ms. Ferrie has led a group of Corning scientists on a quest to develop technology for drug toxicity assessment.
Corning’s Organic and Biochemical Technologies Depart- ment conducts R&D to fuel the growth of the Life Sciences business unit, with an emphasis on advanced cell culture products and drug discovery technology platforms. The cell culture segment provides substrates, vessels, and platforms for research, drug discovery and bioprocess markets. The drug discovery segment supplies platforms that enable game-changing and highly efficient drug discovery and de- velopment. Currently, more than 60 scientists and engineers lead R&D in the department with 10 process technologists supporting these efforts.
Ms. Ferrie is viewed by her peers as a “go to” person and role model for Corning scientists, particularly women in technology. She is also actively involved in Lehigh University’s ongoing summer CHOICES camp (Charting Horizons and Opportunities in Careers in Engineering and Science).
2010
] Meina Xu, Ph.D. [ Systems Engineer
Northrup Grumman Corporation
www.womenofcolor.net
] Ann Ferrie [
Senior Research Scientist Corning Incorporated
WOMENOFCOLOR | FALL 2010 47
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT - INDUSTRY
RESEARCH LEADERSHIP
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