This project also integrates education with research by providing opportunities for at-risk youth, undergraduate, and graduate students to get involved with advanced materials science. By including at-risk youth, Prof. Andrew hopes to help broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering careers.

Prof. Andrew joined the University of Florida faculty in January 2011.  Before coming to UF she was a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Michael J. Sailor’s lab in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego.  She received her B.S. in Materials Science from Northwestern University in 2002, and her Ph.D. in Materials Engineering in 2008 from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Her research group focuses on the development of nanocomposite materials with novel multifunctional electronic and biomedical applications.