As a professor, I lead a research group which invents new types of optical devices, like lasers, to study living cells and proteins. I also teach an undergraduate class on nanomaterials.

While I really enjoyed my undergraduate and graduate coursework in physics and biology, I am more interested in applying this knowledge to real-life applications. Engineering allows me to do this.

I use photo- and electron lithography to pattern silicon wafers to make lasers. I perform optical and electron microscopy to image these lasers.

Getting to work as part of team and invent something new.

Seeing several undergraduates successfully complete their degrees and continue on to graduate school.

Discovering and inventing new things isn't easy, but the adage "try, try again" is extremely appropriate in the field of engineering. You should never give up on an experiment because it fails the first time.

I'm from Memphis TN, and married to another engineer.

Short term: see my students graduate and be fabulously successful. Long term: see my students help other students be successful.

There are three people. A graduate student (Prof. Ward Lopes) that I met when I was an undergraduate and my two post-doc advisors (Prof. Scott Fraser and Prof. Richard Flagan, both at Caltech).

In addition to a husband, I have two dogs and a cat. I also run.

Never give up.

University of Chicago, BA physics California Institute of Technology, PhD Applied Physics, minor Biology