Born and raised in the Golden Isles area of Georgia, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the Southeast; marshy beaches, toasty summers, and southern hospitality were truly the staples of my early life. Staying in Georgia for my college education, I studied mechanical engineering for my undergraduate degree, and after working in manufacturing engineering for three years I decided to pivot towards a more research-oriented career path, which eventually led me to graduate school.
I worked in the Nanomaterials Fabrication Research Lab at Notre Dame (with Dr. Svetlana Neretina and Dr. Robert Hughes) for the duration of my Ph.D. creating new fabrication techniques for manufacturing highly-active epitaxial plasmonic devices geared towards realizing the next generation of sensing, catalytic, and photovoltaic technology. I am particularly interested in physical phenomena at the nanoscale, especially with regards to materials for computing/electronics and I studied how processing and fabrication techniques can lead to subsequent shape, size, composition, and crystallinity control specifically at the nanoscale.
When I’m not in the lab/classroom you will probably find me tinkering around with my PC, mountain biking, flying FPV drones, walking my dog, or chasing the cloudless night!
Juna, my colorado mountain dog! (130lbs of beefy goodness)