Meet Our Scholars

Shannon Moran was born and raised in Michigan in an Irish Catholic family. Growing up, her parents supported her love of math and science and in 2012 Shannon received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While at MIT, Shannon discovered an aptitude for scientific research, resulting in multiple high-impact peer-reviewed publications and a research fellowship at the National University of Singapore. After spending three years in management consulting at the Boston Consulting Group after college, Shannon began her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan in 2015. Her research focuses on the computational study of non-equilibrium material fabrication. Despite her academic successes, Shannon remained closeted until the end of college. After volunteering with the O4U (Out for Undergrad) Business Conference in 2013, Shannon came to appreciate the importance of authenticity in the workplace. She continued to volunteer with O4U, eventually organizing the second-ever O4U Engineering Conference as Programming Director and establishing a foundational curriculum for future conferences. During her Ph.D., Shannon has spearheaded a series of communications workshops on research project management through the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering and Center for Entrepreneurship, reaching hundreds of engineering students. Through her work with O4U and oSTEM (Out in STEM), she is deeply committed to serving as a mentor to LGBTQ students in STEM fields, developing networks of LGBTQ individuals in these areas, and enabling students with the skills needed to be successful leaders in STEM.