While at Duke, I mentored 3 undergraduate students in a one-on-one mentorship format, each lasting ~3-6 months. Each undergraduate helped advance my research goals as I trained them and helped them with professional development. One of the undergraduates has already published a research article with me, and I am about to publish another research article with a different student. I am also co-leading a team of 5 undergraduates in a team-based project within our group, where we hope to publish a research article where all of the authors are students (no PI).

▪ Performed research in both monomer and polymer synthesis, characterization, and application.▪ Designed the multi-step synthesis of mechano-responsive monomers for applications in stress-responsive polymer materials, specifically stress-reporting and stress-dissipating polymers.▪ Pioneered the utilization of RAFT chemistry in our field to achieve polymers with abundant stress-responsive monomer content and tunable polymer properties.▪ Gained a fundamental mechanistic understanding of the structure-activity relationships for the ring-opening of cyclobutene, the knowledge of which was used to design cyclobutene-containing polymers that are able to report areas of localized stress.▪ Developed cross-linking chemistry so that these mechano-responsive monomers could successfully be 3D-printed within seconds for bulk network characterization▪ Probed, characterized, and analyzed polymer solutions and networks utilizing a variety of techniques (DSC, DMA, tensile testers, pulsed ultrasound), including GPC and other spectroscopic tools (NMR, UV-Vis, fluorescence spectroscopy).▪ Publicized research results as a first-author on 2 publications, with 4 additional first-author manuscripts in preparation.▪ Developed independent attention to detail, problem solving, and troubleshooting skills through daily laboratory scale design of experiments, literature analysis, and weekly oral presentations communicating research progress.▪ Contributed research to collaborative projects with various other universities including Stanford, MIT, and UW-Madison, which enabled honing of teamwork and communication skills.▪ Served as lab safety manager (2018-2020) for Duke Safety Office and prepared for 3 annual safety audits.

TA for General Chemistry (2016-2017):▪ Led a team of 4 TAs in creating class content and facilitating team-based activities for 120+ freshman students for a flipped-classroom ▪ Collaborated with other department members to incorporate cutting-edge research content into the curriculum▪ Created weekly clicker-quizzes and Qualtrics surveys to track student progressTA for Summer Research Fellowship Program (2020)▪ Co-led a research-intensive summer fellowship program for 10 undergraduate students▪ Adapted the program to be fully virtual with only a 30-day notice as a result of COVID-19▪ Monitored team activity and morale via weekly Qualtrics surveys that were used to adapt and improve the program and to ensure all team members felt supported and valued