Shubhra Gangopadhyay is the one of the few female faculty at MU’s Center for Micro/Nano Systems and Nanotechnology. She’s also the one in charge of developing the center. In the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, of which Gangopadhyay is the LaPierre Endowed Chair Professor, she is one of three women. “There is a shortage of female scientists and female professors, in general,” Gangopadhyay says. “And in engineering, it is really not good.”

Gangopadhyay’s work falls into three categories. She uses nano particles to harvest energy, create new and better computer chips, and design sensors. For example, her lab has created a “lab on a chip,” which will analyze thousands of cells simultaneously as well as a regular-sized lab.