Susan Sinnott

Sinnott received a bachelors of science in chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin.[3][4] She moved to Iowa State University for her graduate studies, and earned her doctoral degree in physical chemistry in 1993.[3]

After graduating Sinnott moved to the United States Naval Research Laboratory where she worked on surface chemistry.[3][5]

Sinnott made an openly licensed video about "Using Computers to Create New Materials" in 2015[6]

After two years at the Naval Research Laboratory, Sinnott was appointed an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky.[7] In 2000 she was recruited to the University of Florida as an Associate Professor.[3] Sinnott was promoted to Professor at the University of Florida in 2005, where she led projects on cyber infrastructure and quantum theory.[3] In 2015 Sinnott was appointed Head of Materials Science and Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University.[3][8][9]

Sinnott's research involves the development of computational methods to understand the electronic and atomic structure of materials.[1] Her computational models include continuum level modelling and fluid dynamics and take into account material behaviour at the nanoscale.[7] She has investigated the formation and role of grain boundaries, dopants, defects and heterogeneous interfaces.[10][11] Her research has considered perovskites, showing that the alignment or tilting of the perovskite oxygen cages impacts the materials properties.[12] Sinnott has served as editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Computational Materials Science since 2014.[10]

Her principal research interests at Penn State University include two-dimensional and nano-structured materials, gas adsorption and separation in porous solid materials, and condensed matter physics.[13]