I grew up in the rural town of Dwight, IL, about two hours south of Chicago.  Ironically enough, physics was one of my least favorite classes in high school!  I would later come to appreciate the elegant math underlying our physical understanding of the universe.

I met my husband, Patrick Louden, in a Classical Mechanics class at the University of Notre Dame.  Together, we love to hike and camp, particularly in Northern Michigan.

The University of Notre Dame

I defended my PhD in condensed matter physics from the University of Notre Dame in May of 2018.  While there, I worked with Professor Morten Eskildsen on understanding the complex dynamics of vortex lattice domains found in type II superconductors like MgB2.  Most of this work used the technique of small-angle neutron scattering, which gave me the opportunity to travel to many national labs such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the Institut Laue-Langevin in France, and the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland.

Lewis University

I received my Bachelor’s degree from Lewis University in May of 2013, with a major in physics and minor in mathematics.  Lewis University is a small, liberal arts university located in Romeoville, IL.  While there, I had the opportunity to work on diverse problems such as simulating particle interactions using G4Beamline and designing a set of functional optical tweezers from basic lab equipment.