When we interviewed Christina Payne on the afternoon of January 9, she had just finished teaching her first class; not her first class of the day—her first class as a faculty member of the University of Kentucky College of Engineering. The assistant professor of chemical engineering arrived this fall after serving as a research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., and is settling into a rhythm of managing research projects and teaching thermodynamics. Fresh off her teaching debut, she sat down with us to talk about her research.