Laura Andre is a PhD candidate and Rackham Merit Fellow in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. Her focus area is Optics and Photonics and she is the current president of the Optics Society SPIE student chapter at the University. Under the direction of Dr. Stephen Rand, her current research focuses on laser cooling of solids. Specifically, she is interested in experimenting with novel materials and new methods for cooling, as well as using modeling to better understand limiting factors in the cooling process.