Deborah Berebichez is the first Mexican woman to earn a PhD in physics from Stanford. On May 22, 2013, her talk, “A Non-Stop Skeptic in a Believer’s World,” given at the 2013 Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism, was posted on YouTube.  

In this talk, Berebichez discusses how her curious nature propelled her into the field of physics, “the only discipline that would allow [her] to ask questions ad infinitum.” The same curiosity that created Berebichez’s love for science led her to engage skeptically with Judaism. As she discusses in the talk, she considers many Jewish traditions, such as sitting shiva, to be very sensible. As a skeptic, however, she does not approach her Judaism with blind faith. For instance, she was doubtful when rabbis instructed her how to pray for her father’s soul to reach heaven.   

In Berebichez’s tight-knit Jewish community in Mexico City, women were discouraged from pursuing science, so Berebichez pursued philosophy at university in Mexico City. Feeling unsatisfied, she secretly applied to schools in the United States and enrolled at Brandeis University, where the introduction to astronomy course completely changed her trajectory. Cramming two years of physics courses into one summer, she graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis and went on to receive her master's degree in Mexico.  

The Mexican government granted Berebichez a full merit-based scholarship, which allowed her to pursue her PhD in Physics at Stanford University, where she co-founded the Association for the Advancement of Women in Physics. In 2004 Berebichez became the first Mexican woman to earn a PhD in physics from Stanford.  

Berebichez is a member of the American Physical Society; a founding member of the advisory board of MenTe, a program for professional women in STEM in Costa Rica 2002; on the advisory board for The Scientista Foundation, which provides mentorship to and empowers pre-professional women in STEM; and the Chief Data Scientist at Metis, an educational institution for data science. In 2013, Berebichez was a Global Ambassador for the Technovation challenge, a competition in which girls create mobile applications that provide service to their communities. She wishes to help promote women and minorities entering into STEM.  

Sources: 

“Bradford, Laurence. “Dr. Deborah Berebichez on Overcoming Barriers to Achievement for Women in Stem.” Forbes, November 22, 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurencebradford/2016/11/15/trailblazing-in-physics-data-science-and-beyond-with-deborah-berebichez/.  

“Deborah Berebichez - a Non-Stop Skeptic in a Believer's World.” May 22, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7plWdeamsEg.  

Douglas, Dinah. “Deborah Berebichez.” JWI, January 29, 2016. https://www.jwi.org/articles/women-to-watch-2015/deborah-berebichez.  

“Improve the Red Mente (Women in STEM).” GlobalGiving. Accessed April 11, 2023. https://www.globalgiving.org/microprojects/improve-the-red-mente-women-in-stem/. 

“Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Names 2013's Top Stem Contributors.” June 29, 2018. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/society-of-hispanic-professional-engineers-names-2013s-top-stem-contributors-223156751.html.