Loveless received her BS and MS in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University in 2015 and 2017.  Her graduate research with Prof. Allen Garner focuses on developing theoretical models for gas breakdown in microscale gaps, which have applications in medicine and combustion.  In particular, she has derived new analytic equations from first principles to describe the transition from traditional avalanche breakdown (Paschen's law) to field emission at the microscale.  She is currently studying the transition between electron emission mechanisms for various device sizes and gas pressures and working with experimentalists to apply simple mathematical models to gas breakdown for alternating current fields.

Since 2011, DEPS has provided more than $855,000 in scholarships. The funds for these awards are provided by grants from the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office, the Office of Naval Research and DEPS.