Yi-Hsin Lin - 2018 SPIE Women in Optics Planner
Professor
National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
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Country of Birth: Taiwan
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I became fascinated with physics when a science teacher in elementary school explained how a set of pulleys worked. I always took great pleasure in understanding how things work, what was going on behind phenomena.
My primary responsibility of my job now is to explore all possibilities of liquid crystals, such as lenses with tunable lens powers, devices for water capture, biosensing devices, or solve challenges in augmented reality. Moreover, I also teach lectures related to optics for undergraduates and graduate students, advise PhD students for dissertations, and lead a group of members for special targets of government and industrial projects.
The biggest challenge in my career is to balance life between the work and the family. I am still learning and adjusting the strategy of " life balance." For example, I seek support and understanding from my family (mainly my husband) for many thing like hiring a house keeper to help with chores to cooking dinner. And at work, I carefully select collaborative projects and group members, such as students, research assistants, and postdocs, which helps me to build up my own style of management. Things get better and better!
When I was first starting out my career, I wish someone had told me that we are stronger than we think, even us female professors! Stay healthy and stay positive!
For young girls or women who are considering a career in STEM: go for it without fear as long as you have great passion in a career in STEM. Do not limit your dreams just because of gender or all the surrounding voices that may tell you that you aren’t able to compete with men in STEM.