About Dr. Starostina

Biography:

Dr. Nataliya Starostina is a passionate and dedicated educator committed to the quality of research. She was born, raised, and educated in Soviet Union. Nataliya’s teaching experience at Santa Clara University (SCU) started in 2018 and spans both graduate and undergraduate materials science-related courses. Before joining SCU, her professional journey in advanced technologies commenced at UCLA, focusing on the coarsening kinetics of age-hardening alloys. Subsequently, she navigated the landscape of atomic force microscopy at an AFM manufacturing startup, contributed to process management measurement solutions at Emerson, and participated in wireless industrial automation at another high-tech startup. In her industry career, she held various roles from research associate to application scientist, product manager, and director of marketing. During this time, Nataliya had the honor of mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students, serving as an industry advisor and scholar. The students’ accomplishments include winning Best Senior Design Project awards, contributing to teaching labs, presenting at scientific conferences, and publishing in peer-reviewed papers. She authored a book chapter sharing her pedagogy in teaching laboratory courses. This chapter is accessible online as an open-access article (2023).