Francesca Fernandes

Biography

Francesca Fernandes, of Saratoga, California, is a senior at Stanford University, where she is completing a B.S. with Honors in Physics and a minor in Mathematics. As an aspiring theoretical physicist, Francesca has constructed novel formalisms for spin models in arbitrarily-many dimensions, and investigated applications of the so-called "antipodal duality" in N=4 Super-Yang Mills theory and conformal fishnet theory. She is extremely passionate about expanding representation in physics, and has served on multiple departmental committees in Stanford’s physics department, taught physics to local under-resourced high-schoolers, mentored women and underrepresented minorities in physics, and enacted innovative diversity, equity, and inclusivity initiatives as Co-President of the Stanford Undergraduate Physics Society. Further, she enjoys sharing the joys of physics with others, and has championed an award-winning astrophysics podcast “Nothin’ but Space,” while presenting her research at the national and international level. Outside physics, Francesca enjoys the performing and literary arts; she shares stories from around the world with her a cappella group Stanford Talisman, acts with Stanford’s Asian American Theater Project, and reads and writes creative nonfiction. At Oxford, she hopes to pursue an MSc in Mathematical and Theoretical Physics.