Adrienne Stiff-Roberts | |
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Alma mater | Spelman College Georgia Institute of Technology |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Duke University |
Adrienne Stiff-Roberts is an Associate Professor of Electrical engineering at Duke University. She studies novel hybrid materials for optoelectronic and energy devices.
Stiff-Roberts completed her bachelor's degree in physics at Spelman College.[1] She was part of a NASA and Spelman College Women in Science and Engineering program.[2] During the summer vacation, Stiff-Roberts worked at Ames Research Center.[2] She joined Georgia Institute of Technology, where she earned a Bachelor of Engineering in 1999.[1] She moved to University of Michigan for her graduate studies, studying quantum dot photodetectors, gaining her PhD in 2004.[1] She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[1] She was funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Graduate Scholars Fellowship and AT&T Labs Fellowship.[3] She was also awarded the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.[4]
In 2008 Stiff-Roberts was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the Office of Naval Research.[5] In 2014 she won an Energy Initiative grant to study plasmonic solar cells.[6] At Duke University, Stiff-Roberts leads a lab focussed on Resonant Infrared Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (RIR-MAPLE).[7][8][9][10] It is a versatile technology that has evolved from pulsed laser deposition, which offers precise control of a material's composition.[11] The technique involves freezing a solution of molecular building blocks, then blasting them with a laser in a vacuum chamber.[12] The laser is tuned to the molecular bonds of the frozen solvent.[12] She is working with David Mitzi to create perovskite solar cells.[12][13]
Stiff-Roberts is involved with several initiatives to improve diversity within engineering.[14] At Duke University Stiff-Roberts runs the Student Engineers Network, Strengthening Opportunities in Research (SENSOR) Saturday Academy for minority students in the 8th grade.[15][16] She won the 2016 Julian Abele Award for graduate mentor of the year.[17] In 2017, Stiff-Roberts took part in Duke University's celebration of Hidden Figures.[18] She is a member of the National Society of Black Physicists.[19]