(5dw) Chemical Engineering and Engineering Education

In my PhD research performed at Northwestern University, I used in situ x-ray techniques in conjunction with complementary rheological testing to probe links between nanocomposite microstructure and rheology in simple shear and complex flows.

I am currently doing post-doctoral research in Engineering Education at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. My research focus is on the student/advisor relationship and its impact on the career decisions of doctoral students. While there are many potential factors influencing decisions students make to pursue a career in academia, an important factor is the knowledge students have of what an academic career entails. The student/ advisor relationship is a primary source of the first hand knowledge doctoral students acquire about academic careers. In addition to formal interactions with their faculty advisors, graduate students form opinions regarding the professorship based on informal observations of their advisor's workload and life choices. My research investigates how the perceptions of students are formed from interactions with their advisors and how these perceptions ultimately influence the decision of PhD candidates to pursue or not to pursue a career in academia.

My career objective is to work in a Chemical Engineering department where I can teach traditional chemical engineering courses and perform research in engineering education with a focus on mentorship, engineering in the media, and engineering identity.