Carolyn Mills is currently a postdoctoral research scientist at Northwestern University in Professor Danielle Tullman-Ercek’s lab, having completed her PhD in June 2019 in Prof. Bradley Olsen’s lab at MIT. Her thesis and post-doctoral research leverages self-assembly of polymers and proteins to form novel functional materials.
On January 29th, 2021, we talked about how her love of proteins started in a class she took with Prof. Scott Shell as an undergrad at UC Santa Barbara. That led her to a career in science and engineering for protein-based materials, first as a PhD at MIT and now as a post-doc at Northwestern University, working on protein superstructures inside bacterial cells. We spent time talking about what it takes to choose a post-doc and how teaching – including her work mentoring a BioBuilderClub — helps her own understanding of science.