Clare Boothe Luce scholar Brianna Ruggiero '18 takes third place in annual student poster competition.
A chemical and biomolecular engineering student took home honors last month during a competition at the 2016 Meeting of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in San Francisco, California.
ChBE major Brianna Ruggiero '18 won third place in the student poster competition at the annual meeting. She was a participant in the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering division of the event.
Ruggiero's research, "Conversion of Bioethanol to Butadiene for Manufacture of Green Tires," investigates the reaction network for this complex, multi-step reaction by ZnO-ZrO2/SiO2 catalysts. The molecular details of this cascade reaction were unraveled with application of temperature programmed surface reaction spectroscopy.
Ruggiero, a Clare Boothe Luce research scholar, is sponsored by the fellowship program. Clare Boothe Luce research scholars conduct advanced-level research, collaborating directly with faculty, research scientists, and grad students.
The junior Dean's List student was also Lehigh Mountaintop project participant as part of a team building a collection of arts-based resources for tutors to use at after-school homework clubs for local elementary and middle-school students.
Ruggiero is supervised by Professor Israel E. Wachs, the G. Whitney Snyder Distinguished Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
