Professor of Physics
Education Director - CRISP, an NSF MRSEC

Dr. Broadbridge received Ph. D. and M. S. degrees in Engineering from Brown University where she conducted research in the fields of materials science, semiconductor electronics and solid-state physics. She has expertise in the areas of surface science as well as electron microscopy. Upon graduation from Brown University she immediately joined the faculty in the Department of Engineering at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut , where she established a materials processing and characterization facility supporting undergraduate research. During this time, she also founded and directed the United Technologies/Trinity College Engineering Initiative (UTCEI), a program designed to enhance the representation of women and underrepresented minorities in engineering and science. This program was extremely successful, both in terms of recruitment and retention – in general, and to UTC. Shortly after her creation of UTCEI she participated in the initial development of the Trinity College and Hartford collaborative effort called the Learning Corridor .

To promote graduate level research at Trinity College , Dr. Broadbridge continued collaborations with faculty at Brown University and University of Rhode Island while developing new contacts with faculty at Yale University and the University of Connecticut . In January of 1998, Dr. Broadbridge was appointed Visiting Research Fellow at Yale University in New Haven , Connecticut and in September of 2000 she joined the Physics faculty at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) also in New Haven . The Physics Department at SCSU represented an ideal match to Dr. Broadbridge's interests -- a very strong research focus on materials science and solid-state physics.

Dr. Broadbridge is in the process of establishing a materials characterization and training facility at SCSU including transmission and scanning electron microscopy as well as scanning probe (atomic force and scanning tunneling) and optical microscopy. In addition to these facilities, she continues her access to more specialized microscopy facilities at UCONN Storrs and Yale University . SCSU's close proximity to Yale has allowed her to strengthen existing collaborations and to establish new ones. Dr. Broadbridge's continued participation in outreach efforts are facilitated by her many contacts in academia, industry and urban school districts.

Dr. Broadbridge's current research projects include the evaluation of low dielectric constant insulators for inter-level dielectric applications, high dielectric constant alternate materials for IC transistor gates as well as ferroelectrics for IC memory applications.

Recently Yale and SCSU were recently awarded a six- year grant to support the creation of an NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). The resulting Center is called CRISP (Center for Research on Interface Structure and Phenomena). Dr. Broadbridge is the Education Director for the Center as well as a PI for the research .