Four students earn symposium's Beaker and Bunsen awards

This year's Beaker and Bunsen award winners at the 13th annual Graduate Student Research Symposium were Rebecca Mackenzie, Jennifer Strehlau, Sarah Wegwerth and Xiaojie Wu.

Forty-one graduate students participated in the 13th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium, Tuesday, June 10. In addition to the symposium winners, this year's participants, who were mostly third-year graduate students, included Sarah Anciaux, Melissa A. Baudhuin, Joshua Borycz, William S. Boyle, Jason Brethorst, Laura J. Clouston, Kaining Duanmu, Yuan Fang, James Gallagher, Philip Goff, Ian Gunsolus, Rachel K. Harstad, Andrew J. Jasniewski, Patrick Kearns, Anna Jo Komor, Elyse Krautkramer, Aaron B. League, Geoffrey C. Li, Yuanchi Ma, Mohammadreza Nasiri, Benjamin Neisen, Amanda Oehrlein, Haley R. Phillips, Sarah M. Pound, Sean P. Ross, Deborah Schneiderman, Randall B. Siedschlag, Christopher E. Smith, Kimberly N. Struk, Swapnil Tale, Erik Tyrrell, Pragya Verma, Tao Wang, Evan A. Weitz, Thakshila M. Wickramaratne, Gereon Yee, and Haoyu Yu.

This year's distinguished judges included Kelly Anderson, Ph.D., Senior Technical Manager, Industrial Adhesives & Tapes Division, 3M; Aalo Gupta, Ph.D., associate Scientist, Phillips 66 Research; and Troy D. Ryba, Ph.D., Manager of Academic Chemistry Strategy and Collaborations, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation. Faculty judges were Professors Philippe Buhlmann, Mark Distefano, Michelle Driessen, Renee Frontiera, Laura Gagliardi, James Johns, Kenneth Leopold, Andreas Stein, and Ian Tonks.

The 13th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium Committee members were Professors Renee Frontiera, James Johns and Ian Tonks, Communications Coordinator Eileen Harvala, and Assistant to the Chair Christine Lundby. Technology support was provided by Webmaster Eric Schulz and Information Technology Professional Mike Casey.  

The Beaker and Bunsen award winners at this year's Graduate Student Research Symposium are pictured with this year's judges. Front row, from left, Professor Laura Gagliardi, Symposium Winners Sarah Wegwerth and Jennifer Strehlau, Professor Michelle Driessen and Professor Kenneth Leopold. Second row, from left, Celebrity Judge Troy Ryba, Professor James Johns, Symposium Winner Rebecca Mackenzie, Professor Renee Frontiera, and Professor Mark Distefano. Third row, from left, Professor Philippe Buhlmann, Professor Andreas Stein, Symposium Winner Xiaojie Wu, Professor Ian Tonks, Celebrity Judges Kelly Anderson and Aalo Gupta.