WSU Tri-Cities Announces Student Research Grants

July 10, 201 5| Tri-City Herald

Five students at Washington State University Tri-Cities will receive grants as part of the Chancellor’s Summer Scholars Program at the university.

The program allows students to be mentored by a faculty member and work on a project to prepare them for a career in a science, technology, engineering and math field, a news release said.

Three of the $3,000 grants are being covered by Hanford contractor Washington River Protection Solutions:

  • Demi Galindo, a pre-medicine student is working with faculty members Elly Sweet and Jim Cooper on a developmental genetics project, which is part of a larger effort to understand human developmental disorders that cause skull deformities.
  • Joseph Traverso will build a robotic arm and investigate the capabilities of such a device with assistant professor Changki Mo.
  • Christopher Smith, mentored by associate professor Bin Yang, will look at developing a way to break down industrial waste created from a biomass conversion methods by using aerobic bacteria.

The other two grants will go to:

  • Logan Wickham, a freshman, who will work with assistant professor Nikos Voulgarakis on a project modeling nanoscale fluid-solid interfaces.
  • Jesus Madrigal’s investigation of why some biomass resist being broken down by enzymes in collaboration with assistant professor Xiao Zhang.