Kristen Rhinehardt, Ph. D is an Assocaite Professor and Assistant Chair in Computational Data Science and Engineering at North Carolina A & T State University (NCA&T).  She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Biological Engineering (minor in Biomedical Engineering) in 2010. She then furthered her education at NCA&T where in 2012 she completed her Master’s degree becoming the first person to earn a degree in Nanoengineering.   In 2015 she earned her Ph.D in Nanoengineering focusing on in-vitro and in-silico biosensor design. Dr. Rhinehardt joined the faculty of the Computational Data Science and Engineering Department at NCA&T in 2019.  She is the director and founder of the Computational Molecular Engineering Lab where she uses in-silico approaches to build, analyze, characterize and predict the form and function of biologics and biomaterials for engineering applications and public health. Dr. Rhinehardt is also the PI and co-Director of the Genomic Research and Data Science Center for Computation and Cloud-Computing (GRADS-4C), the Assistant Director for High Performance Computing of the NCA&T Visualization and Computation Advancing Research (ViCAR) Center,  and the University of North Carolina System Faculty Assembly HMSI Committee Chair. To date, Dr. Rhinehardt has 25 peer reviewed scholarly works and 60 presentations. She has graduated 4 undergraduate and 21 graduate advisees from the CME lab  at NCA&T.  Dr. Rhinehardt is committed to conducting research that improves the quality and understanding of biological systems while bridging the gaps between communities and technological advancement.