Pennington, NJ – The Electrochemical Society (ECS) congratulates the recipients of the 2023 Colin Garfield Fink Fellowship and ECS Summer Fellowships. Dr. Ruocun (John) Wang of Drexel University received the Colin Garfield Fink Fellowship; Alexander H. Quinn of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology received the Edward G. Weston Fellowship; Sasha Elena Alden of Texas A&M University received the Joseph W. Richards Fellowship; Kevin Beaver of the University of Utah received the F. M. Becket Fellowship; and Kyle Mathews from Drexel University received the H. H. Uhlig Fellowship.
Support from June through August for research of interest to the Society is provided by the Colin Garfield Fink Fellowship for postgraduate researchers/engineers and ECS Summer Fellowships for students between the MS and PhD. To qualify, recipients must be ECS members enrolled in a college or university. At the end of the award period, recipients submit a report on their fellowship project for publication in The Electrochemical Society Interface.
Colin Garfield Fink Fellowship
Dr. Ruocun (John) Wang received the 2023 Colin Garfield Fink Fellowship for postdoctoral research on “Investigating Simultaneous Hydrogen Production and Storage in MXenes.” He received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2020 under the supervision of Prof. Veronica Augustyn. He completed a postdoctorate with Prof. Augustyn, then moved to the A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute at Drexel University in January 2021 to pursue postdoctoral research with Dr. Yury Gogotsi. Dr. Wang received the ECS Battery Division Student Slam 3 Best Paper Award in 2019, and a Cotswold Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2022. He served as Secretary for the ECS Research Triangle Student Chapter in 2018. Dr. Wang is the author of 16 articles with an h-index of 9.
Edward G. Weston Fellowship
Alexander H. Quinn will pursue his project, “Exploring the performance-limiting factors of the reversible bicarbonate-formate redox couple,” with support from the 2023 Edward G. Weston Fellowship. He is a PhD student in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under the supervision of Fikile R. Brushett. Alexander completed his BS in Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University in 2018. His internship positions included the 2019 Vehicle Electrification Internship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; 2018 Safe High-Power Batteries Internship at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Johnson Space Center; and 2017 Propellant Development Intern at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Marshall Space Flight Center. Alexander received a 2019 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and was named the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s MIT University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) Scholar, as well as a 2018 Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Johnson Space Center. He has published seven articles (three as first author) with an h-index of 5.
Joseph W. Richards Fellowship
Sasha Elena Alden Richards Fellowship is titled: “Combining high-throughput biology and electrochemistry by screening electrocatalytic proteins prepared via directed evolution with the array microcell method (AMCM).” She is a fifth-year PhD student in the Chemistry Department at Texas A&M University under the supervision of Prof. Lane A. Baker. After completing a BS in Chemistry at Western Washington University (WWU) in 2018, Sasha studied at Indiana University, then moved with her Principal Investigator (PI) to Texas A&M in January of 2022. She received a 2020 Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC) Student Travel Award, and a 2017 WWU Verna Alexander Price Scholarship for Academic Merit and Continuation in Chemistry. Sasha also worked with Dr. Nickolay Lavrik at Oakridge National Laboratory in the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences. A committee member of the SEAC student group since 2020, Sasha served as Secretary of the ECS Indiana University Student Chapter from 2019-2020. The author of four publications with an h-index of 4, she also wrote a chapter for the 3rd edition of Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy.
F. M. Becket Fellowship
Kevin Beaver will research “Determining photo-enhanced bioelectrocatalytic activity in the purple bacteria Rhodobacter capsulatus” with support from the F. M. Becket Fellowship. He is a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry at University of Utah (U of U) under the supervision of Prof. Shelley D. Minteer. In 2019, he completed a BS in Environmental Science and BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Lebanon Valley College. Kevin received an NSF-REU (National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates) Fellowship to study under Prof. Joseph J. Kieber at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2017; a second NSF-REU Fellowship to study under Prof. Minteer at U of U in 2018; and the William W. Epstein Fellowship to continue studies at U of U in 2019. Kevin served as a Student Ambassador at the 241st ECS Meeting in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in May 2022. He is the author of 12 articles with an h-index of 7.
H. H. Uhlig Fellowship
Kyle Matthews will research “MXenes as Electrodes in High-Power Zinc Batteries” with support from the H. H. Uhlig Fellowship. He is a PhD candidate in the A. J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University. Kyle received his BS in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel in June 2020. Working under Dr. Yury Gogotsi since August 2020, his research has focused on synthesis, processing, and applications of MXenes (specifically for use in the energy sector), with his peer-reviewed publications including papers on all three aspects. Kyle received the Koerner Family Fellowship in February 2022, and Drexel University Outstanding Mentorship Award in June 2023. Kyle served as a student ambassador at the 243rd ECS Meeting in Boston, MA. He is the author of more than 10 publications (h-index 4) and has one patent pending.
2022 Summer Fellowship Subcommittee
The Society thanks these subcommittee members for their time, effort, and expertise in reviewing applications:
- Prof. Samantha Gateman, Subcommittee Chair, Western University, Canada
- Dr. Oumaima Gharbi, Sorbonne Université, France
- Prof. Joey Kish, McMaster University, Canada
- Prof. Dr. Peter Mascher, McMaster University, CAN
- Dr. Patrik Schmutz, Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs-und Forschungsanstalt, Switzerland
- Dr. Kalpathy B. Sundaram, University of Central Florida, U.S.
- Dr. Junsoon Han, Sorbonne Université, France
Applications for the 2024 ECS Summer Fellowships and Colin Garfield Fink Fellowship open on September 15, 2023. The application deadline is January 15, 2024. Learn more about application requirements and process at the respective award websites.
The Electrochemical Society
The nonprofit professional Electrochemical Society has led the world in electrochemistry and solid state science and technology and allied subjects since 1902. We advance scientific theory and practice through publications, meetings, continuing education, and collaboration. Our robust global membership develops solutions to the planet’s major challenges. Scientists, engineers, and industry leaders share research at ECS biannual, co-hosted, and sponsored meetings. The ECS Digital Library on IOPscience hosts abstracts and highly peer-reviewed articles from publications including Journal of The Electrochemical Society (the oldest journal in its field), ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology, and new open access ECS Sensors Plus and ECS Advances.
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