Austin Howes earned his Ph.D. in Physics in 2020 under Jason Valentine. His work advanced the field of metasurfaces to include new types of miniaturized optics that can be dynamically tuned. During his time at Vanderbilt, Austin witnessed VINSE’s construction and was one of the early super-users on many of the nanofabrication tools. He took advantage of these resources, combined them with optical design software, built his own measurement setups, and was able to publish several key publications while in pursuit of his Ph.D. Now, Austin is working as a principal scientist at Northrop Grumman in the south bay of Los Angeles. There, he leads US government research programs that develop new technologies for spacecraft. By combining his nanotechnology background with skills developed at VINSE, he continues to push the limits of optics in the aerospace industry.