We Rep STEM aims to promote the work of inspiring people in the STEM community. Today, we’re featuring Soleil Hernandez, a medical physics Ph.D. student at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas.

Read on to learn more about Soleil and what her work entails, in her own words.

My name is Soleil Hernandez and I am a medical physics Ph.D. student.

Medical physicists study the physics behind radiation therapy to ensure optimal linear accelerator quality and patient safety.

You’ll typically find medical physicists working in radiation physics, imaging physics, and nuclear medicine. We study anything from linear accelerators to CTs to radioactive isotopes.

My current lab [at MD Anderson] is working to automate the radiation therapy treatment planning process using deep learning. This software will be deployed to service low and middle-income countries.

Soleil’s current lab is working to automate the radiation therapy treatment planning process using deep learning. [Photos courtesy of Soleil Hernandez]

FIRST-GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENT

My parents immigrated from Mexico and I am a first-generation college student. Being a female and Hispanic in my field isn’t always easy but it motivates me to be my best every day.

Soleil can be found on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/soleilolayy.

If you’d like to have your work featured on We Rep STEM, get in touch! We can be reached via email at: werepstem@gmail.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Minor grammatical edits were made to the original text.