Ghadah Alshalan's KGSP journey has taken her across the globe, from the hallowed halls of MIT to the grand corridors of Oxford, the cutting-edge labs of KAUST, and the dynamic institutions of Germany and the United States. This extensive experience has provided her with a unique perspective on the interconnected world of academia. She is now a Graduate Research Assistant at the Joint Quantum Institute, a research partner of the University of Maryland, pursuing experimental studies of quantum physics and technology. In this Q&A, Ghadah discusses the importance of community, mentorship, and her experiences in the international physics community.

Where do you come from? How would you describe your home and family?

I was born in Riyadh. My family is also from Riyadh and most of them are still there. I believe that we are an academic family. My mom teaches at college, and most of her siblings have an academic career. It seems that I am going to follow a similar path as well. Education had a big emphasis on that side of my family. My grandparents wanted their children to go to med school, but mom had more interests in math and physics. She ended up studying computer science because it's less abstract and it sounded more acceptable on a societal level. At one point, my mom debated whether she should study physics. When I told her I wanted to study physics for my undergraduate, she said, “Oh my God, did you know one of my dreams was to become a physicist?”

You mentioned that you find yourself following in your family’s footsteps. Was that intentional?

No, things just happened. Nothing was planned career-wise. When I was younger, I really thought of things differently. I remember my first career aspiration was to become a car exterior designer – very specific. I enjoyed designing cars that were very otherworldly, alien-like things.

Then, when I got older, things started to become more realistic. As I told you, most of my family are medical doctors. One of my aunts is a surgeon and I was fixated on becoming a neurosurgeon.

I did so many activities when I was younger, like summer programs and clubs where we would learn different things and make some art. I used to paint and draw a lot. For instance, one summer camp my siblings and I went to where they taught kids how to use an “abacus.” It was so much fun for me to be able to use it to do math problems fast in my head, but my siblings found it very boring. My mom noticed that I enjoyed that kind of stuff, so she kept enrolling me in similar activities.

Mawhiba has programs throughout some schools in Saudi for students to represent the country at international science Olympiads. These tests were happening in my school, but I was not at all interested in doing them. I didn’t really want to play too much into the role of being a big “nerd” who was good at math. Going to a science Olympiad would just feed into that identity. But then I did it because everyone in my class did it. A few of us passed, including me. I did very well in the science and the math tests. I remember the school principal said that I should do physics, and I thought “What is physics? What is that?” Eventually, my mom convinced me to do it, she said, “If you don't like it, it's fine. Maybe it won't work out for you, but it's fine. Just try it.”

I've been doing physics almost every day since that day in 2014. Ten years – can you imagine that?

You said you resisted being seen as a “nerd”. Do you identify as a nerd now?

Honestly, no. Maybe up until high school I would say that I was, because everyone thought I was “the smartest”. But then the more I advanced into this academic career, the more smart and “nerdy” people I met. There is no comparison. When it comes to doing math quickly, I found someone faster; being creative, I found someone more creative; someone more passionate, I met people who literally won't sleep. I'm passionate enough, but I definitely love to sleep.

You have studied at a variety of institutions. There's MIT, University of Hamburg, Oxford, KAUST, and now the University of Maryland. By researching in so many different locations around the world, I'm sure you've seen many different versions of academia. What have you learned?

It’s a cliché answer, but it’s true: each very similar but very different at the same time. There are similar aspects to the approach of doing research, at least in physics. Similar techniques, similar lab tools. But the funny thing is that the physics community is very tiny. I remember when I first entered MIT, and I was trying to find a lab to intern at, I found this lab that collaborates with a professor at KAUST. Then, when I went to Germany, I realized this guy knows that guy. When I went to Oxford, these professors went to the same graduate school. When I went to UMD, this guy knew my advisor. It is a very, very well-connected network. I like how we can work in the US, Saudi, Germany, or the UK, but we still know each other throughout our work.

What can students learn from that?

Connections are everything. It's not only good, but quite necessary to be surrounded by a good network of people to mentor you and show you the way and push you in the right direction. Sometimes, it happens intentionally, and sometimes it's unintentional. Looking back, this was my experience with KGSP – the other KGSP students at MIT helped me navigate it whether I knew it or not, and whether they knew it or not. It's not like I went looking for a mentorship. It just happened. This is something I'm always grateful for.

Networking is something that we all know is important, but we often feel quite anxious about it (“Am I doing enough?”; “How do I compare to others?”; “Who do I need to know to be successful?”; etc.)  Did you feel that way when you were a KGSP student, and do you feel that way now?

When I look back early at my KGSP experience, I think I wasn’t intentional about building a network. However, I was lucky enough to be surrounded by the right people whom I could look up to. I was just trying to do things like them because I wasn’t sure what to do next. At least they had a good reasoning behind their actions. It was a lot of mimicking during a time of uncertainty in my life. Now when I look back, I realize, "Wow, I really built a network. I built experiences without realizing that I was doing it."

For example, the thing I did in Germany was part of MISTI (the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives). Do you think I came to MIT knowing I wanted to do MISTI? No, I didn’t.

I did it because a couple of my friends did it. I was like, “Oh, everyone is doing MISTI, should I do it?” To a certain extent, it felt like peer pressure. But then, after I did it, I realized it was such a good experience.

