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:
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 a Arnold O. Beckman-Theodore “Ted” Brown Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign working with Prof. Martin Gruebele, Prof. Deborah Leckband, and Prof. Paul Braun to understand protein folding in polymer environments.
Lydia was recognized as one of the “brightest young… innovators and game changers” by Forbes on the 30 Under 30 list in 2017 for her research developing microscopies that better inform and inspire the design of soft 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). Outside of research she enjoys coffee, boxing, Mexican cooking, spending time with friends and family, and tries to enjoy Cleveland sports.