Vicki Colvin
Dr. Vicki Colvin is the Victor Kreible Professor of Chemistry and Engineering at Brown University and the Director of its Center for Biomedical Engineering. A physical chemist by training, Professor Colvin studies how very small crystalline materials such as quantum dots and carbon nanotubes interact with environmental and biological systems. This makes her research very relevant to assessing nanomaterial risks, as well as relevant to the development of new types of medical and environmental technologies. From 2001 to 2011 she was at Rice University and the Director of the NSF Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN). CBEN was one of the nation’s Nanoscience and Engineering Centers and the first to study the risks and benefits of nanotechnology to the environment and to medicine. Colvin has received numerous accolades research and teaching, including Phi Beta Kappa’s Teaching Prize, the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, one of Discover Magazine‘s “Top 20 Scientists to Watch”, and in 2015 the SNOW award for research achievement from the international sustainable nanotechnology organization. She received her PhD in 1994 at U.C. Berkeley and her undergraduate degree from Stanford.