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I am checking to see whether that principle applies “I grew up in a family that encouraged
to biological tissues. More specifically, I study the me to study whatever I wanted; my
engineering aspect of malignant tumors.” sisters went to the Technion too, but not
everyone gets to grow up in homes like
That’s a very demanding job in its own right. mine. The program I founded, “At”, aims
How accepting is the military with that? to change the way girls think in order to
encourage them to choose careers they
“My commanding officers are very sup- would not have otherwise considered”
portive of my academic work, and I don’t
take that for granted for a second.” models. They show girls that anything is possible.”
“’At’ is my greatest success” “At” tackles its mission from three angles, Blum
Neta Blum's unwavering determination explains. “The first angle is to take female high school
and passion for her work have not only al-
lowed her to achieve great success in her field students to tour tech companies to show them what
but have also earned her well-deserved recogni-
tion and acclaim. Among other accolades, she made they look like up close. It’s very appealing to them,
it into Forbes Magazine's “30 Under 30 2022” and
The Jerusalem Post’s “50 Most Influential Jews of and it always makes them ask ‘how can I get to work
2022” lists. Most recently, she won the Future Gen-
eration Leadership Badge from Forum Dvorah, an here’. The second angle is to have them meet female
organization that aims to increase women’s partici-
pation in national defense and foreign policy roles. role models. This is important because it shows the
These honors were awarded to her not only for the
roles she fulfilled in serving national security, but girls that getting to these places is possible for them.
also in recognition of her efforts in promoting girls'
technological education through “At”, the program The third angle is to introduce girls to technological
she founded. “The way I see it, “At” is my greatest
success. Throughout my entire career, I have been fields that they may not have learned about, like cy-
the only woman, or one of only a few women, every-
where I went. I made it my mission to change that. bersecurity and AI. We do this by inviting volunteers
“I grew up in a family that encouraged me to study to give talks.”
whatever I wanted. My mom is a medical rehabilita-
tion doctor, and my dad is a professor of medicine. The program already has a proven track record.
My sisters went to the Technion, so it was a natural
choice for me. But not everyone gets to grow up in “Yes, I receive a lot of feedback from students who
homes like mine. There are so many places where
boys are still encouraged to play with Lego while the chose to go into STEM because of the program. Re-
girls are given Barbies. And then as a result of this
railroading, fewer girls choose STEM fields. cently, I even got a text from a mother whose daugh-
And you decided to change that. ter got into Brakim. To me, that says I’ve done my
“Yes, this is my vision for At. I’m trying to change
the future careers of thousands of girls, change the part.”
way they think, show them options and paths they
would not have dared to choose otherwise. When I Recently, Blum says, Nature Reviews of Materials
speak to girls, I always stress that they should not
fear difficulty. Any challenge can be overcome. published a commentary about the program, high-
“We have volunteers, including women in senior
roles in leading tech companies like Microsoft, and lighting the importance of mentoring girls as a means
of course women in academia and in the IDF—suc-
cessful, charismatic women who have come a long of opening the door for them to pursue a career in
way and really made it in tech. These women are role
tech. “I issued a call to academia and tech compa-
nies everywhere in the world, inviting them to con-
tact me and expand this initiative to other countries.
This is a global issue, it’s not exclusive to Israel.”
What are your plans after you complete your PhD?
“I see myself pursuing a career in academia. Re-
search has become part and parcel of my day-to-day.
I mean to continue my research as a post doc and
work my way up the academic ladder as well as in
the defense industry. I mean to continue my social
activism as well.”
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering | MEgazine | 29
