Smalley-Curl awards first STAR graduate research grants

Smalley-Curl awards first STAR graduate research grants

Rice University’s Smalley-Curl Institute has awarded the first eight grants under its Student Training for Advising Research (STAR) program, which supports original research proposals by graduate students who commit to recruiting and mentoring undergraduate research assistants and to receiving training from Rice’s Doerr Institute for New Leaders.

STAR grant recipients were selected by a Smalley-Curl faculty review committee through a highly competitive application process. The following students and proposals were selected for the 2017-18 academic year:

Madeleine Gomel (bioengineering), “Improving the Lifespan of Bioprosthetic Heart Valves With PEGDAA-Based Coating.”

Daniel Gonzales (applied physics), “Whole-Brain Imaging of Spontaneous Behavioral State Transitions.”

Jason Guo (bioengineering), “Thiolated Poly(ε-caprolactone) Macromers for ‘Click’ Conjugation of Biomolecules.”

Sarah Hewes (bioengineering), “Coronary Artery Extruder.”

Sara Nizzero (applied physics), “Overcoming Biological Barriers in the Post-Nano Era: Unraveling Multistage Delivery Vectors Uptake by the Liver.”

Sandhya Susarla (materials science and nanoengineering), “Two-Dimensional Quaternary Transition Metal Di-Chalcogenide Alloys.”

Dayne Swearer (chemistry), “Earth-Abundant Mg Nanoparticles for Plasmon-Mediated Ammonia Production Through Nitride Phase Intermediates.”

Li Yang (physics and astronomy), “Strongly Interacting Ultracold Atoms in One Dimension.”

For more information about STAR or the Smalley-Curl Institute, click here.