Ph.D. Advisor: Nicholas Jackson
Future plans? I have accepted a position at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. I'll be working in Bioproduct R&D with Yiqun Li and team, developing bioanalytic data pipelines, management, and Machine Learning tools to accelerate discovery of therapies to combat diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer, and others.
Talk about your Ph.D. research: I have focused on understanding electronically active organic materials. I have developed a method to simulate bulk electronic conductivities and used AI to discover physical mechanisms driving photo-degradation. This work will guide future development of neuro-sensors and flexible solar cells.
What are the potential applications of your research? Organic solar cells are flexible devices that have been shown to convert light into electricity; however, current designs degrade in sunlight too quickly for applications. Our work identified the dominant degradation mechanism in sunlight and validated three unique strategies to avoid it.
Awards: 2024-21 Phi Kappa Phi (Elected to membership); 2021 School of Chemical Sciences Graduate Teaching Award; 2020 List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students
Activities and organizations: I have greatly enjoyed connecting with the local community in Champaign-Urbana, becoming an adoptive grandson (tech-help, dinner guest, and friend) to a few couples, and a surrogate uncle/mentor/tutor to friends' kids. These diverse relationships have taught me a lot about life.
How does it feel to reach this milestone? It's both satisfying to have the past five years of work culminate in this moment, and exciting to get to apply these newfound skills to new problems!
Major highlight? My collaboration with Molecule Maker Lab Institute has been a very rewarding challenge. The camaraderie among the other grad students was much appreciated as we solved hard problems together.
Any mentors who were especially impactful in your educational journey? It's hard to narrow it down; but Nick Jackson has been an incredible mentor for the past five years, teaching a former experimentalist the ropes of physics-based simulations and AI. And I had a boss in the Air Force, Dr. Greg Taylor, who was one of the most thoughtful and purposeful leaders I've ever met, willing to pause and plan before deciding on a course of action. I hope to model my mentorship after him.
Any advice for other graduate students? Always remember the "Why" of what you're doing. If there isn't a good reason, find a better reason, or find something better to do!