Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski

Women like Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, whose love of science and technology took flight — quite literally — when she first rode in an airplane at age 9 and dreamed of creating spacecraft.

At 10, she rebuilt an airplane engine at her Chicago home. At 12, she built an entire airplane. At 14, she took it on a test flight.

Now 26, Pasterski is one of the leading theoretical physicists in the world. Her work has been cited by the great theorist Stephen Hawking.

She has degrees from Harvard and MIT and is a principal investigator at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science. She studies such advanced topics as quantum gravity, black holes and space time.

She has never had a social media account but posts links to her talks and papers at PhysicsGirl.com.

A “proud, first-generation Cuban-American,” she is a leading advocate of STEM science education for girls, especially girls of color.