Alessandra Forcucci , Dr.

Alessandra Forcucci received her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Boston University, where she studied medical instrumentation that utilized optical detection techniques to perform disease diagnosis. This sparked an interest in optical theory and design, which she pursued in graduate school in the bioengineering department of Rice University in Houston, Texas. During her time at Rice, she studied in the Modern Optical Instrumentation and Bioimaging Laboratory, where she designed, built, and validated a family of low-cost, high-performance, miniature fluorescence microscopes for infectious disease detection at the point of care for the Bill & Melinda Gates Grand Challenges Initiative. She received her Ph.D. in May 2016 and began working for Leica in June 2016 when she joined the Advanced Workflow Specialist team.