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Tina Brower-Thomas

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Professor
Tina Louise Brower-Thomas
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
Brower-Thomas leading a nanotechnology demonstration at the Marine Corps Systems Command Quantico STEM Camp in 2019
Born
Tina Louise Brower
Education
  • B.S. Chemistry, Howard University, 1995
  • M.S. Chemistry, New York University, 1997
  • PhD Materials Chemistry, New York University, 2002[4][5]
AwardsWomen in STEM Champion Award –"For Cutting Edge Research Education and Outreach"[1][2]
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Thesis Self-Assembled Multilayers of α,ω-Aromatic Dithols Formed by Transition Metals[3]  (2002)
Academic advisorsAbraham Ulman

Tina Louise Brower-Thomas is an American nanotechnology and quantum materials researcher and STEM education advocate. She is the Education Director at the Center for Integrated Quantum Materials, and Executive Director of its Howard University branch.

Early life and education

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Brower-Thomas's parents were William A. Brower, who was known for backstage work in the Washington, D.C., jazz community,[6] and Anita Hillman Brower, who worked in the Howard University College of Pharmacy.[6][7] She attended Montgomery County Public Schools.[8] She was interested in chemistry from an early age; as a youth, she would attempt to concoct her own cleaning solutions, in some cases ruining her kitchen floor and eating holes in her coat.[7] Her mother encouraged her interests by providing her with a chemistry set and taking her into the laboratories at Howard University.[7]

She received a B.S. in chemistry from Howard University. She then attended Polytechnic University (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering), receiving an M.S. in chemistry and a PhD in materials chemistry, focusing on molecular self-assembly of hierarchical molecular structures on gold surfaces.[8][9]

Career

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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 using semimetal bismuth nanowire arrays and graphene published by Brower-Thomas and colleagues

She was a postdoctoral research fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.[9] 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.[10][11] After her postdoctoral position, she was a consultant to DARPA and the Department of Homeland Security.[9]

She returned to Howard University in 2007,[9] initially working with Gary Lynn Harris to mentor undergraduate students.[7] She became the Education Director at the Center for Integrated Quantum Materials, a National Science Foundation-funded collaboration between Harvard University, Howard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Museum of Science in Boston. She also became Executive Director of its Howard University branch.[12][1] Her research program includes molecular self-assembly, surface functionalization, chemical vapor deposition, and chemical intercalation of 2D materials. As of 2022, she also has a visiting faculty appointment at Harvard University.[9] In 2023, Brower-Thomas and Kenneth Evans-Lutterodt of Brookhaven National Laboratory received a $1.5 million grant on diamond thin films for quantum information systems sponsored by the Office of Naval Research's Department of Defense’s University Instrumentation Program (DURIP).[13]

Brower-Thomas is known for her work in STEM education. She emphasizes early STEM education and engagement at the high school and earlier levels, in order to retain interest in STEM careers especially by women and people of color.[12][14] She has said that lack of access to resources at schools that serve underserved communities could cause a quantum version of the digital divide.[15] She also emphasizes the interdisciplinary of quantum information as a field.[12][14]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Tina Brower-Thomas". Howard University. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  2. ^ Murphy, Diana (January 24, 2022). "Member Spotlight – Tina Brower Thomas". Brookhaven National Laboratory. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  3. ^ Louise-Brower, Tina (2002). Self-Assembled Multilayers of α,ω-Aromatic Dithols Formed by Transition Metals. Thesis. ISBN 9798371918543. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
  4. ^ "CV: Tina L. Brower-Thomass, PhD" (PDF). Howard University. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
  5. ^ "Dr. Tina Brower-Thomas". LinkedIn. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Schudel, Matt (April 17, 2021). "William A. Brower, fixture in D.C. jazz as writer, producer and stage manager, dies at 72". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Kim Michelle; Newel, Pania; Zhang, Lucy (August 18, 2021). "This Academic Life – Ep.15 – Quantum Education". RSS (Podcast). RSS America LLC. Event occurs at 3:00–7:45. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  8. ^ a b "Increasing STEM Awareness: A Conversation with Tina Brower-Thomas". U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative. June 22, 2019. 0:35–1:40. Retrieved March 18, 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e Murphy, Diana (January 1, 2022). "Member Spotlight – Tina Brower Thomas". Q-Review. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  10. ^ Mateu, M. G. (January 1, 2011). "Virus engineering: functionalization and stabilization". Protein Engineering Design and Selection. 24 (1–2): 53–63. doi:10.1093/protein/gzq069. ISSN 1741-0126. PMID 20923881.
  11. ^ 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. (July 2005). "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. PMID 17193509.
  12. ^ a b c Meiksin, Judy (November 1, 2020). "Quantum materials R&D forges ahead". MRS Bulletin. 45 (11): 885–888. Bibcode:2020MRSBu..45..885M. doi:10.1557/mrs.2020.288. ISSN 1938-1425. PMC 7790052. PMID 33437120.
  13. ^ "A partnership forged in diamond". EurekAlert!. Retrieved February 6, 2024.
  14. ^ a b Greenemeier, Larry (2020). "IBM Roundtable: Building a Quantum Workforce Requires Interdisciplinary Education and the Promise of Real Jobs". IBM Newsroom. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  15. ^ Hughes-Castleberry, Kenna (September 22, 2021). "Help Wanted: How to Build a Diverse Quantum Workforce". The Quantum Insider. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
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Tina Brower-Thomas publications indexed by Google Scholar.

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