Abbie Watnik is a digital holography expert and branch head of the optical physics branch at the Naval Research Laboratory. As a woman in a male-dominated field and the first woman to lead her branch at usnrl, she told Optica, “As I am often the only woman in the room, people know who I am, so there can be some pressure. But I think, in general, I take it in stride." She and her team are currently exploring light’s interaction with turbulence and scattering, using twisted light or orbital angular momentum, structured light, lidar systems and more. Read more about the International Day of Women and Girls in Science under Celebrations in our bio! #February11 #WomenInSTEM idwgis