Vicki Colvin is the Kenneth S. Pitzer-Schlumberger Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University. Most recently, she has served as the Director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN), which was one of the nation's first nanoscience and engineering centers. Vicki's current research explores how nanoscale particles interact with the environment and living systems. She has received accolades for her teaching abilities including the Phi Beta Kappa's Teaching Prize (1998-1999) and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award (2002). In 2007, Vicki was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society, and in early 2011, she was named a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2012 she was recognized as one of the most highly cited researchers in the ACS journal Chemistry of Materials. She is an author on over one hundred papers and holds multiple patents in the area of nanotechnology.