Dr. Gearba received her Ph.D. in Physics in 2001 from Polytechnic University of Bucharest in Romania. She furthered her knowledge in physics at Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark and in the United States at Colorado State University and Kansas State University. Dr. Gearba started her academic career in 2004 at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and in 2014 she joined the physics faculty at USAFA. Her research interests include experimental atomic, molecular and optical physics and involve laser cooling and trapping, coherent blue-light generation, precision measurements of excited state atomic lifetimes and collisional excitation transfer studies for alkali laser development.