Celebrating Women in Science
Did you know that women make up only one-third of all researchers in science?
International Day of Women and Girls in Science is an opportunity to celebrate women scientists and the meaningful contributions they make to research and discovery every day. It’s a day to inspire future women scientists and consider ways to close the gender gap.
To celebrate the role of women in science, we’re featuring six women scientists at Leidos and the inspirational work they do. We also asked each woman to share why they think women in science are inspiring.
Get to know those scientists as we celebrate #WomenInScience.
Adrienne Swanstrom – Virologist/Immunologist
Adrienne is a scientist for Leidos Biomedical Research and supports the AIDS and Cancer Virus Program at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, where she and her teams use models of HIV infection to study viral reservoirs, treatment strategies, and genetic engineering of antiviral T cells. She holds degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Pennsylvania.
Mathangi Thiagarajan – Project Director
Mathangi serves as a Leidos Biomedical Research project director in the Biospecimen Research Group at Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. In this role, she manages the biospecimen collection and clinical data informatics for the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This consortium is designed to accelerate the understanding of the molecular basis of cancer through the application of large-scale proteogenomics. Before managing oncology programs for the NCI, she had led bioinformatics teams at the J. Craig Venter Institute for a decade. Mathangi has authored several scientific publications, holds master’s degrees in biochemistry and biomedical informatics, and is a certified project management professional.
Heather Marie Sansbury – Senior Biomedical Scientist
Heather began her career with Leidos Life Sciences as a senior biomedical scientist leveraging her skills in program and project management. Using strong relationship management and stellar customer service, she provided managerial, technical, and scientific support for large government and non-profit organizations. In her current role as deputy project manager, she provides timely and relevant strategic recommendations to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All of Us Research Program, a historical effort to recruit and gather data from one million people living in the United States to advance precision medicine. Throughout her career, Heather has received several distinguished awards and recognitions for her work.
Tilly Lawrence – Senior Clinical Program Manager
Health and science fascinate Tilly. As a clinical program manager with Leidos Life Sciences, she combines her knowledge in health and medicine with project management principles to enhance the outcomes of high-visibility clinical research and healthcare initiatives in support of federal clients including the NIH, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Tilly’s experience includes work with exploratory small drug molecules to treat cancer and with vaccines for infectious diseases such as malaria and Zika. She is currently managing a large virtual clinical trial on therapeutics to treat COVID-19. In science, there are absolutely no limits in where your curiosity will take you.
Claire Deleage – Staff Scientist
As a staff scientist with Leidos Biomedical Research, Claire supports the AIDS and Virus Program at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research. She leads the Tissue Analysis Core initiative, which offers state-of-the-art tissue analysis to any principal investigator who is conducting relevant research in the HIV field. Additionally, she conducts independent research to better understand the sexual transmission of HIV by focusing on both donor and recipient.
Angela Carrigan – Clinical Program Manager
Angela is a clinical research professional with Leidos Life Sciences. She applies project management, research, and good clinical practice principles to enhance the outcomes of high-visibility clinical research and health care initiatives. Throughout her career, Angela has partnered with hospitals, cancer centers, and clinics to support clinical research innovation for research consortia, pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and federal government with the goal of enabling public access to clinical research opportunities, conducting research involving special populations, and incorporating technology to improve clinical research efficiency and quality.
Learn more about careers with Leidos Biomedical Research
In anticipation for Women's History Month, check out some of our other spectacular Leidos women:
