biography

Emma Sarah Persky (she/her) is a British computer scientist, astrophysicist, and activist. Originally from London, she initially studied astrophysics at the University of Manchester, but left the programme after being outed as a trans woman. Persky went on to study computer science at Imperial College London, before moving to the US. There, she worked at several startups, leading up to a tenure at Google. Combining her fields of study, Persky subsequently worked at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, where she lead the supercomputing division. She is an activist for feminism, gender diversity in tech, and sex positivity.