Thamar Solorio Interview | From Mexico

This guest came from a background where money wasn't abundant, parents who didn't go to college, and faced many rejections on the road to attending college. Now, she is a professor in the United States and a leading researcher in the area of NLP! In episode 24, we hear the story of Thamar Solorio. She is the 2014 recipient of the Denice Denton Emerging Leader ABIE Award, received recognition from the Anita Bord Institute, and was program committee co-chair in 2019 of the NAACL.

Guest: Thamar Solorio, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Houston. [LinkedIn] [Twitter]. A renowned researcher in Natural Language Processing and immigrant from Mexico.

In this episode:

• Growing up poor in Mexico during the 1970s/80s/90s.
• Working after school, instead of attending college.
• How luck caused her to try out research.
• Living amid turbulent political times in Mexico in the 1980s and 90s.
• Difficulties in landing academic jobs in the US with a Ph.D. from Mexico.
• Raising a family while trying to start up a career as an assistant professor.
• And advice for women researchers on how to negotiate salaries, how to build a network, and how to avoid impostor syndrome.
• And much more!

Only 2 more episodes to the Season 2 Finale! Stay tuned!

More resources we think you'll enjoy:

•  Episode 34 guide
•  Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast home
•  Resources on CS/STEM-related education and immigration

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