Elizabeth received her bachelor's degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Maryland. Her research at Maryland involved block copolymer nanostructures, both through campus labs and collaboration with a group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Following graduation, she worked as a materials engineer in the Aircraft Engineering Department at NAVAIR headquarters. She joined the University of Chicago and the Nealey group in June 2015 as a graduate student in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering PhD program.
Elizabeth is researching techniques for creating nanoporous membranes using cylinder forming block copolymers as the initial template. The goal of this research is to develop a consistent technique for forming robust membranes of customizable pore sizes for use in transport and diffusion studies. She is also involved with X-ray scattering for the Nealey group at the Advanced Photon Source (Argonne National Lab), where she is studying techniques for data collection and analysis on copolymer nanostructures.