Dr. Giulia Palermo
Dr. Giulia Palermo is a native of Italy. She earned her PhD from the Italian Institute of Technology in 2013 and had worked in the group of Prof. Ursula Rothlisberger at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) where she was a postdoctoral scientist and focused on ab-initio Molecular Dynamics. In 2016, she was awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation (NSF) post-doctoral fellowship to join the group of Prof. J. Andrew McCammon at the University of California San Diego, where she specialised in novel multiscale methods enabling the study of increasingly realistic biological systems.
Dr. Palermo is a computational biophysicist with an expertise in molecular simulations. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California--Riverside and a cooperating Faculty in the Department of Chemistry. Dr. Palermo is currently in charge of the Palermo research group at UCR and focuses on on the development and applications of molecular dynamics simulations and mixed quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methods to study the molecular basis of gene regulation, chromatin structure and dynamics, enzymatic function and ribozyme catalysis. Dr. Palermo’s research also uses computational biophysics to clarify the mechanism of action of biological systems of key importance for genome editing and regulation.
Dr. Palermo agrees that women are underrepresented in STEM related fields and wants to encourage young women to pursue STEM careers through mentorship, supporting their research, and providing resources for networking. More specifically, she mentors women who are interested in academia and industry. Last year, Dr. Palermo participated in the Women Make COMP(Computers in Chemistry) symposium to help “inspire, motivate, and support young women in computational and theoretical chemistry.” She has a passion for empowering women in science as there is an ongoing lack of representation in this field.
Some advice Dr. Palermo has for women who are pursuing a career in STEAM is to enjoy the journey. There will be moments where you will fail, but learning from these mistakes will make you more successful and courageous to try new things. There will always be people who are better than you, however you need to be able to respect and learn from them to become a better scientist. Dr. Palermo also advises her mentees to take care of their physical and mental health as well. Most of the time we are our harshest critics, so it is crucial for us to take a break and to do things that bring we joy. Dr. Palermo advises women to be resilient, take risks, ask questions, and to not be afraid.
