After her junior year, she worked at Bell Labs for a summer through a research program to support women and minority groups, where she became interested in the interactions between semiconductors and insulators when creating stacks.
[2] After graduating, Olmstead took position at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1985.
[4] She also acts as Undergraduate Faculty Advisor,[5] Associate Chair of physics[4] and manages a Nanotechnology PhD Program.
[6] Her main research focus, broadly stated, is investigating "interfaces between dissimilar materials".
She develops techniques to grow and characterise high-quality thin films and layered systems including materials such as calcium fluoride, silicon and gallium arsenide.