Ruby Lai is the Founder of Foss Toilets.
She is a scientist with broad intellectual interest, but with a persistent focus on impact through science and technology. She was previously a research scientist at Columbia University and Stanford University, where she invented a novel biological process technology for on-site sanitation systems for the Reinvented Toilet Challenge.
She is now the founder of Foss Toilets, a company developing a water-recycling, off- grid toilet and treatment system in Seattle, WA. During her PhD, she developed a process for fabrication of complex devices on free- standing ultrathin silicon; she established a mechanistic model for metal-assisted chemical etching; and she helped invent a novel nanophotonic surface for transparent metal contacts for silicon solar cells. Her previous research has also included ultracold atom physics and carbon nanotube quantum devices.
As a graduate student, she founded the Stanford University Graduate Students of Applied Physics and Physics. Through this organization, she helped physics graduate students find their communities and develop their career plans. She was also an advocate for graduate student mental health, a Stanford Centennial Teaching Award winner, and Student Program Director for the Physics Summer Undergraduate Research Program.
She is proud to serve as the Hertz Foundation’s co-Chair for Community and to have initiated the Hertz Community Rep program to bring local Hertz events across the country and throughout the year.
