Nadya Mason
Dean and Professor
Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
Nadya Mason specializes in experimental studies of quantum materials, with a research focus on the electronic properties of nanoscale and correlated systems, such as nanoscale wires, atomically thin membranes, and nanostructured superconductors. Her research is relevant to applications involving nanoscale and quantum computing elements.
In addition to maintaining a rigorous research program and teaching, Mason works to increase diversity in the physical sciences, particularly through mentoring, and is former chair of the American Physical Society Committee on Minorities, where she helped initiate the National Mentoring Community. She has promoted science on local television programming, at the Museum of Science and Industry, in Chicago, and in a TED Talk, “Scientific Curiosity.” She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and her work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Emerging Leader Abie Award and the American Physical Society Maria Goeppert Mayer and Edward A. Bouchet Awards.
Mason received her BS from Harvard University and her doctorate from Stanford University, both in physics. She was previously the Rosalyn S. Yalow Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she directed the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and also served as founding director of the Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center.