Laura E. Dalton received her bachelor of arts degree in graphic design in 2012 from West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon. At West Virginia University (WVU), she earned her bachelor’s (2015) and master’s (2016) degrees in civil engineering. At present, she is a PhD student at North Carolina State University with a concentration in structural engineering and mechanics, and is completing a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Eastern Finland. One of her objectives in this venture is to model the experiences of students who relocate into a new culture in pursuit of higher education. While in Finland, she is studying electrical imaging and reconstruction techniques with the goal of using these modalities in a complementary setting with X-ray and neutron to better understand multiphase reactive flow. Laura has a history with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (USDOE NETL) dating back to 2014, when she was a Mickey Leland Energy Fellow, followed by appointments as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) undergraduate intern and fellow and part-time research scientist. As a future faculty member, she vows to avoid biases and ensure equal opportunity when hiring graduate students by utilizing a diversity agent. She plans to promote diversity in her research, teaching and personal life with the intent of being an agent of change for underrepresented communities. 

Research Interests

Cementitious material characterization using 3D Imaging