Jennifer Ott joined the faculty of the Electrical & Computer Engineering department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa as Assistant Professor in January 2025.

During Jennifer's undergraduate studies of radiochemistry and inorganic chemistry at the University of Helsinki, she had already been introduced to the application of radioactive tracers and radiation detection technology for medical imaging. In search for a master's thesis topic, she got in touch with the experimental particle physics world, and spent a summer internship at CERN in Geneva. This experience strongly reinforced her scientific interest in semiconductor detectors.

Jennifer continued to pursue a doctoral degree in Advanced Materials and Photonics under joint supervision by Helsinki Institute of Physics and Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, focusing on the fabrication of silicon pixel sensors that utilize thin films grown by atomic layer deposition as resistive and dielectric layers.

Following her thesis defense in spring 2021, Jennifer was awarded a 2-year postdoctoral scholarship by the Finnish Cultural Foundation for conducting research abroad. She moved to Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics at the US West coast to deepen her knowledge in precision timing sensors, as well as characterization of readout electronics. Continuing as a postdoctoral researcher, she also contributed to the electrical QC of pixel modules for the upgrade of the ATLAS experiment and was active in the ePIC and PIONEER experiments.

At her appointment at UH Mānoa, Dr. Ott's group focuses on fast-timing silicon detectors and readout electronics for particle physics and related applications, including space-based gamma-ray detection and medical imaging. She is an active member of the Belle II, ePIC, and PIONEER experiments, and leads UH's contributions to the NASA-funded ADAPT mission. Her research is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, and the NSF-funded National Network for Microelectronics Education.