“Whenever possible, always try to use your science to make the world a better place.”
– Prof. Mildred Dresselhaus
Credit: Steve Zylius/UCI
Associate Professor
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Department of Chemistry
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Department of Physics and Astronomy
ISEB 5072
(949)-824-8181
stacy.copp@uci.edu
CV
Stacy joined the UCI faculty in 2019 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2025. Her research focuses on nanoscale photonic materials made of soft matter building blocks, biomimetic nanomaterials, and materials informatics approaches to nanoscience. A proud New Mexican, Stacy earned her BS in physics and math from the University of Arizona and her PhD in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Stacy was a Hoffman Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she also held a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, a L’Oreal USA for Women in Science Fellowship, and a LANL Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship. At UCI, her research has been recognized by awards such as the AFOSR YIP, DOE Early Career Research Program, ARL/DEVCOM Early Career Award, NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, Scialog Fellowship, and Hellman Fellowship. In her spare time, she enjoys running, hiking, and the extreme sport of parenting.
Education and Professional Appointments
2011 – BS, Physics and Mathematics, University of Arizona
2013 – MA, Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
2016 – PhD, Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara
2017-2019 – Postdoctoral Fellow, Los Alamos National Laboratory
2019-2025 – Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine
2025-present – Associate Professor, University of California, Irvine