As a child, Anisa Myzaferi often spent days accompanying her grandfather, an electrical engineer, on job-site inspections and watching him “pore over old-school blueprints of electrical circuits.” And then she’d go home to her engineer parents — father, civil, and mother, hydrotechnic.
To say that Myzaferi was born to be an engineer, then, is no big stretch. From an early age, she was hard-wired to embrace the de facto family profession. And oh, how she has.
On June 12, Myzaferi will pick up her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UC Santa Barbara. Soon after she’ll depart for a postdoctoral stint in Malaysia with the not-for-profit entity CREST (Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science & Technology), which unites industry, academia and government in electrical and electronics research, development and design. UCSB is collaborating with CREST on an effort to advance Malaysia’s LED sector.
She warmed quickly to the interdisciplinary culture at UCSB, where she eventually landed in the research group led by Steven DenBaars at the Solid State Lighting & Energy Electronics Center. It’s been her academic home ever since, fostering her growth from student to full-fledged scientist. Her doctoral work, in layman’s terms, centered on the “use of materials science and electrical engineering to design high-power, high-efficiency blue III-nitride laser diodes.”
“I feel very fortunate for my time here, and working with Steve DenBaars has been amazing,” Myzaferi said. “I felt this implicit trust that I would find my way as long as I produced results, and he left me to come into my own. That’s an ongoing process but it’s nice to not be tethered, to have someone just say, ‘Go do it.’ I really appreciate that he trusts students that way, and I’m forever grateful.
“My time at UCSB has been pretty rewarding,” she added. “I love how collaborative the professors are here. Students as well. There is no ‘us versus them,’ no hiding your project from the lab next door. I’m very grateful for that atmosphere. That’s been the biggest takeaway for me from UCSB — the collaborative spirit.”
Excerpt from "Filling a Gap" published at news.ucsb.edu. Read Aniza's story as part of UCSB's Road to Commencement series
