An African-American woman standing in a white lab coat holding a microphone to her mouth in her right hand, and a molecular model in her outstretched left hand
Tina Brower-Thomas leading a nanotechnology demonstration at the Marine Corps Systems Command Quantico STEM Camp in 2019
A schematic showing a light beam at top, contacting a graphene film with a source and drain at its edges, above an array of vertical bismuth nanowires, above a block of bulk bismuth
Schematic of a room-temperature photodetector utilizing semimetal bismuth nanowire arrays coupled with graphene, published by Brower-Thomas and colleagues in 2017[1]

Tina Louise Brower-Thomas is the Education Director at the Center for Integrated Quantum Materials, and Executive Director of its Howard University branch.[2][3]

Brower-Thomas received a B.S. in chemistry from Howard University. She then attended the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, receiving an M.S. in chemistry and a Ph.D. in materials chemistry. She was a postdoctoral research fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.[4] As part of her postdoctoral research, she was part of a project that built electrically conductive molecular networks using cowpea mosaic virus engineered with surface cystine residues to anchor gold nanoparticles.[5][6] She was then a consultant to DARPA and the Department of Homeland Security.[4]

She returned to Howard University in 2007. As of 2022, she also has a visiting faculty appointment at Harvard University. Her research focus includes molecular self-assembly, surface functionalization, chemical vapor deposition, and chemical intercalation of 2D materials.[4]

Brower-Thomas is known for her work in education. She emphasizes early STEM education at the high school and earlier levels, since engagement is important in retaining interest in STEM careers, especially for women and people of color. She also emphasizes the interdisciplinary of quantum information as a field.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ Huber, Tito E.; Brower, Tina; Johnson, Scott. D.; Belk, John H.; Hunt, Jeff H. (2017). "Photocurrent in Bismuth Junctions with Graphene". doi:10.48550/ARXIV.1709.05408. ((cite journal)): Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ a b Meiksin, Judy (2020-11-01). "Quantum materials R&D forges ahead". MRS Bulletin. 45 (11): 885–888. doi:10.1557/mrs.2020.288. ISSN 1938-1425. PMC 7790052. PMID 33437120.((cite journal)): CS1 maint: PMC format (link)
  3. ^ "Tina Brower-Thomas". Howard University. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  4. ^ a b c Murphy, Diana (2022-01-01). "Member Spotlight – Tina Brower Thomas". Q-Review. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  5. ^ Mateu, M. G. (2011-01-01). "Virus engineering: functionalization and stabilization". Protein Engineering Design and Selection. 24 (1–2): 53–63. doi:10.1093/protein/gzq069. ISSN 1741-0126.
  6. ^ Blum, Amy Szuchmacher; Soto, Carissa M.; Wilson, Charmaine D.; Brower, Tina L.; Pollack, Steven K.; Schull, Terence L.; Chatterji, Anju; Lin, Tianwei; Johnson, John E.; Amsinck, Christian; Franzon, Paul; Shashidhar, Ranganathan; Ratna, Banahalli R. (2005-07). "An Engineered Virus as a Scaffold for Three-Dimensional Self-Assembly on the Nanoscale". Small. 1 (7): 702–706. doi:10.1002/smll.200500021. ISSN 1613-6810. ((cite journal)): Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Greenemeier, Larry (2020). "IBM Roundtable: Building a Quantum Workforce Requires Interdisciplinary Education and the Promise of Real Jobs". IBM Newsroom. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
More