WIB-Seattle Leadership Spotlight: Solana Fernandez

Solana Fernandez
Research Scientist/Engineer at UW
former YWIB-Seattle Communications Chair

Solana Fernandez was part of WIB-Seattle’s Young Women In Bio (YWIB) Committee, serving as the Communications Chair. She is a research scientist/engineer at the University of Washington.

Solana graduated with her bachelor’s in bioengineering from UCLA in 2020. She worked in the biotech industry for a year and a half after graduating but has since pivoted to follow her passion for research. “I’m in the Buffalo laboratory at UW, where we perform neural recordings in the hippocampus and investigate mechanisms and underlying learning and memory,” she said. “My goal is to get more research experience so that I can go to grad school. I’m hoping to get more involved with neuroengineering.”

Currently, Solana works with non-human primates to try to map and interface with neural networks, something that she finds incredibly fulfilling. “I work with rhesus macaques. When you see a monkey go from not knowing how to do something versus completely understanding how to navigate virtual reality with a joystick, you feel like a proud coach,” she said. Additionally, Solana has found satisfaction in learning to analyze the results from months-long studies. “On the analysis side—seeing your mess of data, going through all the preprocessing, and finally seeing some sort of valid output or correlation between all the variables after months and months of struggling—that is so fulfilling as well,” she said.

Solana’s work is exceptional for many reasons, but there’s one factor that stands out to her on a daily basis. “One of the reasons I joined the lab that I’m in is because it’s predominantly women. It’s very empowering to be surrounded by women neuroscientists,” she said. “It’s very uncommon, not only in the bio/STEM fields but especially in primate research. We are truly an anomaly. During my first neurosurgery that I participated in with this lab, it was us five women in the operating room, and it wasn’t until we stepped out that we realized how special that was.”

Having an environment of supportive and empowering women has been a constant in Solana’s life, especially from her own family. “My mother, who is an attorney, works a lot with biotech companies and is a member of WIB-San Francisco Bay Area,” she said. “I moved to Seattle over a year ago, and she recommended that I expand my network through the Seattle chapter of WIB.” Solana decided to volunteer with the YWIB Committee because she already had experience working with younger students while she was studying at UCLA. “I did various science nights and youth motivation days with middle and high schoolers. It’s something I enjoy doing,” she said. “For a young professional like myself, it was the less intimidating way to get to know about Women In Bio.”

Since joining WIB-Seattle, Solana has found that having an even stronger network of women outside of her laboratory has helped her build her skills and create connections in the community. “Being in WIB has provided a very comfortable and approachable community of working professionals,” she said. “That’s something that I’m aspiring to build up early on in my career, and it can be very intimidating. WIB has offered nothing but the perfect platform to create that network.” 

Another aspiration that Solana has is to enter a graduate program where she can create her own path and potentially work in the field of brain-computer interfacing. “I want to pursue independent research. Being able to have that leadership over a project is something I aspire for. That’s what I see as successful,” she said. “Additionally, mapping and understanding neural networks is so exciting, as well as creating interfaces to manipulate or support such networks, including motor control or assistive learning.”

Although Solana is relatively early in her academic career, she said she’s learned valuable lessons already when it comes to working hard and building a network. “I would 100% say that my mother offers me the best advice and continues to demonstrate herself as the best model in my life with her hard work, ethics, and successful career. It’s not science, but I aspire to have the same if not similar amount of success and admiration amongst my peers,” she said. “The advice I’m currently giving myself and trying to exercise is to talk to people. Network and explore who’s also doing the same research and similar projects as you so you can familiarize yourself with the landscape and be better equipped to handle your problems.”

Solana has been an incredible asset to our YWIB Committee here at WIB-Seattle. We are so thankful for all of her hard work in helping the YWIB team bring science to younger audiences. We can’t wait to see where Solana’s groundbreaking research takes her, and we are so glad that she is a part of our WIB-Seattle community!

Submitted by Mariana Huben