Nadine Ziegler visited the lab through the Keller Center's REACH program and again as a Visiting Student Research Collaborator while a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at Ruhr-University Bochum. She studied Materials Science and Engineering at Saarland University where she worked on antibacterial surfaces. Her graduate work focuses on bacterial interactions with thin films. She fabricates multifunctional metallic thin films with pre-defined chemically active and topographical surface structures and explores their antibacterial efficiency, biofilm formation behavior as well as cell compatibility. Ultimately her goal is to use this knowledge to control biofilm formation in orthopedic implants.

Nadine grew up in the southwestern part of Germany, near Frankfurt. In her free time she does stand up paddling, swimming, and plays squash.