Summer earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Shandong University in China and her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Pennsylvania State University. For her doctoral research, she investigated phospholipid-mediated signaling using vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy under the guidance of Professor Paul S. Cremer. Following this, Summer worked as a postdoctoral scholar with Professor Jay T. Groves at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied protein condensation phase transitions in the T cell receptor signaling pathway. After the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved to Singapore and joined the Institute for Digital Molecular Analytics and Science (IDMxS) at Nanyang Technological University as a research fellow. There, she developed a method to quantitatively categorize and characterize extracellular vesicles at the single-particle level in collaboration with Professor Jay T. Groves and Professor Guillermo C. Bazan. Additionally, working with Professor Atul N. Parikh, she explored DNA-templated gold nanoparticle assemblies in an aqueous two-phase system. In the fall of 2024, Summer started her independent research career at Stony Brook University.

In her free time, Summer enjoys water sports, reading, painting, playing guitar, and (talking about) her scuba diving trips.

-------------------------Q&A-------------------------​

What is the last thing you bought that you are obsessed with?

Pine tree flavored candle.

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What do you usually do while working out?

Rowing (started recently).

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Have you overcooked something in kitchen?

Overcooked dumplings. Turned them into Italian wedding soup.

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What is your "origin story" for getting into science?

I burnt a bench when making a reaction in a high school chem lab. And the teacher was cool about it.

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