SBFC 2024
The Brace Lab was well-represented at the 46th Symposium on Biomaterials, Fuels and Chemicals (SBFC) hosted by the Society for Industrial Microbiology (SIMB) in Alexandria, VA. Boston College Engineering students Isabella Doyle, Bennett Lewis, Gillian Mohr (freshmen), Claire Richter, and Will Rice (sophomores) were all able to go thanks to partial support from the Engineering…
KEEN National Conference 2024
I am really happy that our engineering department at Boston College was able to support faculty travel and attendance at the KEEN National Conference in Austin, TX, last week! This was my first KEEN conference and introduction to the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) it promotes. I had a great time meeting so many welcoming and enthusiastic…
Reflection as part of the Engineering Curriculum
This year at Boston College I have been teaching Third-Year Reflection (fall and spring) for our junior students. Our curriculum requires students take eight semesters of Human-Centered Engineering (HCE) Reflection, a 0-credit hour class that meets once a week for 50 minutes. As we continue to build and grow the HCE program at BC, we…
Sustainability of Real vs. Fake Christmas Trees
Reporter Kristina Rex from WBZ (CBS Boston) stopped by my office yesterday so I could weigh in on which are more eco-friendly: real or fake Christmas trees? Here’s the link to the story: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/which-is-better-a-real-or-a-fake-christmas-tree/ It takes about 10 years to grow a real tree, and during that time they are taking carbon dioxide out of the…
What does engineering mean to you?
I asked my third-year reflection students to draw a picture of what engineering means to them. I loved seeing all their responses. This is an activity I remember doing in a class and I even found mine from my junior year of college. As you can see, collaboration, serving society, using your heart and your…
Getting Started at Boston College
I am so excited for my first-semester as an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Boston College! This fall I will be teaching our Third-Year Reflection course, which is a required seminar for all third-year students where they will explore the relationships among engineering, design, and society. In particular, they will explore ideas of engineering identity,…
Going to Boston College!
I am really excited to share that after a busy tenure-track job interview season, I have enthusiastically accepted an offer to join Boston College as a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Engineering! Engineering is a relatively new department at BC, with a single major: Human-Centered Engineering. From the website: “In the face of…
New article on course-based undergraduate research
I am pleased to share that a new article I co-authored is out today in the journal Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education (BAMBEd). This article is about how we implemented a course-based undergraduate research experience in ABE 226 at Purdue University: a laboratory course with ~64 students, sophomores to seniors, predominantly biology and biological engineering…
AEESP Research & Education Meeting 2022
Well, it’s been a minute since I posted a “blog” update here. In August 2020 I started remotely as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Jeremy Guest’s Group and the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Hard to believe I’m coming up on almost two years in this…
PhDone
Despite working from home from March – June 2020, I was able to successfully defend my dissertation on June 22 and my dissertation deposit was accepted on June 24! And as a bonus, one of my dissertation chapters is hot off the press in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering this month! I appreciate all the…
2020 ABE Grad Symposium at Purdue
This past weekend was our annual ABE Graduate Student Association (ABE-GSA) Graduate Industrial Research Symposium. Hard to believe this was the 7th annual considering I was here for the … 2nd! This year I wasn’t involved with the symposium planning as I try to wrap up my dissertation work. I was also hosting a visitor…
Highlights from the 2019 AIChE Annual Meeting – Orlando
Thanks to a successful travel grant application to the Purdue Graduate Student Government I was able to attend the 2019 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida, in November. Considering how cold it was in Indiana before I left, it was especially nice to head south and enjoy some beautiful Florida…
AIChE Bioenergy Sustainability in Nashville
I had the opportunity to visit Nashville for the AIChE Bioenergy Sustainability conference in Nashville in October. It was my first time in music city and a great quick trip and I’m glad AIChE gave me the opportunity to join in the events! One of the nice things about small topical conferences is that you…
ABE Outstanding Graduate Service Award
Each year, the College of Engineering at Purdue gives awards for Outstanding Service, Teaching, and Research to students in each of the engineering schools/departments at Purdue. Today, all these outstanding graduate students were recognized at a luncheon with department heads, mentors, and other supporters present. I am really proud to have won the Outstanding Graduate…
Purdue ABE Graduate Symposium 2019
Another year, another ABE Graduate Symposium! This year’s ABE Graduate Symposium was part of Purdue’s Ideas Festival: Sustainability for the 21st Century events! To celebrate it’s 150th anniversary, Purdue has been hosting many “ideas festival” events, providing opportunities for discussion on critical challenges that will need tackled in the future. The event was open to…
Wadsworth Mentoring Award and WIEP 50th Anniversary
In 1969 a Purdue alumnus was the first astronaut to set foot on the moon, 47 women were enrolled as undergraduates in Purdue Engineering programs, and Purdue started the nation’s 1st Women in Engineering Program! 🚀 This past Saturday I attended the WIEP 50th Anniversary events held on Purdue’s campus. It was really great to be…
Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels & Chemicals 2018
This past week, students and faculty from the research laboratory I work in were able to give presentations at the annual Symposium on Biotechnology for Fuels & Chemicals (SBFC) hosted by the Society for Industrial Microbiology (SIMB). SBFC is always a great meeting to hear about advances not only in biofuels but in bioproducts development…
Building Future Faculty Program at NC State
This past week I was fortunate enough to participate in the Building Future Faculty program at North Carolina State University. I applied for the program in the fall and am grateful to have been one of 34 post-docs and PhD students selected from what I understand was a highly competitive pool. According to the program…
Purdue ABE Graduate Symposium 2018
The annual Purdue ABE Graduate Industrial Research Symposium was held on February 8, 2018, and was another huge success. Students, faculty, and alumni from the Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering represented LORRE well at the symposium. I am happy to announce I was awarded 1st Place in the 3-Minute Pitch Your Thesis Competion, 1st Place…
Brace Lab 