Kate O'Neill has been awarded an Honorable Mention for the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship Competition. Awards offered by the Ford Foundation seek to maximize the educational benefits of diversity and to increase the number of professors who will use diversity for enriching education. Kate has been extensively involved in outreach, especially at the New Brunswick High School, where she volunteers in a bilingual physics class and encourages students to pursue careers in science and engineering. Kate works in the laboratory of Professor Bonnie Firestein.