Marija received her Sc.D. degree in Systems Science and Mathematics from the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at Washington University in 1980. She then undertook a long academic career, including senior faculty positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carnegie Mellon University. Marija’s research contributions center around modeling and control of electric power systems. Marija has been a pioneer in treating the power system in a hierarchical manner, leading to the introduction of interaction variables and her DyMonDS framework for conceptualizing communication requirements and shared variables for the power systems of today and tomorrow. Marija has also had a distinguished career as a teacher, developing power systems curricula at CMU and classes here at MIT, and has co-authored several important textbooks in the field. Marija has also performed an extraordinary amount of service on program committees, task forces, associate/guest editor roles, and, perhaps most notably, as an NSF Program Director. Among her many awards, she is an IEEE Life Fellow, has received the Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award by the IEEE Power & Energy Society, is a member of the Academia Europaea, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.