Bio:
Alison (Ali) E. Patteson is an Associate Professor of Physics at Syracuse University and the 2024 APS Maria Goeppert Mayer Award for outstanding achievement by a woman in physics. Ali is originally from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She received her B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pennsylvania in 2011 and her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) in 2016, studying active and complex fluids with Prof. Paulo Arratia. Her postdoctoral research was with Prof. Paul Janmey at UPenn, where she worked on the vimentin cytoskeleton and confined cell motility. Ali joined Syracuse University in 2019. Her research focuses on the soft matter physics of cell motility and biofilm development. She has won numerous awards, including the Sloan Research Fellowship, Cottrell Scholar Award, NSF CAREER award, and the APS Dissertation Award in Statistical and Non-linear Physics. Her favorite pastimes include drinking coffee, reading, spending time with friends, and cheering for the Syracuse University basketball teams. She is the daughter of Ken Koser, who has over five million accident-free miles trucking and was selected as the National Driver of the Year by the National Association of Small Trucking Companies in 2003.
Positions and Training
2019-Present, Assistant Professor of Physics, Syracuse University
Awards
2024, Maria Goeppert Mayer Award, American Physical Society
2023, Sloan Fellow
2023, Cottrell Scholar
2023, NSF CAREER
2021, Syracuse University Physics Department Teaching Award
2021, Outstanding Investigator Award from NIH (MIRA award)
Current Group Members
Minh Thanh, Post-doc
Van Dam, Lab technician and manager
Maxx Swoger, Graduate student
Renita Saldanha, Graduate student
Nuzhat Nufa, Graduate student
Sounok Ghosh, Graduate student
Ben Maves, Graduate student
Shekinah Shahzad, High School and Undergraduate student
Sharoona Shahzad, High School and Undergraduate student
Former Group Members
Emma Kaputa, High School and Undergraduate student
Alana Belkevich, Post-doc, Now faculty at St. Lawrence University
Bobby Carroll, Post-doc, Now post-doc at Upstate Medical University
Sarthak Gupta, Graduate student, 2023 Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work, Now Postdoc Scholar at Rice University
Jakub Kochanowski, Undergraduate student, Now Bioengineering PhD student at UPenn
Eli Whalen, Undergraduate student, SU SOURCE Awardee
Merril Asp, PhD, Now Postdoc Scholar at Yale University
Maya Geiss, 2022 SBI REU student and 2023 REU
Oduduabasi James Isaiah, Undergraduate student, SU SOURCE Awardee
Elise Jutzeler, 2019-2021 high-school teacher intern
Jibreel Adekiigbe, Lab technician
Cameron Hauberg, Lab technician
Isa Lee, Former undergraduate student, SU SOURCE Awardee
Danielle Germann, Former undergraduate student, SU SOURCE Awardee, Now a Physics PhD student at Brown University, 2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awardee
Alana Franceski, Former tech in the lab, Now a Biotech PhD student at University of Alabama Birmingham
Serena Omo-Lamai, Former undergraduate student in the Patteson Lab, Now a Bioengineering PhD student at UPenn
Morgan Smith, 2019 SBI REU student