I am originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado, where I earned my B.S and M.S in chemistry at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs. Much of my work before joining the Morin group at UNL centered around the synthesis and use of hydrogel materials for the purification of single walled carbon nanotubes. My PhD research in the Morin group was a natural transition, where I now work with adaptive hydrogel materials bound to elastomeric supports to develop soft actuators. We hope to leverage the highly tunable properties and response characteristics of different hydrogels to create multifunctional materials with improved compliance and versatility over conventional hard materials.
