Leslie is a 3rd year PhD Candidate at Rochester Institute of Technology in the Golisano Institute for Sustainability. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Indiana University, Bloomington. After graduating undergrad, she built a career in the metals recycling industry-- starting as a laborer in the yard learning how to identify, process, and sort metals. From there, she became an account manager and broker as well as a manager of nonferrous operations. Using this experience, she proceeded to develop, design, and run a metals division for a paper and plastics recycling facility. Presently, working under the direction of Dr. Gabrielle Gaustad (who is now Dean at Alfred University), she is able to apply her knowledge of the recycling and waste management industry for research on positive material identification (PMI), improving scrap utilization rates, and evaluating technology solutions for sorting, separating, and identification of metals and their alloys. As a visiting scientist at the UNU-EHS in Bonn, Germany, she will be conducting Geographic Information Capacity research as well as exploring the impact of power outages due to disasters on industry (i.e. aluminum smelters). Outside of research, Leslie enjoys numerous outdoor activities such as frisbee, [American] football, kayaking, sailing, hiking/backpacking –to name a few. She also loves agriculture/farming and experiencing new cultures and new food.