TED Community » Kate Nichols

About Me

Inspired by the long tradition of painters well versed in the cutting-edge chemistry and optics of their day, Kate wished to integrate the latest advances in materials science into her own work. In 2008, she joined the Alivisatos Lab at the University of California at Berkeley as the lab's first artist in residence. There, she synthesizes nanoparticles that exhibit structural color and creates macroscale art with them. Working as a painter, Kate became fascinated by the phenomenon of structural color–color that derives from a substance's geometric structure rather than its chemical composition. Such structures must be roughly on the scale of wavelengths of visible light and, as such, are measured in nanometers, manipulable with nanotechnology, and out-of-reach in a typical painting studio. Now, commuting between the Berkeley lab and her San Francisco studio, Kate combines techniques developed by medieval craftsmen, Northern Renaissance painters, Victorian mirror-makers, and contemporary chemists. Kate has a Master's degree in Visual Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and Bachelor's degree in Studio Art from Kenyon College. She is the recipient of a TED Fellowship and a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship. She lives in San Francisco.