Her research focuses on understanding how cells interact with materials, including nanoparticles and conducting polymers, and includes the use of advanced fluorescence microscopy approaches to image this interaction. Dr. Payne has received many honors including an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award in 2009 and a DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2011. She earned a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Chicago (1998) and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley (2003). Dr. Payne spent 2003-2006 as an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University. She was a member of the faculty of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Tech from 2007-2017.