Chekesha Liddell

Chekesha M. Liddell Watson (née Liddell) researches colloidal materials, and the relationship between micron and submicron length scales. She was an Associate Professor of Material Science and Engineering at Cornell University.

Early life Liddell grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. She was awarded a NASA Women in Science and Engineering Scholarship, which allowed her to study the metabolism of arsenic in poultry. During her scholarship she worked at Kennedy Space Center. She earned her PhD in Material Science at Georgia Institute of Technology in 2003. Liddell was awarded a $20,000 Career Initiation Grant from Georgia Institute of Technology. She has worked on the Self-assembly of microparticles with hemispherical and dimer shapes. Liddell joined the faculty of Cornell University in 2003. She is a member of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. In 2006 she was awarded a National Science Foundation Career Award for Nonspherical, Active, and "Inverted" Bases for Optimized Photonic Crystal Design. This award resulted in 16 publications. She was recognized as one of Cornell's Emerging Scholars in 2011.

Awards and honors (2011) Emerging Scholars Class of 2011 (Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine) (2010) Provost's Award for Distinguished Research (Office of the Provost, Cornell University) (2009) Dow Distinguished Lecturer (University of California at Santa Barbara UCSB) (2007) Certificate of Appreciation for Mentoring (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation) (2007) Frontiers of Science Symposium Invitee (National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) (2006) NSF CAREER Award: Nonspherical, Active, and "Inverted" Bases for Optimized Photonic Crystal Design (2003) Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Sciences Career Initiation Grant (1999-2003) Office of Naval Research Graduate Fellowship (1999-2003) Georgia Tech President's Fellowship (1999-2003) Facilitating Academic Careers in Engineering and Sciences Fellowship (2000) National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Fellow (1999) Hertz Foundation Fellowship Grant (1999) TMS materials society, J. Keith Brimacombe Presidential Scholarship (1998) ASM Foundation Scholarship, ASM International materials (1999) ASTM, American Society for Testing and Materials, Mary R. Norton Memorial Fellowship