She was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her doctoral work and worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. She was awarded the 2010-2011 WiSE Merit Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research and the 2015 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award for her current biosensors research at Mizzou. Her work explores the interfaces between surface chemistry, structure, composition and bulk, physical properties of advanced materials for optics, electronics and environmental applications with a focus on the development of new techniques and materials systems that allow tailoring of optoelectronic material properties at the molecular level. Using principles of rational design and self-assembly, she designs and characterizes novel, nanostructured materials for optoelectronic devices.