My name is Dr. Eugenia O'Kelly. I am engineer and researcher who helps society manage the risks of our increasingly complex world through engineering. I specializes in designing solutions to make high-risk systems such as healthcare, biosecurity, and defense safer and more resilient. I have a background in product design from Stanford University (2014) and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge (2023).
From pre-surgical tools which reduced voluntary post-operative narcotic use by 50% to respirator science which protected clinicitians in third world countries during COVID, I have been fortunate to see my work help save tens of thousands of lives. My research has been used inform CDC and WHO policy and has also been featured in news outlets around the globe, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC, and The Guardian.
If Eugenia told me she would climb Mount Everest in her slippers, I wouldn’t doubt her ability to do so. I’d ask if she was going to design the slippers, and if she was planning to climb the mountain solo. There is nothing, it appears, that this singular and courageous young woman cannot do.
- Andrew Todhunter, writer for National Geographic
