Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2021-2022

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Chemistry

Research Summary: My research focus is to develop chemical methods for recycling plastic waste into valuable materials. Specifically, I work on re-designing the chemical building blocks that plastics are made of so that they can be recovered from the plastic product after it is no longer viewed as useful. Current non-chemical methods for recycling plastics often use harsh conditions which damage the structure of the plastic and hinder its potential to be reused. By designing new plastics from which the chemical building blocks can be recovered, my research enables a more sustainable lifecycle for the plastics that our society depends on.