Congratulations to Graduate Student Jiaqi Yan

January 16, 2021 winston

Ph.D. Student Jiaqi Yan has earned an impressive collection of awards based on her research work…

Most recently she was the winner of the Best Poster Award at the ACS Rubber Division 2020 Student Colloquium. The poster, Functionalized Thermoplastic Elastomers: Fighting Back Against Highly Infectious Global Pathogens, describes a new class of self-sterilizing materials she helped develop.

The polymers are the core element of a project that earned a “Highly commended” ranking (the British equivalent of honorable mention) in the 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Global Award competition. Jiaqi was a member of the team that won the award, which is described in another article on this website.

The Student Colloquium is held annually during the Rubber Division’s International Elastomer Conference. In commending her poster presentation the Division’s Technical Programs Manager expressed that, “Our judges were impressed with the quality and originality of your research and the knowledge displayed through your poster.” Prof. Richard Spontak is Jiaqi’s thesis advisor.

Jiaqi received her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering (with distinction) from East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) and was later accepted as a CBE Ph.D. student. Her research focuses on structure-property relationships of styrenic block copolymers. The copolymers are suitable for use as membranes, biocompatibles, and antibacterial/viral materials.

Jiaqi’s other awards include:

2020 Vivian T. Stannett Fellow Award for Outstanding Early Publication, Honorable Mention. The Award recognizes research excellence, initiative, focus and tenacity during the early careers of Ph.D. candidates in the department.
2020 SPE Foundation Automotive & Composites Division Dr. Jackie Rehkopf Scholarship, USA
2020 SPE Foundation Polymer Modifier & Additives Division Scholarship, USA
2019 First Place poster presentation for Polymer/Polymer Interfaces with Customized Block Copolymers at the Schoenborn Graduate Research Symposium
2019 SPE Polymer Modifiers & Additives Division (PMAD) Challenge Award, a national technical writing competition hosted by the Society of Plastics Engineers
2019 Selected for 21^st National School on Neutron and X-ray Scattering, a highly competitive program hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Jiaqi was also a visiting scholar and technical lead with Kraton Corporation in summer 2020.

Congratulations to Jiaqi for your awards and your demonstrated excellence as a researcher!