My research aims to improve the production of energy from biological waste products, diverting waste from landfills and producing a sustainable form of energy. I use enzymes produced by fungi to break down the main component of plant biomass, cellulose, into fermentable sugars.
I have always been a curious person, and I enjoy understanding how things work. This curiosity led me to pursue engineering. I love chemistry, and I also enjoy spending time outdoors. Therefore, environmental engineering seemed like the perfect field to combine my passions and skills.
I was inspired to study engineering by my high school calculus teacher, who recognized my knack for problem-solving and suggested I look into the field when applying to colleges. I was also very interested in medicine and pharmacology, which led me to apply for biomedical engineering (BME) programs to get a blend of the engineering mindset with the medical aspects and applications.
I am currently doing research on characterizing cancerous tissue within the THz band (between the microwave and infrared spectrums) to help identify the presence of cancer within the body through a simple and painless saliva sample. I love applying my interests in physics and photonics to help identify a very real problem that we all have been impacted by one way or another.
Throughout my high school life, I was good at these STEM-related classes, and I enjoyed them. I wanted to continue to study these topics for the rest of my life. That is the reason why I pursued studying engineering. I cannot say that engineering is an easy field, but what motivates me the most is to show that women can indeed be very successful in the engineering field.
When I started undergrad, I was an IT major intending to concentrate on Information Security, because I had looked at a cyber security engineering degree and thought it was too hard. During my first semester, I met with my Honors College advisor and when she looked at my credentials, and the math class I was taking "for fun" at the time (Calc 3 Honors), she questioned why I was not in a more challenging program.
