Carolyn MacDonald is a professor of Physics at the University at Albany, SUNY, and director of Albany's Center for X-ray Optics. Her early research (Ph.D. Harvard, Applied Physics 1986) focused on the use of pulsed lasers to measure the kinetics of rapid phase transitions. She then transitioned to the development and study of polycapillary and doubly curved crystal x-ray optics for materials and medical applications. More recently, she has also been investigating alternative x-ray imaging including practical scatter and phase-based techniques. She has been chair of her department, her University Senate, the New York State Section of the APS, of multiple conferences, was a co-editor of the Handbook of Optics, and author of more than 100 publications. She is committed to bringing a diversity of viewpoints to technical societies and to encouraging easier discourse between pure and applied research.