Melissa Eblen-Zayas has been a professor of physics at Carleton College (Northfield, MN) since 2005. She is an experimental condensed matter physicist who studies correlated electron materials. Additionally, she is engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning around advanced laboratory instruction and supporting students’ quantitative skills development. At Carleton, she has served as Director of the Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, Department Chair, Director of the Carleton Undergraduate Bridge Experience, and Coordinator of the Summer Science Fellows Program.

Melissa has been active in the American Association of Physics Teachers (serving on the Committee on Laboratories and the Committee on Graduate Education as well as the executive board of the Minnesota AAPT section) and the American Physical Society (serving on the Forum on Education Executive Committee). Melissa has also been involved in the leadership of several educational development projects through consortial arrangements, including an Associated Colleges of the Midwest Teaching Fellows Program and the Liberal Arts Collaborative for Digital Innovation QLAB project.

Melissa earned her BA in physics from Smith College (Northampton, MA) and her PhD in experimental condensed matter physics from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, MN).