Dr. Lauren Webb Joins the Department

Dr. Lauren Webb received her A.B in Chemistry (Music minor) from Bowdoin College in 2000. She entered graduate school at the California Institute of Technology as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2005. She did her graduate work in the laboratory of Prof. Nathan Lewis, where she studied chemical and electronic properties of functionalized atomically flat silicon(111) surfaces.

Since 2005 she has been an NIH Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Chemistry Department at Stanford University, working in the laboratory of Prof. Steven Boxer. Her research has focused on quantifying electrostatic fields in proteins using vibrational Stark effect spectroscopy, a new technique recently developed in the Boxer lab. As a postdoc she has received the Burroughs Wellcome Fund’s Career Award at the Scientific Interface.

Lauren will join the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2008. Her research interests are centered around understanding and manipulating the mechanisms of interaction, organization, and self-assembly of biological macromolecules that lead to the complex and emergent properties of living systems. In her free time she plays the cello and enjoys cooking, reading, and the outdoors.