FMS: SuperWomen in Flash Leadership Award Winner

Flash Memory Summit announces the 4th annual SuperWomen in Flash Leadership Award winner, Dr. Yan Li, VP, memory technology, Western Digital Corp.

The award recognizes women who have shown outstanding leadership in the growth, development, and use of flash and related technologies and systems.

Dr. Li’s years of work and leadership are illustrated by over 200 patents and includes the development of the first TLC in 2008. Today she leads efforts in the next gen BiCS NAND.

“To me, NAND flash is the most amazing technology in the world, and I am so proud to be recognized for helping to advance both flash and opportunities for women in this industry that I love so much,” she said. “I’m thankful to the mentors who have invested in me over my career, and I am committed to helping develop the next gen of flash engineers. As we look ahead to the next 35 years of flash, the possibilities for innovation are endless for those who foster diversity and challenge conventional thinking.“

Chuck Sobey, chairperson, FMS, said: “This award is critically important to the entire staff of FMS. We know recognition and highlighting the experiences and success of women will build more leadership in our industry.“

“We are thrilled to honor Dr. Yan Li, this year’s recipient. And thankful for the support of the community and the venue to gather. Our digital economy is driven by the data technologies these women (and men) develop and devise ways to protect. We need more of these great thinkers to address the issues of growth, scale and security of our data,” said Camberley Bates, MD, Evaluator Group, and founding chair of SuperWomen.

Past recipients of the SuperWomen Leadership Award

• Amber Huffman, Intel fellow and chairperson of the board of directors of the NVMe Working Group
• Calline Sanchez, IBM VP WW systems services and technical universities
• Barbara Nelson, VP cloud, WekaIO
• Deepti Reddy, ‘Rising Star’ recipient, Dell Technologies