Kerry Hamilton, 35
PhD environmental engineering ’16
Assistant professor at the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering with a joint appointment in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University (Tempe)
My Greatest Accomplishment: During my time at Drexel, I had the opportunity to be a Fulbright Scholar in Australia. The experience was a time of immense growth and catalyzed my journey toward becoming a principal investigator and mentor.
How Drexel Helped Me: My mentors at Drexel viewed my interdisciplinary academic background in public health as an asset and opened many doors for me to become a Fulbright Scholar and an engineer. Learning about risk and decision science during my PhD studies made me a more level-headed thinker and decision-maker in my professional career as well as in my personal life.
My Greatest Source of Motivation: My greatest motivation is to help my students succeed and to pass along all the mentorship I have received to create the next generation of scientists. Knowing that my students are counting on me keeps me going when the pressures of academic life seem daunting. My curiosity and desire to protect public health motivate me to research issues that will have the greatest public benefit.
Where I Hope to Be in Five Years: I hope that my research group will continue to grow in its ability to impact policies that prevent infectious diseases. I would love to see disease trends currently on the rise reverse course. I hope to be continuing my work as a professor and to become the type of mentor I look up to now!
If My Life Were a Music Video, the Song Would Be: “High Hopes,” by Panic at the Disco.