Kelly Simmons-Potter, Ph.D.

2023 University Distinguished Outreach Faculty

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Optical Sciences, and Materials Science and Engineering

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs

College of Engineering

Kelly Simmons-Potter is an optical sciences researcher and scholar who focuses on radiation-hardened optics, photosensitive materials and devices, and sustainable energy systems. A fellow of the American Ceramic Society and the co-author of three textbooks in the field of optics, Simmons-Potter has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, delivered more than 150 scholarly presentations and holds several patents.

Simmons-Potter also serves as director of the Arizona Research Initiative for Solar Energy, or AzRISE, and as a professor in the Indigenous Food, Energy, and Water Systems Graduate Interdisciplinary Program.

Simmons-Potter received her Bachelor of Science in physics in 1986 from Florida State University. She earned a master's degree in optical sciences in 1990 and a doctorate in optical sciences in 1994, both from the University of Arizona. She spent nearly 10 years at Sandia National Laboratories before returning to the University of Arizona in 2003.