User:Nabslikewhat/Kalisa Villafana

Kalisa Villafana (born 1989) is a Trinidadian nuclear physicist. On August 9, 2019 she became the first black woman to earn a PhD in Nuclear Physics from Florida State University and the 96th black woman in America to hold a PhD in Physics

She earned her undergraduate degree at Florida A&M. and after graduation, returned to Trinidad and Tobago where she worked for a year. She then decided to pursue an advanced degree and chose to attend Florida State University. At FSU, she chose Mark Riley, a world-renowned physicist, former chair of the physics department and current dean of the Graduate School as her advisor.

In her early life, Villafana lived in Ch­agua­nas in St Thomas Vil­lage and at­tend­ed the Ch­agua­nas Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School. At the age of 12 years old, she wanted to become a physicist and began conducting science experiments at Holy Faith Convent, a Catholic girl's school.

She is a process engineer with Intel Corporation in Arizona and wants to pursue a career as a medical physicist specializing in cancer research.