Summer 2023 

Hennigan Lab

Developing new methods to measure atmospheric gas-phase ammonia

I am excited to deploy the instrumentation that we have been working on to collect data. It will be satisfying to see real tangible results come from something that I have worked on with other students!

The best part of my research is the people I work with, everybody in the lab is excited to be here and work on their respective projects.

Search for faculty and read about their research through their website or their department website. Then send an email to a professor who does research that speaks to you and/or aligns with your career goals.

AIChE ChemE Car Team Lead

Industry or M.S. in Chemical Engineering

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-welling-352602248/ 

Paul Loberg, '24 Chemical Engineering - Biotechnology & Bioengineering Track

Where was your Internship?

USALCO in Baltimore, Maryland

What is the focus of your Internship?

The focus of my internship was to develop an economical way to produce dry aluminum chloralhydrate. I am helping design and conduct experiments which would be used to advance the current R&D project through the pilot phase to a scaled up industrial version. I also did lab work to prepare and test the samples we collected from the experiments.

What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

I am looking forward to returning in the winter and seeing how the project has progressed and working on it further.

What was the best part of your Internship?

The best part of my internship was the level of autonomy I was given, as an intern, by my bosses and co-workers. We had a voice during all discussions, we could make designs and sketches independently, and give our personal feedback on the project and the direction we thought it should move.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

My advice would be, even if it's late in the spring and you haven't managed to find an internship, keep applying to postings you want. I got the text for an interview during finals week while I was taking my last exam. Definitely start applying earlier if you can but don't let rejections or a lack of responses stop you.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

I am the Treasurer of UMBC's student chapter of AIChE as well as a member of the Chemical Engineering Jeopardy team. I play basketball for the intramural CBEE team formed by ChemE students.

What are your goals after graduation?

I want to do R&D or process engineering full time.

Yoonjin Cho,

‘24 chemical engineering at Chung-Ang University, South Korea

When did you do your Internship?

Summer 2023

Where was your Internship?

Blaney Lab, UMBC

What is the focus of your Internship?

We are working to develop sampling methods for certain PFAS compounds. This is necessary as governments and regulatory agencies are actively evaluating and implementing measures to restrict the use of certain PFAS compounds and set acceptable exposure limits.

Specifically, I am working on the following projects: 

-Detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater, and biosolids samples. 

-Researching the impact of solution pH, temperature, and salt concentration on KPFAS Cl using membranes for passive sampler 

What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

I look forward to improving my ability to read papers effectively and efficiently, as well as gaining practical experience in a laboratory setting and enhancing my data analysis skills.

What was the best part of your Internship OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Internship ?

I gave a presentation about the calibration curve and internal standard during a group meeting. At first, it was challenging to understand the concept, but through the process of looking things up in English and asking questions to team mates, it became fulfilling. Additionally, presenting in front of my colleagues in the lab pushed me out of my comfort zone. 

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Use diverse sources, including not only academic papers but also platforms like YouTube and blogs, to gain an understanding of the topic you're interested in.

Take your time looking for fields you would like but don't hesitate to take action!

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

University of Maryland-Baltimore County(exchange student)

Chung-Ang University, Korea(senior majoring in chemical engineering)

What are your goals after graduation?

Pursuing master's degree

Ethan Banks, ‘24 Chemical Engineering - Traditional Track

When did you do your Internship?

Summer 2023

Where was your Internship?

W.R. Grace in Curtis Bay, Maryland

What is the focus of your Internship?

Correlating laboratory results to easily measured in-process variables in order to improve the efficiency of production in a specialty catalyst plant.

What are you looking forward to the most about your Internship? 

Getting to learn new things in a real working environment

What was the best part of your Internship OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Internship ?

Getting to work in a manufacturing environment everyday and applying the skills learned in my classes to the real world. I really enjoyed seeing all of the unit operations and core concepts I've learned about come to life.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Apply early and often! It can't hurt to apply to any opportunity that you may be interested in. Also, be sure to leverage your network. If you know somebody that works at a company you are interested in, don't be afraid to reach out.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

Vice President of UMBC's student chapter of AIChE, ChemE Jeopardy Team Member, Current Teaching fellow for ENCH300, Past Teaching Fellow for ENCH225L and ENCH215, Subject Tutor for Chemical Engineering Classes at UMBC's Academic Success Center.

What are your goals after graduation?

Get a full time job in industry

Learn more about Ethan Banks: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-banks-b3622521b/ 

About this book: 

University of Maryland, Baltimore County - Applying a Novel Symbolic Regression To Speed Up Surface Chemistry Simulations

As summer wildfire smoke choked Baltimore, UMBC air pollution researchers leapt into action

Starting this May, a series of wildfires in Eastern Canada sent enormous smoke clouds wafting into the U.S., triggering air quality warnings in cities from the Midwest to the Northeast. For days, orange skies backdropped landscapes clouded by acrid air. People who could hunkered inside with the doors and windows shut. Those who had to go out faced itchy eyes, burning throats, and worse.

As a resident of the Baltimore area—which was blanketed with particularly bad smoke in both early and late June—UMBC Professor Chris Hennigan looked at the haze with dismay. But as an environmental engineer who studies air pollution, he had an additional thought: “We were looking at the air quality forecasts, and we thought ‘We have to gather data,’” he says.

