Michelle Paquette

Michelle M. Paquette is a Research Professor within the Missouri Institute for Defense and Energy (MIDE) and the Division of Energy, Matter, and Systems (DEMS) at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). After growing up in Northern Ontario, Canada, she obtained her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Guelph, ON, Canada, in 2006, and her PhD in Chemistry as an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholar and a P.E.O. Endowed Scholar from the University of Victoria, BC, Canada, in 2010, where her research focused on the study of photomagnetic materials. She began at UMKC in 2011 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Condensed Matter Physics, and was promoted to Assistant Research Professor in 2012. Her current research lies at the interface of Chemistry and Physics, spanning the basic and applied science of unusual electronic materials, thin films, and thin-film-based devices, with focus on amorphous materials, boron-based solids, semi-insulating materials, dielectrics, photoswitches/detectors, novel materials growth processes, and surface science. She has received a Defense Threat Reduction Agency Young Investigator Award (2014) and an Intel Outstanding Researcher Award (2015) for her work. Outside of work, Michelle is Mom to daughter Luca, coaches and trains in CrossFit, and enjoys volleyball, nature and backpacking, gardening, music, reading, cooking/food, enjoying friends and family, and trying to get to the bottom of the meaning of life.