BA Grinnell College (Iowa), 1994, 
PhD California Institute of Technology NSF & Dow Fellowships, 2002 
Postoctoral Associate, University of North Carolina, 2002-2006
Visiting Scientist, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, 2005 

Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, 2006-present

Honors and Awards:
NSF CAREER Award, 2008

Our perceptions of “soft” materials (e.g., polymers or liquid crystals) rely mostly on bulk macroscopic properties and on observations made after synthesis and processing are complete.  However, to best design soft materials we must gain insights into their structure and dynamics on length scales ranging from molecular to micron-scale, as all these details govern macroscopic behavior.  We use “multi-modal” nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to investigate and quantify molecular motion, structure, dynamics, and morphology.  Thus, we hope to span the molecular and macroscopic worlds, both to give a deeper picture of soft material behavior and to inform synthesis and processing efforts.

Our diverse research group combines perspectives from Physical, Polymer, and Analytical Chemistry.  We make detailed measurements, develop physical and chemical models, and design and build custom instrumentation.

Specific interests in our group include:

• Investigating the roles of orientational order and transport in the operation of polymers for fuel cells, reverse-osmosis, batteries, and mechanical actuators.
• Correlation of bulk polymer deformation (rheology) with molecular and micron-scale details via “rheo-NMR.”
• Combining an array of NMR and other techniques (SAXS, microscopy, modeling) to gain overall perspectives, especially the use of gradient NMR methods such as microimaging, diffusometry, and electrophoretic NMR, and ²H NMR spectroscopy to measure orientational order.
• Exploring pathways to increasing NMR sensitivity, as well as applicability to new samples and in situ environments.