I first heard of Pattie Maes in 1997 in the most unlikely place – the pages of People Magazine’s Most Beautiful People edition. The reason she stood out was because she was not an actress or a movie star – Pattie was then an associate professor at the MIT Media Laboratory. Instantly, I thought, here’s a woman who has it all – smart, successful, beautiful, and visionary. Pretty much the epitome of the Nerdy Chick.

Currently, Pattie is the director of the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group (which she founded) and the associate Department Head for the Media, Arts and Sciences Department (which all means that at science juggernaut MIT, Pattie is a mover and shaker). Her research is on the interaction between humans and computers and how computers can help us be smarter, something she calls “intelligence augmentation.” In other words, she isn’t just studying science – she’s creating new fields that other people haven’t imagined.

Quotes from Pattie Maes:

• [On her life motto] “I am just being playful. I like working hard and having fun. It is really my hobby rather than work. In our team it is all about staying playful, open-minded and silly. It’s about taking risks and trying to never grow up. We just have fun.”
• “We like to invent new disciplines or look at new problems, and invent bandwagons rather than jump on them.”
• “We are a social species, and we can benefit from each other’s intelligence and each other’s problem solving.”
• “I try to eat healthy, but being Belgian, I’m also addicted to chocolate.”

Learn more about Pattie HERE.