top of page
headshotcropped.jpg

Lydia Kisley, PhD

Assistant Professor
Departments of Physics and Chemistry
Case Western Reserve University

Short CV | Twitter LinkedIn | Physics Dept Profile

Education and Training:
Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2015-2018
NSF Graduate Research Fellow & Doctor of Philosophy, Rice University, 2015
Bachelor of Science, Wittenberg University, 2010

Notable Honors and Awards:
DOE Early Career Research Program Award, 2024-2029

NSF CAREER Award, 2022-2027

NIH NIGMS Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award, 2021-2026   

Cottrell Scholar, 2023-2026

Kavli Foundation Emerging Leader in Chemistry Keynote Lectureship, 2023

Allen Distinguished Investigator, 2022-2025

3M Non-tenured Faculty Award 2022-2025

J. Bruce Jackson, M.D., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring Nominee, 2021
Scialog Fellow, Chemical Machinery of the Cell, 2020-2021
Forbes 30 Under 30, 2017

Bio:

Lydia was born and raised in the Cleveland area. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Wittenberg University in 2010. During undergrad, she participated in research at Clemson University on silver nanoparticle self-assembly and at the University of Colorado at Boulder on nanofabrication of circuits containing GaN through which she gained an appreciation for interdisciplinary research. Lydia then left the great state of Ohio for Texas, where she was a NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Rice University under Prof. Christy Landes. She received her Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry in 2015 studying ion-exchange chromatography - an important separation technique in the pharmaceutical industry - at the single molecule level.  She then was an Arnold O. Beckman-Theodore “Ted” Brown Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working with Prof. Martin GruebeleProf. Deborah Leckband, and Prof. Paul Braun to understand protein folding in polymer environments.

Lydia's research develops microscopies to inform and inspire the design of materials. Her research interests straddle the line between physics and chemistry, with aspects of biology, chemical engineering, and materials science mixed in. She enjoys collaborative work with diverse teams and has published with scientists and engineers from around the USA and world (McGill, Michigan, UNC, UC Santa Cruz, Montreal, Harvard, UCLA, Hokkaido, Kansas St., Houston, Rice, UIUC, CWRU). She is especially proud that her basic research results have led to collaborations with industry (3M, Lubrizol) and patents, where there is potential for science to impact applied, commercial products in society. Outside of research she enjoys coffee, boxing, Mexican cooking, spending time with friends and family, and *tries* to enjoy Cleveland sports.

bottom of page