The public found many colorful words to describe the summer’s unwanted smoke: brutal, eerie, dystopian.

Hennigan and his team have been working to put numbers to the adjectives. On the roof of the engineering building, the researchers installed a squat, white sensor that monitors the levels of tiny particles in the air, particularly those measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less—smaller than most bacteria. Called PM_2.5, these particles are released in large numbers during fires. They are dangerous to human health because they can work their way into the deepest parts of the lungs and even enter the bloodstream.

The sensor showed huge spikes in PM_2.5 when the smoke blew through, on some days reaching levels considered unhealthy for anyone to breathe.

The researchers also set up equipment to filter particles out of the air. After 24 hours, they collected the filters, which they are storing, neatly labeled, in a refrigerator in Hennigan’s lab.

The filtered samples will advance at least two ongoing investigations, Hennigan says. In one avenue of inquiry, Joel Tyson, Ph.D. ’23, biochemical engineering, is studying how tiny particles can harm human lung cells. Before this year’s smoky summer, Tyson had been studying the toxic effects of particulate matter normally found in the Baltimore air. With the new smoke samples, he will start to investigate whether wildfire smoke particles, per unit, are more toxic than regular urban particulate matter, which comes from sources such as cars and power plants. Some studies have indicated that wildfire particulate matter is indeed more toxic, but more research is needed before any definitive conclusions can be reached.

In another line of research, Hennigan is also studying how particles in the air, including from smoke, may affect the climate. Undergraduate chemical engineering students Danielle Larios ’25 and Luis Rodriguez ’25 are assisting in the investigations.

The researchers study how particles of brown-colored carbon-containing material absorb light. Burning vegetation sends large amounts of this brown carbon into the atmosphere. It’s possible that the particles are trapping significant heat from the sun, accelerating the pace of planetary warming. Such effects are not normally included in global climate models, and better understanding of the process could improve humanity’s ability to predict, and manage, the coming years of climate upheaval.

Climate change and wildfires are intimately linked. This summer was not only smoky, but also scorching. July marked the hottest month ever recorded, and scientists predict that as the world continues to warm, wildfires will continue to increase in quantity and intensity. “Smokeageddon,” as headlines put it, may become the new normal.

Hennigan says recent research illuminates how much wildfire smoke has contributed to air pollution trends. He points to a paper published in September in the scientific journal Nature that estimated that since 2016, wildfire smoke in the contiguous United States has undone around 25% of the progress in air quality made between 2000 and 2016.

For the researchers in Hennigan’s lab, those effects have been felt personally. 

Rodriguez recalled how in June he had to go out to buy a fresh pack of N95 masks. “The smoke was just awful,” he says. Larios says she felt a burning at the back of her throat in just 15 minutes walking to her car.

For Tyson, the effects of the smoke were so bad that at one point he struggled to breathe and had to visit the doctor. The episode, he says, drove home the importance of his toxicology research.

All three note both the complexity of the systems they are studying and the importance of discovering new knowledge that might help society handle the environmental challenges it faces.

“Our work can have real-world impact, and that’s exciting,” says Larios.

Nicholas Schmidt, '24 Chemical Engineering - Traditional Track

When did you do your Research?

Summer 2023

Where was your Research?

Dr. Singh's lab, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UMBC.

What is the focus of your Research?

Solid crystal optical properties

What are you looking forward to the most about your Research? 

I am looking forward to attending and presenting a research poster at The Material Science and Technology conference during the first week of October. This should be a really good opportunity to see research going on across the country and to gain speaking experience in an academic setting.

What was the best part of your Research?

My favorite part about doing research was gaining hands-on experience with research equipment as well as working collaboratively with undergrads and grad students in the. 

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

My advice is to ask around about opportunities -- talk to people -- especially your professors and your classmates who are already involved in research. You won't always get internships or research directly from the people you ask, but they might know of someone who has an opening or know of an opportunity.

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

Navy ROTC, Tau Beta Pi

What are your goals after graduation?

After graduation, I will be commissioning into the US Navy, hopefully to become a submarine officer and learn about nuclear power. 

Learn more about Nicholas Schmidt: 

www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-schmidt-111b56265

John Velkey, 
'24 Chemical Engineering - traditional track, Mathematics minor

Where was your Research?

ATOMS lab with Dr. Josephson

When did you start your Research?

January 2023

What is the focus of your Research?

Writing programs in Lean 4 that perform scientific calculations, and have verifiable mathematics

What are you looking forward to the most about your Research? 

Opportunities to present research to broader audiences at conferences

What was the best part of your Research OR What was the biggest learning moment of your Research ?

I have really enjoyed the process of learning a new programming language.

What advice do you have for students who are interested in getting involved in research or an internship?

Apply early and often, and tailor applications to individual opportunities. 

Are you a member of any clubs/campus organizations?

I am a teaching fellow for ENCH 300 - Chemical Process Thermodynamics.

What are your goals after graduation?

I am looking forward to getting into the workforce and taking a bit of a break from school, (for now)

Learn more about John Velkey: 

@_Velkey on X (FKA Twitter), LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-velkey