A couple of years ago, I visited Hamburg and the Max Planck Institutes. I went down to say hi to the people I worked with there. When I was visiting another lab at Max Planck, I told them I had worked there before. It turned out to be such a good decision, even though it started as just emulating others.

 

You were the first female KGSP student admitted to MIT. What does that distinction mean to you?

I hate being the first female KGSP student at MIT. There’s nothing bad about being “first” in anything – but it’s just how I feel. It just shows you that the situation wasn’t ideal. It just means I was the first and, for a time, the only one. I don’t like the responsibility of being the first and needing to set an example. But I understand the importance and responsibility of being a role model.

Why was I the first and only one? Maybe I was just lucky. I’m grateful, but it’s bittersweet to me because I knew many smart, capable ladies in high school who wanted to pursue something similar. The girls in my Olympiad cohort, I don't recall any of them going into physics except for me. And all of them were just as smart and as capable as I was. But this just tells you how sparse the opportunities were, and how it was structured so society would give you a thumbs up if you go one way versus another.

I think in recent years, the culture has changed. For example, KAUST has KGSP, which requires students to study STEM and only STEM. Imagine what this means to girls. They are literally paying for you to do this; this is a strong form of encouragement. Even on a bigger, organizational level in Saudi, they want to encourage women to do truly whatever. It’s a woman's world in Saudi now. I'm so grateful that governments and many institutions like KAUST and MIT are really investing in women.

I was so happy to see more women at MIT during my four years there. I remember Aljazzy, Shaden, and Masarah. I’m sure there are even more now, which makes me glad. Yes, it is progress, but being the first just reminds me of how things were, and that’s what I don’t like about it.

You received the Rhodes Scholarship. For someone who already had a very distinguished resume studying at renowned institutions before Rhodes, what was the value of the scholarship for you?

With Rhodes, people came not only from different backgrounds, but also for different purposes and at different times in their lives. There was more diversity in every aspect. That definitely challenged me, and I learned a lot.

I remember the first thing I was confused about when I came to Oxford was that I was not surrounded by as many STEM people as I was at MIT. People [at MIT] would think about things in a very similar way. But many of the people [at Oxford] perceived life differently, which was very refreshing. When we study and do similar things, our brains develop similarly or start turning on similar gears. When I was with people who care about different things in life, my point of view of the world was very different. I feel this has changed me in a good way. I'm not going to say I learned different physics at Oxford. Physics at Oxford, physics at MIT, physics at KAUST, physics at UMD – it's all the same. I think what I came out of my Rhodes experience with is – cliché but true – the community that I was surrounded by everywhere I went.

I remember an experience that illustrates how different it was: I was working on a presentation for the research I was doing. I was in one of Oxford’s libraries preparing my physics slides and equations, and the person next to me was studying their music sheets. It wasn’t even letters or equations, just music notes. For me, it was a fascinating thing that the world put us in the same library.

What are you doing now at the Joint Quantum Institute? What excites you about the work?

I'm doing some experimental work between quantum optics and condensed matter physics. When I describe my work to my parents, I tell them I try to shoot 2D materials with lasers to manipulate their electronic properties and study their behavior. For me, the idea of manipulating material with lasers is just fascinating. It is a methodological and delicate experiment. I would consider any work with lasers very elegant and delicate, which is the appeal, at least for me. It involves a lot of big optical setups, very low temperatures, and nano devices. It’s quite challenging, but fun. I’m learning a lot because the last thing I did in my undergraduate was studying 2D materials, but there was no light involved. So, the idea of merging the lasers with this is quite exciting.

In our last Alumni Profile with Dr. Tariq Alturkestani, he described a PhD as someone who is trying to make a tiny micro-expansion of the entirety of human knowledge. What tiny expansion do you hope to make?

This is a good way to generalize the description of science, but it's a collective effort. I'm a big believer in collective work. That's where I get my fulfillment, knowing that I'm working as part of a system. Researchers need to work as a collective to get something out of their work. I cannot specify for you where my research will end up going. I can say I want to optically manipulate materials to try to engineer new properties. There is a lot of technological potential for such a thing. But when I approach research, I don’t really think of what applications I can get out of it. Instead, I’m trying to find new ways to answer some questions we have about nature and try to understand it better. You can aim for somewhere, but as you progress, you go somewhere else, which is fine. That is the exciting part.

You've been an Alumni Mentorship Program (AMP) mentor for two years now. The whole idea of AMP is to provide students with new perspectives and insights from people who have more experience. But sometimes what happens, as I'm sure you’ve found out, is mentors gain new perspectives and new insights from their students. Could you tell me a little bit about your experience as a mentor?

Mentorship is hard. I thought my KGSP Advisor’s job was easy, but it's way harder than I expected. I feel so much honor knowing that I might be part of helping someone achieve something. When I look back, I realize how much mentorship has shaped me. I really want to be that person to someone. I really cannot say no if someone asks me to help them. I like KGSP, so I want to give back. It is definitely hard, but worth it.

What is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self or to a current student?

Don’t take anyone's advice. Sometimes asking advice from someone turns into asking others to make decisions on your behalf. It’s better to regret your own decisions than someone else’s.