Lisa has been an appointed faculty member in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department since the 1980s. Her work at Yale started in combustion of sustainable fuels, and has since evolved from the study of soot and catalysis to her current work in nanomaterials and the investigation of properties on the nanoscale. Throughout her career, she has received awards including a young faculty award in the 90s, an IBM Faculty Award in 2005, as well as others. She has numerous patents on nanomaterials synthesis.