Ciba Travel Award winners announced: four chemistry & engineering students receive ACS GCI award

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2016 – Students from the University of Toledo, North Carolina State University, Ursinus College, and University of Colorado, Boulder, received the 2015 Ciba Travel Award in Green Chemistry. The award, administered by the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute^{® (}ACS GCI), will allow them to participate in ACS conferences and meetings that promote sustainable chemical processes.

Established in 2009 through the Ciba Green Chemistry Student Endowment, this award is intended to expand students’ education in green chemistry through participation at a relevant conference. The award amount is based on estimated travel expenses, up to $2,000.

The Winners

Brooke Mason is an undergraduate student in environmental engineering at the University of Toledo in Ohio. Her area of study deals with lifecycle assessments of different photovoltaic (PV) cells. The goal of her research is to determine the environmental impacts of manufacturing PVs with hopes of one day designing a benign PV cell.

Tova Williams is a Ph.D. student studying fiber and polymer science at North Carolina State University. Williams’ thesis topic is on computer-aided design of sustainable hair dye precursors. Her research focus is on the design of environmentally benign dyes for human hair keratin fibers by utilizing latent pigment technology.

Brendan Phillips is an undergraduate organic chemistry student from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. His research demonstrates simple and industrially relevant examples of transfer hydrogenation applied toward pharmaceutical synthesis, an area that employs hazardous hydride donors in organic transformations.

Ryan Pearson is a Ph.D. student of chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Colorado, Boulder.  Pearson studies organic and materials (polymer) chemistry in the Division of Materials and Nano Science. His research is on the development of organic photo catalysts for controlled radical polymerizations, coatings exhibiting antimicrobial properties, and new materials derived from biomass.

All four winners have chosen to attend the 20^th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, June 14-16, 2016, in Portland, Oregon, where they will present their research.

The ACS Green Chemistry Institute^® is an impartial, scientific convener promoting the implementation of green chemistry and engineering across the global chemical enterprise. The Institute empowers people to reimagine chemistry and engineering for a sustainable future by offering educational resources, training and development opportunities for students, educators and researchers, and by convening industrial roundtables to promote industry collaboration around green chemistry issues. A part of the American Chemical Society, the Institute holds an annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference (gcande.org), the longest running conference on green chemistry in the country.

The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 158,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.