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Graduate Spotlight
Shannon Hoffman and Joanna Schneider, graduate students in chemical and biological engineering, received the Maeder Graduate Fellowship in Energy and the Environment, awarded to students who demonstrate potential to develop technical solutions to sustain our energy and environmental future.
Hoffman, a graduate student in José Avalos’ research group, was recognized for her research on cultivating animal proteins in the lab by using light-controlled engineered yeast. She pioneered a tool that controls the yeast using light rather than methanol, further lowering the environmental footprint of cultivated meat alternatives. Hoffman hopes to extend the tool to produce dairy proteins that could eventually reduce human reliance on livestock for milk. Avalos is associate professor of chemical and biological engineering and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment.
Schneider was recognized for her project on developing a technique to target, degrade, and remove industrial waste from groundwater aquifers using specially designed nanoparticle mixtures. By combining experimental visualization, computational tools, and new approaches to engineer particles that safely spread through the aquifers as they clean them, she hopes to find a more viable solution to remediate contaminated water. Her advisers are Sujit Datta, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, and Rodney Priestley, vice dean for innovation (2020-22) and the Pomeroy and Betty Perry Smith Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
The graduate fellowships are supported by the
Paul A. Maeder ’75 Fund for Innovation in Energy and
the Environment.
Shannon Hoffman and Joanna Schneider (Photo by Bumper DeJesus)
Previous Maeder Fellows – Where Are They Now?
2021-2022 academic year Tianran Liu (chemical and biological engineering) graduate student at Princeton University
2020-2021 academic year Suong (Su) Nguyen (chemistry) postdoctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019-2020 academic year Weitao Shuai (civil and environmental engineering) postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University
2018-2019 academic year Evan Zhao (chemical and biological engineering) CEO and co-founder of Revela, Inc, a startup based in Massachusetts
2017-2018 academic year Ching-Yao Lai (mechanical and aerospace engineering) assistant professor of geosciences at Princeton University
2016-2017 academic year Clark Chen (chemical and biological engineering) assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
2016-2017 academic year Ryan Edwards (civil and environmental engineering) manager of climate policy at Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum
