Natsumi spent her PhD investigating carbon nanotubes, a nanomaterial with significant potential to revolutionize a number of applications and industries.
As a Schmidt Science Fellow, Natsumi now plans to use carbon nanotubes as fluorescent nanosensors for brain chemistry in the Landry Lab at UC Berkeley. She wants to understand the role of neurochemicals in neurological diseases and other impairments related to social behavior by imaging neurochemical activity with unprecedentedly high spatial and temporal resolution provided by nanosensors.
Her work can contribute to understanding the root cause of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s diseases and mental illness. She is passionate about addressing gender inequality in STEM and hopes to implement systematic changes to increase the number of women and gender minorities in STEM.