Faculty Expanding Research and Teaching Across the College of Science

The LSU College of Science continues to strengthen its research and teaching enterprise through the addition of outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines. From quantum information science and radiation biology to STEM education and computational biochemistry, these scholars bring expertise that enriches our classrooms, expands research opportunities for students, and advances discovery across the college. Meet some of the faculty who have recently joined the College of Science and learn about the work they are bringing to LSU.

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Physics & Astronomy

Ahana Chakraborty  – Assistant Professor  
Dr. Chakraborty's research group, “Quantum Dynamics and Information,” works in the interdisciplinary fields of theoretical condensed matter physics and quantum information science. Her research focuses on the non-equilibrium dynamics of quantum many-particle systems, especially in open quantum systems and disordered systems. She obtained her PhD degree in Theoretical Physics in 2019 from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India. Following this, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany, from 2019–2021, and an Abrahams Postdoctoral Associate, a distinguished postdoctoral position offered by Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, from 2021–2024. Her current research interests broadly include entanglement dynamics in quantum circuits, manipulation of quantum materials by light, and the dynamics and thermalization of disordered systems.

Marta Missiaggia – Assistant Professor  
Dr. Missiaggia earned her BS, MS, and PhD in Physics from the University of Trento, Italy, in 2016, 2018, and 2022, respectively. She subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the Centro Ricerche Enrico Fermi in Rome and at the University of Miami. Her research focuses on radiation-induced biological effects, with a particular emphasis on ion therapy, combining both experimental and theoretical approaches. She has developed a novel microdosimetric detector and characterized proton and carbon ion radiation fields at leading facilities across Europe and the United States. She has also contributed to the development of mathematical models predicting the biological effects of radiation. Her work makes extensive use of Monte Carlo simulations and advanced data analysis, with a growing focus on integrating machine learning to enhance predictive modeling and the interpretation of complex radiation interactions.

 

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Biological Sciences 

Maryrose Weatherton – Assistant Professor  
Dr. Weatherton earned her bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from Marquette University and her PhD in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Dr. Weatherton is a discipline-based education researcher (DBER) whose research broadly seeks to understand how to increase student success and improve the student experience in STEM higher education. Specifically, her research seeks to understand student resource use: how and why students choose among academic resources, how patterns of resource use relate to course outcomes, and how resource use changes over time.

Heidi Klem – Assistant Professor 
Dr. Klem earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Creighton University and her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Colorado State University. She recently completed a prestigious National Research Council postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she developed QMzyme– a high throughput, open-source toolkit for quantum mechanical enzyme modeling. Her research centers on multiscale modeling of enzyme active sites, designing computational workflows for engineering, and addressing critical societal challenges including antibiotic resistance and plastic biodegradation. Her work aims to leverage cutting-edge computational approaches for real-world impact while engaging students through training in computational biochemistry.