Olivia Zhu, B.S. 2016

The White House – Washington DC

2016 Major: Biophysics; minor in Computer Science

How has being a Physics graduate from Duke helped shape you personally and/or professionally?

"Being a Physics graduate from Duke has helped me gain the ability to break ambiguous problems down into concrete components, and to apply technical knowledge to those components to solve problems. It has also trained me in learning and picking up technical concepts quickly, which has helped me both as a software and science manager in big tech and in my role in tech policy at the White House."

What advice would you give students in Duke's Physics programs? 

"Work collaboratively with your classmates to learn concepts and solve problems— there’s no way I could have gotten through some problem sets without thinking them through with my classmates. This also is a good model for working on a team setting in academia or industry."

Olivia Zhu