Andrea is a rare species of native San Diegan who grew up close to the beach, but never learned to surf. Her interest in materials chemistry piqued in high school while volunteering in the chemistry lab of Michael Sailor. As an undergraduate, she had the opportunity to work in George Whitesides’s group and learn about self-assembly. Andrea decided to pursue her interest in both inorganic chemistry and self-assembly during her doctoral work at Berkeley, working with Peidong Yang. Her thesis focused on the synthesis and assembly of shaped metal nanoparticles. After working with solid-state materials for five years, Andrea decided to explore a new field by studying marine proteins in Daniel Morse’s group at UC Santa Barbara. She studied the properties of proteins found in the skin of cephalopods (like squid and octopus) that contribute to the ability of these sea creatures to camouflage themselves.

In 2009, Andrea joined the then newly established NanoEngineering Dept. and started her independent work on nanocomposites and plasmonics. If she’s not in her office, you can probably find her at the local crag or tending to her vegetable garden.

Education

A.B. in Chemistry and Physics, Harvard, 2002
Ph.D. in Chemistry, UC Berkeley, 2007
Post-doc in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, UC Santa Barbara, 2009

Awards and Honors

Qualcomm Faculty-Mentor-Advisor Fellowship, 2018
RSC Analyst Emerging Investigator, 2016
NanoEngineering Department Teacher of the Year Award, 2015
Sloan Fellowship in Chemistry, 2015
DARPA Young Faculty Award, 2014
Young Investigator Award, European Materials Research Society, 2013
RSC Emerging Investigator, 2013
Hellman Fellowship, 2010
NSF-NSFC Early Career Career Chemical Scientist in New Materials, 2009
IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists, 2008
UC Office of the President Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2007-2009
FACSS Tomas Hirschfeld Scholar Award, 2006
Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award, Silver, 2006
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, 2002-2005
Westinghouse Science & Talent Search Semi-finalist, 1998