Leela Solomon

Since I was twelve years old, theoretical physics has captured my heart and remains my first love. I am incessantly curious about how things work and spent most of my college years voluntarily reading the textbook, organizing subject-matter discussions and peer tutoring intro-level students.

As the daughter of teachers, I consider teaching a privilege and love nothing more than helping my students to connect with the material and unlock their own deepest potentials.

Born and raised in the colorful and multi-ethnic Caribbean islands of Trinidad & Tobago, I was trained under the British-based Cambridge Advanced-Level curriculum in math and physics and then went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in physics at Emory University and a Master of Science in renewable energy engineering at Stanford University.

Since that time, I’ve worn many hats—working as an engineering consultant for renewable power plants, a development worker in remote Nicaraguan villages, a research analyst at Stanford, and an analyst for novel technology startups, among other adventures. I truly enjoy studying how to communicate science and technology concepts to very different listeners and try to use this experience to help students build from their current foundations.

I love the clear and methodical way that math and physics train the brain to think, and I believe that this general training can set students up to succeed in a wide variety of fields. In addition to the core subject training, I encourage students to develop curiosity and elegance in their solutions in order to cultivate creativity, even in highly logical work.

In my free time, I am usually reading, enjoying the California weather with my husband, or working on public service projects focused on technologies for underserved communities.