Althea Gaffney is the current Scientific Project Manager at the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. Prior to this, they served as the Assistant Director of Education Programs at the American Institute of Physics from October 2019 to June 2021. In this role, they administered the Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society. Additionally, they served as a contributing editor for the Journal of Undergraduate Reports in Physics and the managing editor for Radiations, the biannual magazine for the Physics Honor Society.
From May 2018 to September 2019, Ms. Gaffney was a PCI Fellow at the Penn Center for Innovation. During this time, they worked on research projects related to commercialization and entrepreneurship in higher education.
Ms. Gaffney earned their Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania in October 2019. Her dissertation was entitled "Theory and Modeling of Quantum Many-Body Systems." Prior to their graduate studies, they worked as a Research Planning Analyst & Chief of Staff at DuPont from June 2013 to July 2015.
Althea Gaffney earned their B.A. in Chemistry from Swarthmore College with high honors. Althea then went on to earn their Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. Althea has also earned a certification from Codecademy in their Learn the Command Line Course, as well as a certification from DuPont in Six Sigma Green Belt.
They work with Marquet Minor - Associate Project Manager, Cancer, Taqwa El-Hussein - Associate Scientific Project Manager, Cancer. Althea Gaffney reports to Dana Connors, Senior Scientific Program Manager, Cancer Research Partnerships.
Current role