November 17, 2025
Katie Weigandt (Ph.D. ‘12)
Instrument Scientist
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research
Chemical engineer Katie Weigandt is working to change and expand the way scientists study materials using neutron measurement techniques. This collaborative work, which has fostered collaboration at leading research facilities with scientists around the world, began during her time as a UW ChemE graduate student in the Pozzo Research Group.
Weigandt has worked at NIST since graduating with her Ph.D. in 2012, taking a permanent position in instrument science in 2015 after three years of working as a guest researcher. She has led two research and development projects funded by NIST’s internal Innovation and Measurement Science competition, which provides five years of funding to complete selected projects. Weigandt’s first project implemented new instrument changes that enabled more complex structural characterization under more extreme conditions using SANS, advancing the ability to measure complex fluid at high shear rates.
The second funded project, still ongoing, employs a new method of neutron measurement called neutron far-field interferometry, an imaging technique that also provides nanoscale structural data. This method gives researchers unprecedented insight into heterogeneous and hierarchical materials that are challenging for established neutron scattering measurements. The far-field interferometer will be installed at NIST in 2027, and Weigandt is actively working on finding high impact applications for this new technology.
In her first meeting with ChemE professor Lilo Pozzo in 2007, Pozzo was pitching a project on understanding strain hardening in biomaterials that united Weigandt’s interest in the space between materials science and biology.
“Professor Pozzo and the whole UW ChemE department were instrumental in shaping me into the scientist I am today,” says Weigandt, “I couldn’t have imagined having a career at a neutron scattering facility before working with Pozzo, because I didn’t even know such a thing existed! I am so lucky that I got to see the big facility world through opportunities in my graduate career.”
UW ChemE established the Early Career Impact Award in 2021 to recognize a graduate within 15 years of receiving their degree who has made significant contributions to engineering in industry, academia, government, or public or volunteer service.