Graduate student Nan Wu won the Best Poster Award at the 14th Tiger-Hen-Hawk-Black Knight Rheology Symposium at the United States Military Academy (USMA) on April 21, 2018. This one- day rheology symposium is a gathering of local research groups working in rheology from Princeton, University of Delaware, Lehigh University and USMA.
Nan's poster entitled "Microrheological characterization of covalent adaptable hydrogel during pH dependent degradation" by Nan Wu and Kelly M. Schultz is part of Nan's doctoral research in Prof. Schultz's group. Nan received the Best Poster Award judged by a USMA faculty members, the competition included undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs from USMA, University of Delaware and Lehigh University.
Her poster describes her work in understanding a unique and complex covalent adaptable poly(ethylene glycol) based hydrogel during degradation. This material degrades in response to changes in the fluid microenvironmental pH and she is using a combination of microrheology and microfluidics to mimic pH changes that occur within the body to test the material as a delivery vehicle for active molecules, such as drugs and nutrients.