Rae Robertson-Anderson

Robertson-Anderson is Associate Provost for Engaged Scholarship at University of San Diego, where she has been a Professor of Physics and Biophysics since 2009.

Robertson-Anderson received her BS in Physics from Georgetown University in 2003, funded by a Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship. She earned her PhD in Physics from University of California, San Diego in 2007, funded by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, after which she was awarded an NIH fellowship to pursue a molecular biology postdoc at The Scripps Research Institute.

Robertson-Anderson joined the faculty at University of San Diego with the goal of engaging undergraduates in cutting-edge research and shaping undergraduate physics programs and research at a national level. She served as department Chair for 8 years, overhauling the physics curriculum and research culture, and establishing an interdisciplinary Biophysics BS that has served as a model for liberal arts institutions nationally.

Robertson-Anderson’s research program aims to elucidate microscale mechanics and macromolecular transport in bio-inspired soft and active matter systems. Her lab has pioneered novel optical tweezers microrheology and fluorescence microscopy techniques to probe these systems across decades of spatiotemporal scales. She is also a leading expert in engineering biopolymer networks that leverage biological design paradigms to solve problems in soft and active matter physics. Robertson-Anderson has been awarded over $5M to fund her research program, including a Keck Foundation Research Grant, NSF DMREF Award, NSF CAREER Award, and Air Force Young Investigator Award.

At USD, Robertson-Anderson has been awarded a University Professorship, an Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award, and a Glenn D. White, Jr. '78 Faculty Research Award. At a national level, Robertson-Anderson was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society, was awarded the APS Prize for Faculty Research at an Undergraduate Institution, and received the Research Corporation Cottrell Scholars STAR Award. Robertson-Anderson’s notable national service roles include serving on the Executive Committees for the APS Division of Soft Matter and the Beckman Young Investigator Program.