Popular Science magazine has named USC assistant professor Andrea Armani one of their “Brilliant Ten,” a title reserved for young scientists dramatically impacting their fields of study. Armani works in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science in the Viterbi School of Engineering and leads research that draws from physics, chemistry and biology.
“If the Brilliant Ten are the faces of things to come, the world will be a safer, smarter and brighter place,” read Popular Science’s article.
Armani earned this title through her research and development of new scientific tools. She works with a group of 20 undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students to conduct her research. One of their projects is to create the components to make an optical computer, a computer that uses photons instead of electrons to keep the system cool, a reality.
Armani will be teaming up with Professor Alan Willner of USC’s Information Sciences Institute to help take the system from individual components to a full computer.
Not all the projects Armani is involved with, however, are computer related. Popular Science also focused on Armani’s development of specialized sensors such as resonant cavity sensors, which Armani believes might be used to detect small traces of disease. These sensors could be potentially used to study how drugs bind to their targets.
Armani has also developed a ultraviolet sensor that can monitor an individual’s sun exposure throughout the day, which could be especially useful to children and those prone to skin cancer. Her sensors could potentially be used to detect radioactivity, biological weapons or waterborne pathogens.
“When I was in ninth grade, my parents told me that I had to choose a focus, and now I tell them, ‘See? I was right; I didn’t have to choose. Why choose when you can do it all?’” Armani told Viterbi.
Armani studied not just one, but three fields of interest: physics, chemistry and biology. Her expansive knowledge in the three fields allows her to conduct research on a wide variety of topics.
“Industrial R&D, if done right, should be very results-focused, aware of the tyranny of time,” Robert Carnes, a former Battelle research director, told Popular Science. “She can out-industry industry.”
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