Sandhya Susarla

Sandhya Susarla got her first spark of scientific curiosity from her dad, who is a mechanical engineer and scientist. As she explored the many fields in STEM, she was drawn to one in particular: materials.

“During my high school and undergraduate years, I found the materials world to be absolutely fascinating. It’s also diverse, ranging from man-made modern-day electronics to natural resources existing since thousands of years,” she says.

The importance of materials science in our everyday lives inspired Susarla to pursue a doctoral degree in materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University and to continue her work as a postdoctoral scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

She was selected as a Chateaubriand Fellow in 2018, which allowed her to work and study at Paris-Sud University in France for nine months while a student at Rice.

Susarla’s next move was to become an assistant professor of materials science and engineering in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of the seven schools in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

She says that ASU’s excellent research infrastructure facilities were a major draw for her.

“I’m excited to work in one of the world’s best research and innovation institutes and to mentor the next generation of scientists,” she says.

Susarla, who enjoys singing, traveling and reading, will be teaching MSE  Transmission Electron Microscopy I at ASU this fall.

“I truly believe that teaching and research is a rewarding job wherein you learn new things every day along with your students,” she says.

Meet the newest faculty members of the Fulton Schools of Engineering here.

Written by Erik Wirtanen