News & Highlights

Building on the work I previously presented at ISSCS 2026, I got to share our latest results on bioinspired self-cooling nanocomposites made from ChNF and gelatin. The poster covered additional findings on ChNF structure and charge, and film mechanical properties. Honestly, I was pretty surprised by how much interest it got! So many people stopped by to chat about how these materials work and where they could actually be used. I ended up talking through the results with people for most of the session, and nearly lost my voice by the end! 🤣

🎉Excited to share that I’ve been awarded a $22,000 Southern SARE Graduate Student Grant to field-test chitin-based passive cooling liners — a sustainable, affordable way to reduce postharvest heat buildup and preserve strawberry quality on small-scale Southern farms. Huge thanks to Dr. Feng and Dr. Yang for their help with the proposal and application process!🙏

🏆 Thrilled to have received 3rd Place in the NAJUA Graduate Student Best Paper Competition 2026 — a great recognition of the research quality and originality behind this work.

Served as a Graduate Student Facilitator for PDAL 2026, a teacher immersion program at Virginia Tech. I helped Prof. Justin Barone run a hands-on workshop where secondary school teachers made gummy bears from scratch using everyday kitchen ingredients — a fun way to explore how ingredients and processing affect texture and flavor in food science.

At ISSCS 2026, I presented our recent research on bioinspired self-cooling nanocomposites based on ChNF and gelatin. The materials exhibited enhanced mechanical properties, including increased stiffness and strength, while retaining high flexibility. They also achieved effective passive radiative and evaporative cooling, demonstrating promise as sustainable materials for thermal management applications.

🎉Excited to share that I’ve been awarded the 2025 Pratt Fellowship from the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, in recognition of my academic record and potential for success! Grateful for this support, which will help empower my ongoing research journey!