Brandi Ransom, from Spring, Texas, is pursuing a PhD in materials science and engineering at Stanford School of Engineering. At Rice University, she earned bachelor’s degrees in materials science and nanoengineering, and German studies. She aspires to a career in research, helping to advance multi-stimulus and volatile systems of responsive polymers in academia, and improving manufacturing optimization in mass production. She was an NCAA Division I Track & Field athlete, president of Rice’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, and lead organizer of TEDxRiceU. She spent summers as a computational biology research intern on a fellowship at Stanford, as a textile manufacturing research intern at RWTH Aachen University in Germany, and as a photovoltaics research intern at the University of Tokyo in Japan. She worked on improving the strength of corrosion resistant alloys for her senior project.