Haegel joined NREL in 2014, after ten years at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey California, where she was a Distinguished Professor in the Physics Department. She has also been a faculty member at UCLA and Fairfield University.

Dr. Haegel received her BS degree in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame and a PhD in Materials Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests are in electronic materials and devices, with emphasis on transport characterization, high resistivity semiconductors and infrared imaging and detection. Her research has been supported by NSF, the Packard Foundation, NASA and ONR. Haegel is the author or co-author of ~130 publications and was the recipient of the 2004 American Physical Society (APS) Prize for Research at an Undergraduate Institution.  She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Notre Dame and was a 2012 Fulbright Senior Scholar.