The Fulbright scholar earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 2000. From 2000 to 2004, she was a postdoctoral researcher in applied physics at Stanford and a visiting scholar at Harvard University. Her research interests are in femtosecond laser nano- and microsurgery, plasmonic nanoparticles for laser nanosurgery, and two-photon luminescence imaging. She also studies miniaturized laser microsurgery probes for diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and microfluidics for in vivo nerve-regeneration studies.