Abstract: TBD

Bio: Vernita Gordon is a Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin, associated with the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics, the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, and the LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease. Prof. Gordon received her BSc in Physics and her PhD from Harvard University in 2003. She went on to do postdocs at University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, including as a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, before joining the faculty at UT Austin 2010. There she has built a very successful experimental biophysics group focused on how cells interact with each other and with their environment, with a special focus on biofilms including their mechanical properties and immune system effects. Among other honors, Dr. Gordon was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2023. Dr. Gordon also holds Trull Centennial Professorship and Elizabeth B. Gleeson Professorship fellowships. In addition, Dr. Gordon has received several teaching awards and was previously a Provost’s Teaching Fellow.