Category: Student Stories

Missoury Lytle is ending her second year of Ph.D. studies on a high note, receiving an award that recognizes her advocacy for women at Clemson University. She won an Award of Excellence for the Advancement of Women in the graduate category from the Clemson University Commission on Women.

Missoury received her Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering at Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in chemical engineering under the advisement of Dr. Eric Davis of Clemson. Missoury’s research focuses on making polymer membranes for water purification and drug delivery.

Missoury co-founded the Clemson chapter of Women in Chemical Engineering, co-chaired the organizing committee for the 2022 Women’s Celebration Month and led an effort to provide free menstrual products to women in Earle Hall.

“It was really nice to be acknowledged, but I get help from a lot of people,” she said.

Missoury said Dr. Davis connected her to Women in Chemical Engineering, a sub-organization of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Women in Chemical Engineering has partner organizations at several universities across the country, and Missoury’s efforts helped bring a student chapter to Clemson. “As part of a lab group that is mostly women, it seemed like the perfect opportunity,” Missoury said. “We wanted to make sure that non-chemical engineers and non- women were also partaking in the advocacy. It was a very good idea, and I was glad that our advisor brought it up.”

In her free time, Missoury enjoys playing competitive disc golf, and her advocacy for women extends to the sport. Men far outnumbered women at the recent 2022 College Disc Golf Championship in Marion, North Carolina, she said. “It was really cool hanging out with women in that context, while also receiving this award, because we were all lifting each other up as we’re competing against each other,” Missoury said.

Not only did Missoury receive the award from the Comission on Women that acknowledge her drive to support women, but she also received the Darnall and Susan Boyd Fellowship for her doctoral studies. The Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Foundation, Inc. works to support passionate students as they earn degrees in STEM fields so they may go on to successful careers. Missoury was nominated for her work in the Clemson community to support her peers. Her leadership as the President of Women in Chemical Engineering and Director of the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee in the Graduate Student Government does not go unnoticed.

After receiving her Ph.D., Missoury would like to teach at the undergraduate level.

You might call Ricardo García Cárcamo of Clemson University a “model” student.

Not only is Ricardo good at what he does, but he also works exclusively with computer models.

Ricardo is a Ph.D. student in the lab of Dr. Rachel Getman, the Murdoch Family Endowed Associate Professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

The students in her lab specialize in creating sophisticated models of chemical reactions to lay the groundwork for more efficient, more effective and less expensive catalysts.

While the Hollywood idea of research may involve test tubes and bubbling chemicals, the students in Dr. Getman’s lab do all their work on computers. Ricardo focuses on how water influences catalytic reactions.

“It’s kind of different,” he said. “Most researchers are experimentalists, and they have a lab. My office is my lab.”

Ricardo received his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from El Salvador’s Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas.

He started his career as a chemical engineer at a sugar factory. While working there, a friend who had received a Ph.D. from Clemson and had returned to El Salvador told Ricardo he would be a good fit for the chemical and biomolecular engineering Ph.D. program at Clemson.

Ricardo is now nearly three years into the program. He said his experience has changed how he approaches research, helping him see the big picture.

Dr. Getman has taught him to focus his ideas, follow a research plan and teach.

“She is passionate about students,” Ricardo said. “She tries to adapt herself to every student’s style.”

His proudest moment as a Tiger so far was passing his oral qualifier, an exam doctoral students take to determine if they are prepared for a Ph.D. program.

The Getman lab, he said, is a supportive environment.

“We are all in the lab most of the time, so we can chat, and we can help each other,” Ricardo said. “We stick together for a good part of the day.”

Ricardo is on track to graduate in about two years. He said he liked the fast pace of industry but is open to other opportunities.

Dr. Jessica Larsen’s Research Lab –

Grace Anderson, a junior undergraduate researcher for Dr. Jessica Larsen, is working on an SC BioCRAFT funded project this summer. The overarching goal of Grace’s project is to improve the current standard of care for brain tumors.

Cancerous cells left adjacent to the removed tumor account for 96% of recurrent tumors, providing motivation for immediate local drug delivery to that area while helping the tissue to heal. Preventing tumor resurgence and healing the brain tissue post-surgery can be performed simultaneously using thermally responsive hydrogels.

