Celebrating Commencement 2016

2016 Commencement Brunch Seniors

The department celebrated its graduating students and exceptional faculty, staff, and student honorees for 2015-2016 at several events in honor of Drexel Commencement 2016.

A lunch was held for graduating BS and MS students on Wednesday, June 8 in the Bossone Research Enterprise Center Atrium where honors were bestowed upon faculty, staff, and student awardees and the BS students had the opportunity to roast the department. The Doctoral Hooding Ceremony took place on Thursday, June 9 at 4:30 p.m. at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The College of Engineering held its commencement event on Friday, June 10 at noon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. Finally, a University-wide commencement ceremony took place on Saturday, June 11 at 10 a.m. at Citizens Bank Park.

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Faculty and Staff Awards

Outstanding Research Award
Jonathan Spanier

Outstanding Teaching Award
Ekaterina Pomerantseva

Outstanding Service Award
Christopher Weyant

Outstanding Staff Award
Wendy Thurman

Outstanding Graduate Student Award
Derrick Smith (advisor:  Christopher Li)
Katie Van Aken (advisor:  Yury Gogotsi)

Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award
Ziyin Huang (advisor:  Christopher Li)
Nicholas Pescatore (advisor:  Yury Gogotsi)

Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering

Andrei Akbasheu
“Synthesis and Properties of Ferroelectric Perovskite Oxide Thin Films”
Supervising Professor:  Jonathan E. Spanier
Current position:  Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University

Yohan Dall’Agnese
“Study of Early Transition Metal Carbides for Early Storage Applications”
Supervising Professor:  Yury Gogotsi
Current position:  Postdoctoral Researcher, Shinshu University, Japan

Boris A. Dyatkin
“Influence of Structure and Surface Chemistry of Porous Carbon Electrodes on Supercapacitor Performance”
Supervising Professor:  Yury Gogotsi
Current position:  NRC Postdoctoral Researcher, US Naval Research Laboratory

Sean M. Garner
“Towards an Improved Understanding of Strength and Damage in Cold Compacted Powders”
Supervising Professor:  Antonios Zavaliangos
Current position:  Senior Scientist I; AbbVie Inc.; Lake County, IL

Justin Paul Griggs
“Investigation of the Reversible Hysteresis Effect in Hexagonal Metal Single Crystals and the MAX Phases”
Supervising Professor:  Michel W. Barsoum

Joseph Halim
“X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study of 2D Transition Metal Carbides (MXenes)”
Supervising Professor:  Michel W. Barsoum
Current position:  Postdoctoral Researcher, Linkoping University, Sweden

Christopher James Hawley
“Growth of Nanowires and Nanowire Heterostructures by Chemical Vapor Deposition and Vapor Transport”
Supervising Professor:  Jonathan E. Spanier
Current position:  Postdoctoral Researcher, Materials Science and Engineering, Drexel University

Maria R. Lukatskaya
“Capacitive Performance of Two-Dimensional Metal Carbides”
Supervising Professor:  Yury Gogotsi
Current position:  Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Chemical Engineering, Stanford University

Terrence McGuckin
“Exploring the Electronic Landscape at Interfaces and Junctinos in Semiconductor Nanowire Devices with Subsurface Local Probing of Carrier Dynamics”
Supervising Professor:  Jonathan E. Spanier
Current position:  Chief Scientist and Founder, Ephemeron Labs

Derrick Matthew Smith
“Structure and Electrochemical Properties of Holographically Polymerized Polymer Electrolyte Membranes for Li Batteries”
Supervising Professor:  Christopher Li
Current position:  Assistant Scientist, Postdoctoral Researcher; Merck; West Point, PA

Darin Joseph Tallman
“On the Potential of MAX Phases for Nuclear Applications”
Supervising Professor:  Michel W. Barsoum
Current position:  Research Investigator, Material Engineer; Chemours; Wilmington, DE

Wei Wu
“Binding Stress Enhanced Sensitivity of Piezoelectric Plate Sensor”
Supervising Professor:  Wei-Heng Shih

Joshua Young
“First Principles Design of Non-Centrosymmetric Metal Oxides”
Supervising Professors:  James M. Rondinelli, Steven J. May
Current position:  Postdoctoral Researcher, Naval Research Labs

Tian Zhou
“Controlled Synthesis of Polymer Brushes via Polymer Single Crystal Templates”
Supervising Professor:  Christopher Y. Li
Current position:  Characterization Scientist; SACO AEI Polymers Inc.; Sheboygan, WI

Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering

Kevin Thomas Bazzel
Grady W. Bentzel
Dana Jaclynn Bronen
Andrew Gabriel Cieri
Bryton Lucas Farber
Mark Robert Heuberger
Ziyin Huang
Amanda Huon
Michael Leonard Jablonski
Evan Michael Kahl
Sowmiya Kariyagoundanur Chinnadurai
Daniel Wayne Lawrence
Jingwen Li
Krysten Roe Minnici
Austin Nye
Nicholas Anthony Pescatore
Andriy Vengrenyuk
Tao Yang

Drexel Materials Seniors 2016

Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering

Laura Victoria Allan (Magna Cum  Laude)
Kevin Thomas Bazzel (Cum Laude)
George H. Bernhard
Madeline Anne Bouchard (Cum Laude)
Andrew Sterling Carver
Ryan M. Catania
Kai-Chin Chiang
Andrew Gabriel Cieri (Cum Laude)
Nicholas M. Dovidio
Dominic J. Falcone
Bryton Lucas Farber (Cum Laude)
David Nicholas Freiberg
Emily Anne Gartland
Jessica Ann Gidzinski
Ziyin Huang (Magna Cum Laude; Kappa Theta Epsilon—National Co-op Honor Society)
Colleen M. Hyde
Daniel Wayne Lawrence (Magna Cum Laude)
Daniel Sillers Lewis
William Charles MacLuckie (Magna Cum Laude)
Joseph R. Massott
William J. McDonnell
Pieter Erik O’Shannessy (Cum Laude)
Neal Charles Overbeck
Christine L. Palmer
David M. Pearson (Cum Laude)
Nicholas Anthony Pescatore (Magna Cum Laude)
Matthew Wesley Robinson
Elaine Ruiz (Cum Laude)
Raphael Luborsky Samost
Alexandra Catherine Tyler
Adolfo Alberto Urrutia
Daniel Vryhof
John Edward Watson IV
Travis Christopher Weiss


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