Graduate Student Highlight: Auston Butterfield
Each week, the Department of Chemistry highlights one graduate student who is doing great work around the department. In this installment of our highlight series, we are featuring Auston Butterfield, a fourth-year student in the Schaak lab.
Auston’s research focuses on developing synthetic routes, with a special emphasis on cation exchange, to overcome traditional synthetic challenges in order to rationally achieve highly complex nanoscale materials. He says that his favorite aspects of lab work are doing hands-on wet chemistry experiments and using the state-of-the-art electron microscopes in the Materials Characterization Lab at Penn State.
His work was recently published in a paper titled “Emergence and Control of Stacking Fault Formation during Nanoparticle Cation Exchange Reactions.” Auston was listed as first author on the paper, which appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
This week, we sat down with Auston to discuss his life in and outside of the lab! Please enjoy our interview with Auston Butterfield.
Question: How did you get interested in chemistry?
Answer: Initially, I was drawn to chemistry as an undergraduate because it was one of the few courses that challenged me. As I became involved in laboratory work, I loved the balance between rational thinking and hands-on work. After completing my bachelor’s degree, I went on to work in an analytical laboratory for two years. While I loved my job, it became clear to me that I was most interested in research and development, which typically required a PhD, inspiring me to pursue graduate school.
Q: What inspires you as a scientist?
A: As a scientist, I am inspired to work to help solve material challenges that may in turn help us solve real world challenges and better the everyday lives of the people in my community and around the world. I have always been fascinated by the degree of science (and specifically chemistry) that is involved in many of the everyday items in our lives that enable our way of living that we often take for granted. For instance, something as simple as being able to grab a can of soda and not have the soda taste like metal or be degraded. The science behind something so mundane is fascinating! In my career, I hope to work in industrial chemistry on innovative projects that improve everyday life and make it more convenient.
Q: Where did you grow up?
A: I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Living in the East, I am finding that many people think of Utah as a giant desert. While southern Utah is desert like, northern Utah (which includes Salt Lake City) has huge mountains that get tons of snow. In fact, Utah hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. To put it in perspective, the Wasatch Mountain Range that surrounds Salt Lake City has an elevation of nearly 12,000 ft, while Mount Nittany is around 2,000 ft.
Q: Do you have any hobbies?
A: I love to keep busy with hobbies and seem to have tried just about everything at some point or another. Currently, I am into woodworking projects building planter boxes and windmills, roasting my own coffee beans, and training my one-year-old golden retriever. Some of my previous hobbies have included winemaking, rock climbing, scuba diving, and drawing.
Q: What’s your dream vacation?
A: Although I have already been, I would love to go back to Tuscany, Italy. They have a fascinating culture with some of the best wine, coffee, and pastries that I’ve ever had.
Many thanks to Auston for these thoughtful answers! Stay tuned for more graduate student highlights in the weeks to come!