She received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009, where her dissertation research focused on numerical modeling of solid oxide fuel cells. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon she worked as a post-doctoral research associate and staff computational scientist in the Computational Mathematics and Engineering group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Since joining Boston University in 2012, she founded the Computational Energy Laboratory, which focuses on the development of computational models of advanced energy systems, including batteries, fuel cells, carbon capture technologies, and fuel injectors. Her research is funded through the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and industry.