Juliana Furgala

A photo of a woman standing outside, standing with her hands in her pockets and smiling. The background is a green field.
The topical research questions we tackle at the Laboratory provide me with enjoyable challenges that continually evolve my understanding of cybersecurity.

What aspects of your work are you most proud of?

The topical research questions we tackle at the Laboratory provide me with enjoyable challenges that continually evolve my understanding of cybersecurity. I’m developing technology with security as a driving factor, technology that looks to address the problems of both the present and the future.

What Laboratory employee groups and outreach initiatives are you involved with?

I’ve always been interested in outreach, but it was my time at college that led me to promote diversity in STEM. At the Laboratory, I joined multiple groups that work with local middle and high school students. This past year I helped run a packet sniffing session for the GIRL cyber safety workshop and also co-coached a FIRST Robotics Competition team, MightyBots. It’s a great feeling to see students apply what they’ve learned and proudly put their own spin on it, all while bonding over their handiwork. These kinds of programs inspired me in school too.

If you could meet anybody, current or historical, who would it be and why?

There are many impactful people that I’m sure I would be bettered by meeting. One cause that’s close to my heart is gender equity and representation. Specifically, my background in women’s history has given me an appreciation for the strong, change-making women who came before me and broke new ground. I would arrange a roundtable with the first generations of women in STEM, many of whom were under-recorded in history. I would also meet with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a hardworking and accomplished woman in modern U.S. history. Her career of pursuing gender equality in law and showing that greater equity benefits everyone is inspiring.

Free of all limitations, what is a technology you wish existed?

The mechanics of the video game Portal are really interesting. If the portal-making gun from the game was real, I would use it for fast travel in real life. Then I could basically be in two places at once!