Margot Vigeant

"Soap dispels bacteria, but if you rinse, they come back and stick. It’s annoying."

Associate professor of chemical engineering

When most people look at a newly cleaned counter, they see just that, but not Margot Vigeant. Vigeant is an expert on bacterial adhesion. She studies the ubiquitous E. coli, which can be found everywhere from the human colon to culinary tools (in unsanitary conditions).

"I'm trying to understand the fundamental properties of bacteria and the fluid they swim in," says Vigeant. "For instance, what happens when you add soap? Do they come off? Stay off? Come back?"

What she has found is that soap dispels the bacteria. "But if you rinse, they come back and stick," She says. "It's annoying." Vigeant points out that the ramifications could be important, especially in the medical community, where keeping items sterile is vital. "The idea is to find out specifically what's happening on a molecular basis."

To better study E. coli, she has collaborated with colleagues to build a precise instrument - a total internal reflection aqueous fluorescent microscope. "There aren't a lot of them in the world," she says. Students from the physics department, mechanical engineers, and chemical engineers worked together to create the special microscope. "It's really neat to work in a place where we can pull from different resources and build something like this," she says. || Ask the Experts: Margot Vigeant on engineering education, News: Teaching to Teach

Vigeant is the 2006-07 recipient of the Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence.