The Yale Graduate School Alumni Association (GSAA) is excited to announce the appointment of Jia Chen (’00 Ph.D., Physics) as current chair of the board. Chen is a Global Product Leader at IBM, where she serves on IBM’s Academy of Technology Leadership Team among other initiatives at the intersection of health, AI, and technology.
Previously vice-chair of GSAA, Chen has volunteered for and served as a board member of the GSAA, where she co-chaired the annual “Where Do I Go from Yale” (WDIGFY) career event hosted by the GSAA. Additionally, Chen has hosted virtual and in-person GSAS sessions for incoming graduate students and has been a panelist for Career, Life, and Yale (CLY) events and workshops. She is a member of the Yale Alumni Association Board of Governors and the Wilbur Cross Medal Selection Committee.
In line with the 2022-23 GSAA Board goals, Chen seeks to expand participation and broaden the WDIGFY brand by hosting more in-person events and increasing engagement with students. Events, facilitated by CrossCampus, will include organized informational interviews, mentoring, and coffee chats. GSAA also is prioritizing collaborations with the Office of Career Services (OCS) and CLY to expand online access and host virtual/in-person sessions regarding career paths post-Yale. The GSAA’s professional skills-building program will seek to assist students in strengthening aspects of their candidacy and approach to their job search. Finally, the board will work to strengthen its engagement with individual departments and programs and engage more international and recent alumni.
I reached out to Chen about why she is interested in serving as GSAA chair and about how she feels her experience in physics will help. She replied, “My first encounter with GSAA was when I was invited to speak in a panel at the Where Do I Go from Yale event back in 2015. I had the opportunity to visit Yale campus. It was very nostalgic to walk through the hallways and classrooms of Sloane Physics Lab (where the lectures/talks were a thorough enjoyment) and the Becton Center (where I did my thesis work). Some Physics graduate students came to my panel and they asked really good questions. Some of them were considering non-acadamic career paths and were not sure where to start. I shared my experience (and struggle) with them. I truly enjoyed my interaction with them. It reminded me of my days at Yale. Since then, I have participated in more events (WDIGFY, data science, YPPDO, CLY’s leadership forum, etc.), where I continued to interact with students and really enjoyed the process. I’m grateful for the learning opportunities and experiences I had at the Yale Physics Department, and want to give back. Plus, engaging with students truly energizes me, and I learn from them.”
Additional Biographical information
Chen is a Product Leader of Blockchain solutions for Healthcare and Life Sciences at IBM’s Innovation and Solution Incubation team. Her work was recognized as one of the ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ by Science magazine in 2001. She was named as one of the top 35 technology innovators under the age of 35 worldwide by MIT’s Technology Review in 2005, the Best Researcher of the Year by Small Times magazine in 2006, and one of the top 26 tech women innovators at IBM in 2015. She’s an innovation catalyst with over 40 issued patents, 8 book chapters and 50+ journal and conference papers.
Parts of this article were excerpted and adapted from an article from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office by Ira Hafer, published on October 20, 2022. To read the full article please see the link below.