Texas ChE Students Sweep Procter & Gamble Poster Competition
Students from the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering recently won the top three spots in the Procter & Gamble Poster Competition hosted by The University of Texas at Austin.
Jessica Hung (Johnston Group) placed first and received a $1,000 cash prize for her poster, “Formation of Stable Low-Viscosity, High Concentration Protein Dispersions with Molecular Crowding Agents”. Jessica’s research focuses on developing low-viscosity, stable protein solutions to enable the delivery of highly concentrated therapeutic proteins used to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Joshua Laber (Maynard Group) won second place and received a $500 cash prize for his poster, “Biochemical and biophysical characterization of a low viscosity formulation method using supercharged GFP variants”. Josh’s research aims to biophysically and biochemically characterize and fundamentally understand formulation technology for delivering high concentrations of proteins, which can be used to deliver protein-based therapeutics such as types that treat cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Reika Katsumata (Ellison Group) took third place and received a $200 cash prize for her poster, “Polydopamine-Assisted BCP Nanopatterning on Flexible Substrates”. Reika is developing mussel-inspired interfacial engineering for block copolymer nanopatterning that can be applied to flexible electronic device manufacturing.
“All of the participants showed a level of scientific rigor, uniqueness and intellect that reflects the incredible scientific talent that is present at UT Austin,” said Dr. Jorge Naciff, principal scientist at Procter & Gamble. “And, this year the three top presentations were from chemical engineering students.”
The competition featured 25 research posters submitted from all across campus, which were judged by three Procter & Gamble scientists: Dr. Scott Stanley (Texas ChE alum from Professor John Ekerdt’s Group), Dr. Jacob Adams (Texas alum, from Texas ChE Professor Grant Willson’s group in the Chemistry Department), and Dr. Jorge Naciff (UC graduate, from John Dedman’s group in the Molecular and Cellular Physiology Department). UT Professors Po-Tsan Ku (College of Natural Sciences) and Jessica Myer (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) helped organize the event.
Check out career opportunities at Procter & Gamble, including a current full-time position for an Analytical Microscopist and Surface/Material Scientist.
Tags: Ellison Group, Jessica Hung, Johnston Group, Joshua Laber, Maynard Group, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, poster competition, Procter & Gamble, Reika Katsumata, Texas ChE, University of Texas at Austin, UT Austin