Katherine Aidala

Katherine Aidala studies the fundamental properties of materials and devices, providing insight that could lead to technological innovation. With expertise in atomic force microscopy, she enjoys collaborating and has studied a wide range of materials and properties, including magnetic nanostructures, mechanical properties of bacterial biofilms, and electrical properties of organic semiconductors, nanocrystal quantum dots, and 2D materials. Her work has earned her recognitions including being named as an APS Fellow, the APS Prize for a Faculty Member for Research at an Undergraduate Institution, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), and being named a Cottrell Scholar.  

Aidala enjoys teaching at all levels of the curriculum, working to engage every student to promote fundamental understanding of the material and appreciation for the relevant applications. She regularly teaches Electronics, providing hands on experience designing and building circuits in the lab. She developed a first year seminar on Gender in Science that attempts to answer the question, "Why aren't there more women in science?" Students read primarily from social science literature, paying careful attention to how the answer changes for different disciplines within the sciences. In her work with Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab, Aidala leads efforts across the entire liberal arts curriculum to decrease the apprehension students feel when encountering unfamiliar technology in their learning and in their lives, while enhancing understanding of what it means to live in a physical, material world and sparking curiosity and creativity along the way.