Rachel Schoeppner

Biography

Rachel Schoeppner received her B.S. in Materials Engineering from California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo in 2009 and her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Washington State University in 2014, while working jointly at Sandia National Laboratories researching mechanical properties of nanoscale strengthened metallic coatings. During her graduate studies, Rachel contributed to multiple international research collaborations at the Erich Schmid Institute and Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories. Rachel went on to investigate the strength and thermal stability properties of novel nanoscale coatings as a post-doctoral researcher at Empa Swiss Federal Laboratories in 2015. After returning to the United States, she continued this work at the Colorado School of Mines and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, working on high throughout testing of novel bulk metallic glass coatings.

In May 2017, Rachel joined CNSI as the Nanostructures Cleanroom Facility manager. In 2018, she took on the additional responsibility of support engineer to the newly funded NSF Quantum Foundry and is now the primary manager of the joint Quantum Structures Facility. Rachel is responsible for maintaining, developing, and troubleshooting equipment housed in the QSF, which includes photolithography, deposition, etch, and metrology tools as well as a furnace core and range of cryogenic equipment. Rachel also works on development and troubleshooting of the Confocal Raman and PL Spectrometer housed in QSF.

Job Responsibilities

Facilitating researchers working in the Quantum Structures (QSF), Confocal Microscope and Spectroscopy, and Quantum Foundry facilities by providing technical expertise and consultation, training on equipment and processes, laboratory access, and laboratory management.