Mirri was awarded both the best engineering thesis award and the best invention award in 2016 from Rice Univ. for her work on carbon nanotube solutions for lightweight, electrically conductive materials. “I was able to turn an original idea into an innovative product,” she says. She remains at Rice as a research scientist, focusing on carbon nanotube synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotubes in solution using X-ray and neutron-scattering techniques. She is also involved in the development of lithium-ion batteries made of carbon nanotubes for wearable electronics applications.
Mirri explains that working in uncharted territory comes with its challenges. “Research does not always turn out the way you expect it to. Understanding what might be wrong with your experiments and trying to find alternative ways to interpret your results is the most challenging and, at the same time, the most fun part of my job,” she says. Mirri advises others to get out of their comfort zones because in her experience, “those scary decisions turned out to be the most important ones I made.