She received her Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from Iowa State University in 2003. After postdoctoral positions at the University of Namur in Belgium and the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL) of FORTH in Greece, she joined the University of Exeter in the UK, where she was a lecturer until recently. Her research focuses on extraordinary light control with complex photonic media, and encompasses a broad range of topics in photonic crystals, metamaterials, and plasmonics areas. She is also serving as a section editor for the Journal of the European Optical Society (JEOS-RP) and as the co-organizer of the SPIE Active Photonic Materials conference.