Professor Stepanovawas born in Moscow, Russia. She received a combined M.S. and B.S. degree in Physics from Lomonosov Moscow State University, a Ph.D. fromNational Center for Surface and Vacuum Research, and a Dr.S. degree from St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University. Her extensive experience includesresearch at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Alberta, and public service at Canada’s National Institute for Nanotechnology. Presently she is an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics, Astronomy, and Materials Science of Missouri State University, and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Alberta.

Professor Stepanova conducts a broad interdisciplinary researchin design, fabrication and characterization of conjugate architectures interfacing stimuli responsive biological materials with plasmonic nanostructures. Combining a variety of methods from physics, physical chemistry, and biological physics, her group strives to develop novel nano-biological architectures with sensing, photocatalytic, or photovoltaic functionalities.The group also does computational modeling, particularly focusing on the understanding ofstructure and dynamics of biological polymers.