Dr. Frances Hill received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011, working with advisor Professor Carol Livermore. Dr. Hill earned a Master of Science degree from MIT in Mechanical Engineering in 2008 and a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of Waterloo in Systems Design Engineering on the Dean's Honour List in 2006. She is the recipient of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postgraduate Scholarships at the Master's and doctoral levels. Her Ph.D. research focused on studying the mechanical properties and energy storage capabilities of mechanical springs made of carbon nanotubes.

Dr. Hill is currently a Postdoctoral Associate in the Microsystems Technology Lab at MIT, working with Dr. Luis Velasquez-Garcia, where she is developing MEMS-based electrospray emitters and NEMS cathodes for X-Ray generation.