Grace is working to create polymers that are liquid at room temperature and gel up at body temperature, encapsulating and delivering a drug slowly over time.

Dr. Eric Davis’s Research Lab –

This summer, undergraduate researchers Jaden Stutts and Alana LeSuer are working in Prof. Davis’s lab on highly interdisciplinary projects encompassing polymer science, energy storage and delivery, and membrane-based aqueous separations.

Jaden, a rising Junior who joined the lab in Spring 2020, is currently working towards completing her Departmental Honors Thesis on a project centered around the fabrication and characterization of poly(hydroxyethylmethacrylate) (pHEMA) and lignin soft composites (i.e., composite hydrogels), which have potential applications in biotechnologies such as wound dressing and drug delivery.

While prevalent in biomedical research, hydrogels comprised primarily of pHEMA are not mechanically robust and suffer from degradation issues, limiting their implementation in many applications. With the introduction of lignin, an abundant biopolymer that is a byproduct of the pulping and paper industry, we are able to tune both the mechanical and transport properties of the soft composites, creating materials with tailored functionality. Along with altering various synthesis parameters, Jaden will also investigate how the properties of the composite hydrogels change depending the source of the lignin – e.g., hardwood or softwood.

Alana, a rising Senior in the program, is working with one of the graduate students in Prof. Davis’s lab on a project involving ionomer (i.e., polymers containing a fixed charge along the backbone) nanocomposites for use in vanadium redox flow batteries. Redox flow batteries, which can be thought of as large car batteries, have emerged as a promising electrical grid-scale energy storage technology due to their scalability.

However, the current state-of-the-art ionomer used to separate the liquid electrolytes in the battery suffers from issues related to electrolyte crossover, reducing the efficiency and lifetime of the battery. To address this issue, Alana will work to fabricate and characterize ionomers containing functionalized nanoparticles that have shown promise at addressing issues related to electrolyte crossover without compromising the attractive properties of these ionomer membranes.

Specifically, Alana will be synthesizing sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membranes containing silica nanoparticles with a wide range of surface functionalities. By varying the concentration and surface functionalization of the nanoparticles, the ion transport properties of the membranes can be significantly altered, ultimately leading to membranes with better performance properties than the current benchmark ionomers.

Both Jaden’s and Alana’s work are funded by a summer research grant through the Clemson University Creative Inquiry Program, as well as through an external grant from the Materials Assembly and Design Excellence in South Carolina (MADE in SC) Program titled, “Closing the Gap of Underrepresented Minorities and Women in Polymer-Related Research”.

Four student researchers engaged in catalytic materials and reaction engineering research at Dr. Ming Yang’s group have been recently recognized by the university and external funding agencies for their ongoing research work that aims to tackle climate change and to harvest clean energies.

Luis Morales and John Yeager, junior undergraduate students, were recently accepted into Clemson’s 2021 Summer Creative Inquiry program and given the accompanying Undergraduate Research Award (CI & UR Award). Luis and John, through both thermocatalytic and electrocatalytic approaches, will investigate how chemical engineers can significantly cut CO2 greenhouse gas emissions by turning the CO2 into value-added products through cost-effective environmentally benign catalytic reactions.

Case Sandor, senior undergraduate student, is a recipient of the Undergraduate Student Award from South Carolina NASA Space Grant Consortium. The agency funded Case for 400 hours of research to develop catalytic materials and electrochemical reactors that can convert CO2 in space and cabin into renewable fuels so as to empower deep space exploration. Case will also participate in outreach/public engagement activities during his award period to advocate research and science to public.

Ewa Chukwu, a first-year international PhD student, has been selected to participate in the Student Program at the 2021 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit sponsored by the US Department of Energy. The 2021 Student Program will include the top graduate-level students, an engaging panel discussion regarding a career in energy, a Meet & Greet to speak with energy industries, and many opportunities to learn about cutting-edge energy initiatives.

Congratulations Case, Ewa, John, and Luis! Full speed ahead!