| Biography: Ellen R. Fisher
Ellen R. Fisher, University of New Mexico,
“For exceptional contributions to the advancement and understanding of plasma chemistries and plasma-surface interactions in thin film deposition and surface modification”
A chemist and materials scientist with academic leadership, Ellen Fisher serves as the Vice President for Research at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and is a Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. She came to UNM in 2021 from Colorado State University (CSU) where she served as the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiatives (2017-2021) and the Senior Faculty Advisor (2014-2017) in the Office of the Vice President for Research. Prior to these appointments, Prof. Fisher served as the Chair of the Department of Chemistry at CSU and as the founding director of the interdisciplinary, cross-college School of Advanced Materials Discovery.
Dr. Fisher has published over 170 original peer-reviewed articles that span diverse topics in plasma science, thin films, membrane technology, laser spectroscopy, materials chemistry, chemistry education, the science of team science, and the responsible conduct of research. Dr. Fisher has graduated 22 Ph.D. and 9 M.S. students, and she has mentored ~50 undergraduate research students, many of whom have gone on to a range of graduate and professional programs. Prof. Fisher is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Vacuum Society (AVS). She has served on the editorial boards of several technical journals and served as an Executive Editor of the American Chemical Society journal ACS-Applied Materials and Interfaces. She is also co-founder of Divergent Science, LLC, a team science consulting group focused on utilizing the social network analysis and the science of team science to empower teams to put research into practice.
A strong advocate for faculty, Dr. Fisher created the WeR1 faculty success program, a multi-pronged approach to faculty development. The program includes elements focused on leadership, instrument acquisition, scholarship time, enterprise software for research, faculty in social sciences and humanities (FRESSH), and most recently proposal resubmission and reframing of research activities. She also reimagined the UNM Grand Challenges program to provide a multi-level approach to interdisciplinary team formation and development, promoting an integrated culture of collaboration.
Dr. Fisher received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from Texas Lutheran University (formerly College) in 1986 (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in physical-analytical chemistry from the University of Utah in 1991. She performed postdoctoral research at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque before joining the faculty at Colorado State University in 1993.