South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
) is an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...
and
material scientist
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries.
The intellectual origins of materials scien ...
chemistry
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
,
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...
and
material sciences
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of finding uses for materials in other fields and industries.
The intellectual origins of materials scien ...
. As of 2020 she is a
tenure-track
Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...
assistant professor
Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea.
Overview
This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...
at the
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland".
Like its sister institution E ...
(EPFL) in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, where she directs the Laboratory for Functional Inorganic Materials.
Career
Queen studied chemistry and mathematics at
Lander University
Lander University is a public university
A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national u ...
in
Greenwood, South Carolina
Greenwood is a city in and the county seat of Greenwood County, South Carolina. The population in the 2020 United States Census was 22,545 down from 23,222 at the 2010 census. The city is home to Lander University.
History
In 1823 John McG ...
,
USA
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
. She then pursued a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in
inorganic chemistry
Inorganic chemistry deals with chemical synthesis, synthesis and behavior of inorganic compound, inorganic and organometallic chemistry, organometallic compounds. This field covers chemical compounds that are not carbon-based, which are the subj ...
at
Clemson University
Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...
. From 2011 to 2012 she was a visiting scholar in laboratory of Jeffrey R. Long at
University of California Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...
postdoctoral fellow
A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...
with Craig Brown.
In the position of a project scientist, Queen joined the Molecular Foundry at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
in 2012. Here she helped build a new user program focused on the synthesis and characterization of porous adsorbents. During her time there she worked on a number of projects focused on the use of
polymer
A polymer () is a chemical substance, substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeat unit, repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their br ...
- metal-organic frameworks (MOF) or MOF-based membranes for a variety of globally relevant gas separations such as
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...
capture from flue gas and water capture from air.
In 2015, she was nominated as
tenure-track
Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...
assistant professor
Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea.
Overview
This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...
at Department of Chemical Engineering of
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (, EPFL) is a public university, public research university in Lausanne, Switzerland, founded in 1969 with the mission to "train talented engineers in Switzerland".
Like its sister institution E ...
(EPFL) in Switzerland. Her Laboratory for Functional Inorganic Materials is based at the EPFL Valais Wallis campus in Sion,
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.
Research
Queen's research is focused on the synthesis and characterization of novel porous adsorbents, namely metal-organic frameworks, and their corresponding composites, which are of interest in a number of host-guest applications. Her research aims at contributing knowledge towards solving globally relevant problems, like reducing energy consumption, cutting CO2 emissions, water purification, the extraction of valuable commodities from waste, and chemical conversion processes.
Queen became known to a wider audience through her
TEDx Talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...
on "Cut Carbon to Save Lives", her
Aeon
The word aeon , also spelled eon (in American and Australian English), originally meant "life", "vital force" or "being", "generation" or "a period of time", though it tended to be translated as "age" in the sense of "ages", "forever", "timele ...
article on "Could mining gold from waste reduce its great cost?", and multiple appearances in the news outlets.