Karen Daniels

Karen Daniels is a Distinguished Professor of Physics at NC State University. She received her BA in Physics from Dartmouth College in 1994, taught school for a few years, and then pursued a PhD in Physics at Cornell University. After receiving her doctorate in 2002, she moved to North Carolina to do research at Duke University and then joined the faculty at NC State in 2005. Her lab at NC State investigates a number of problems in the deformation and failure of materials, from fluid flows, to piles of sand, to fracturing gels. When not working with her students on experiments in the lab, she likes to spend time in the outdoors, which has led her to contemplate the implications of her research for geological and ecological systems. In 2011-2012, she received an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship which allowed her to spend the year conducting research in Göttingen, Germany.