Education

• Ph.D. California Institute of Technology
• M.S. California Institute of Technology
• B.S. Iowa State University

Research

• Biosensing
  • Optical biosensors
  • Inherently-selective sensing materials
• Materials
  • Optical and Spectroscopic properties
  • Optoelectronic materials
  • Hierarchical materials
  • Nanostructured materials and devices
  • Biocompatible materials
  • Efficient techniques for materials characterization
• Biophotonics
  • Sensing / detection
  • Wound tracking and assessment
  • Laser dermatology
• Applications:
  • Environmental monitoring
  • Medical monitoring and diagnostics
  • Materials characterization

Research Summary

Heather Hunt is an associate professor in the Bioengineering Department at the University of Missouri. She was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her doctoral work and worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California. She was awarded the 2010-2011 WiSE Merit Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Research, and the 2015 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award for her current biosensors research at Mizzou. Her work explores the interfaces between surface chemistry, structure, composition and bulk, physical properties of advanced materials for optics, electronics and environmental applications with a focus on the development of new techniques and materials systems that allow tailoring of optoelectronic material properties at the molecular level. Using principles of rational design and self-assembly, she designs and characterizes novel, nanostructured biomaterials for optoelectronic devices.