Lakshmi Chandrasekaran

Lakshmi is a freelance science journalist based in Chicago. Her work has appeared in Quanta, MIT Tech Review, SIAM News, Photonics Focus, Science News and other outlets. In addition, she blogs about theoretical computer science & math at scieye.wordpress.com. Previously, Lakshmi worked as a science liaison and writer at the nonprofit, The Alzheimer’s Association based in Chicago, where she simplified a range of complex research topics funded by the Association into lay summaries to raise dementia awareness among a wide audience including donors.

Lakshmi received her master’s in health, science and environment at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University in 2017. At Northwestern, she was awarded the Comer fellowship for environmental reporting. She covered several climate-change related stories ranging from solar-powered houses to the study of ice ages to tackle global warming. Lakshmi has a doctorate in applied mathematics from the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). She used mathematical models to understand how the brain processes information as part of her doctoral thesis. In 2020, Lakshmi was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from NJIT for her contributions to popularizing math among the general public.