Heather Shepherd

Materials Creation Training Program IGERT
University of California, Los Angeles


Heather Shepherd graduated from Mills College in 1996 with a BA in Chemistry. From there she then worked as an assistant synthetic chemist for Zeneca Ag. Inc. for one and a half years. She then worked in as an apprentice for private paper, painting and object conservators while teaching chemistry lab at Maybeck High School in Bekeley, CA. In Sept. 2001, Heather obtained her masters in Analytical Chemistry from Imperial College, University of London, where she studied the degradation of artificially aged triglyceride resins. In fall of 2001 she entered the PhD. program at Univ. California, Los Angeles, where she works with Prof. Robin Garrell on projects varying from investigating the oxidation of dodecaborate by tetrachloroaurate to form gold nanoparticles to the development of non-wetting coatings for use in digital microfluidic devices.

My research at UCLA has centered on the synthesis, fabrication and characterization of monolayers and thin films. The goal of one of the first project was to investigate polymer surface coatings of varying surface energy and morphology for applications in digital microfluidics. Droplet movement on 'superhydrophobic' surfaces in digital microfluidic devices was demonstrated in these studies. The requisite IGERT-MCTP internship marked the beginning of an ongoing collaboration with Dr. David Scott from the Anthropology Department. That project focuses on the development of polyaninline nanofibers as anti-corrosion coatings for iron and steel. My final project, the creation of biomimetic surfaces, involves the covalent attachment of functionalized polymer and glass beads to a glass surfaces. Heather received her Ph.D. from UCLA in March 2007!

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