Dr. Desiré Whitmore, PhD

curly-haired person holding a white object that is glowing yellow. In front of them are two bottles of water, each spouting either red or green light, which mixes on the white object to form yellow.

Who is the LASERchick?

I am a Blaxican American and Southern California native whose true passion is science communication and education. I have held positions as a science curriculum specialist/digital app developer with Amplify Science, a professor of Physics and Laser & Photonics Technology at Irvine Valley College, and am now the staff physicist educator at the ExplOratorium’s Teacher Institute in San Francisco, CA. My current work is focused on providing support and professional development to middle and high school science teachers and science teacher leaders to help them teach equitable science through inquiry. 

I began my education in Community College and hold degrees in Physical Sciences (A.S.), Chemical Engineering (B.S.), and Chemical and Material Physics (M.S., Ph.D.). My Ph.D. and Postdoctoral research focus was in the development of very fast laser systems (femtosecond and attosecond) to study single molecules vibrating, electrons traveling across the surface of metals, and the fluorescence of semiconducting Quantum Dots.