Erin Stache

Erin completed her undergraduate work in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, after which she started her graduate studies at Colorado State University.

“When I started my Ph.D., I was debating between industry and academia. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do, so I left and worked in industry for a year at a local pharma company. Then I moved to California and was working at HRL Laboratories in Malibu in materials engineering for aerospace and automotive applications. Having that experience and the fantastic mentors there was what convinced me to come back and finish my Ph.D.”

After completing her Ph.D., Erin did her postdoctoral work with Brett Fors as one of the inaugural Presidential Postdoctoral Fellows at Cornell University. She has received the President’s Council of Cornell Women Affinito-Stewart Grant, the Thieme Chemistry Journal Award, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator Grant, and the NSF CAREER Award.

Erin grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, the youngest of four daughters, rising each day at 5 a.m. to tend the farm’s dairy cows, planting, and harvesting. She is an avid runner and completed her first half-marathon in Princeton in 2015.