Dr. Martínez-Miranda is a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. She earned her BS and MS in Physics from the Universidad de Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, her BA in Music from the Conservatorio de Puerto Rico, and her PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research involves the study of the interaction of ordered liquid crystals with different nanoparticles, and the study of the effect of rough interfaces on the structure of the liquid crystals in contact with said interfaces. She has been a visiting professor at the Liquid Crystal Institute at Kent State University, the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, CNRS, in France, and the University of Chile in Santiago. She is a fellow of the AAAS and the APS, and the winner of the 2014 Edward A. Bouchet Prize of the APS for her research in liquid crystals.