Dr. Symone Alexander is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Auburn University. During her time as an Eckert Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Georgia Institute of Technology in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, she led investigations on extreme organismic biophysics with a focus on ultra-fast motion in nature in Prof. Saad Bhamla’s research group. She earned her Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science and Engineering as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Case Western Reserve University, advised by Prof. LaShanda Korley. During her graduate career, she led research on the influence of high molecular weight polymers on self-assembling small molecules and how those networks can be utilized to generate bioinspired, responsive polymer composites. She obtained a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Howard University in 2013, where she investigated DNA-polymer assemblies utilizing Atomic Force Microscopy under the advisement of Dr. Preethi Chandran and Dr. Joseph Cannon.

Dr. Alexander recently served as the elected chair of the 2019 Polymers Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) and actively participates in science communication through via Twitter. She is a recipient of numerous awards and honors, including grad and postdoc fellowships, selection as a 2020 Emerging Leader by Georgia Tech Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, selection as a 2019 American Chemical Society Future Faculty Scholar (ACS PMSE), and being selected as a 2018 Rising Star in Chemical Engineering by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).