After my physics undergraduate and graduate education, I was fortunate to hold postdoctoral fellowship appointments in physics at Kent State University from 1994 to 1996 and in chemistry at MIT from 1996 to 1998, which gave me a broad perspective on interdisciplinary research. I joined WPI as an assistant professor of Physics in August 1998, in addition to maintaining a research affiliate appointment in the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at MIT from 1998 to 1999, where this perspective both broadened and deepened. I was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2004 and became head of the Department of Physics in April 2006, where I have been responsible for all administrative aspects of this department. Along the way, I was lucky enough to achieve an NSF CAREER Award (2001-2006); produce 74 peer-reviewed publications with 1,417 citations and an h-index of 20; and graduate six PhDs, seven MSes, 43 MQP projects, and 15 IQP projects. I continue to strive to be active in both my research and in leading Physics at WPI, and integrate the two through my teaching.