Chemistry Students Recognized by National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program
Two Penn State chemistry students have been recognized by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). Chemistry major Sojung Kim was selected as a GRF awardee, and Margaret Gerthoffer, a second year graduate student in the Elacqua lab, was recognized as an honorable mention.
The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students studying science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. In addition to support for their research, awardees benefit from a three-year annual stipend, along with a cost of education allowance for tuition, and opportunities for international research and professional development.
Kim is a graduating senior in the chemistry major. She conducted research with Professor Tom Mallouk before joining the Zhang lab, where she co-authored a paper in ChemBioChem in 2019. Her work focuses on synthesizing small, fluorogenic molecules that can be used to tag proteins. Outside of the lab, she is involved in Science LionPride and the Nittany Chemical Society. She served as the outreach chair for Science LionPride and as the treasurer of the Nittany Chemical Society. After graduating in May, Kim plans to pursue a PhD in chemistry at UC Berkeley, where she will work with Professor Richmond Sarpong to conduct research in synthetic organic chemistry.
Gerthoffer is a second year graduate student in the Elacqua lab; she is a member of the CCI Center for Nanothread Chemistry and a member of the Department of Chemistry Climate and Diversity Committee. She earned her bachelor's degree at Seton Hill University. Her research utilizes supramolecular techniques in an effort to engineer carbon synthons which, when pressurized, will preferentially react in the solid-state into a uniquely designed carbon architecture. Gerthoffer aims to form a specific class of carbon architectures known as nanothreads, which are analogous to the thinnest possible diamond. By using these supramolecular synthons, she is able to insert specific functionalities to attribute a wide diversity of different nanothreads for use as an ultrahard material.
Please join the Department of Chemistry in congratulating Sojung Kim and Margaret Gerthoffer on this exciting achievement.