Stephen Ma graduated with summa cum laude with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the City College of New York (CCNY). At CCNY, he worked with Dr. Ilona Kretzschmar and Dr. Sonia Mathew on improving dye-sensitized solar cell efficiency. Additionally, he had the opportunity to conduct research on new Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) substrates in Changchun, China in working alongside Dr. Bing Zhao and Dr. John R. Lombardi. Currently, Stephen is pursuing his PhD in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware with Dr. Christopher J. Kloxin and Dr. Norman J. Wagner. His dissertation work focuses on novel ways to direct topographical changes in elastomers using photochemistry and mathematically modeling this behavior to inform and predict light-triggered surface modifications in a wide variety of systems.