The Bengt Sonnerup Fellowship

James Kennedy '14

James Kennedy '14 was awarded The Bengt Sonnerup Fellowship for the 2014–2015 academic year. The fellowship will support further research and implementation of his work with Professor Mark Borsuk entitled, "A Techno-Economic Assessment of Profitability and Environmental Impact for Advanced Biomass Pyrolysis, Refining and Upgrading Operations in New Hampshire."

"It is quite the honor to have been selected to be this year's Sonnerup Fellow and I look forward to the challenge set before me," says Kennedy. "Adequately dealing with climate change without compromising economic development is a huge task. Though it is a globally shared problem, it can only be adequately addressed on a more locally focused scale when tradeoffs can be properly balanced. My work will build upon technologies that thermally decompose cellulosic biomass so as to produce desired organics and chars which can be further upgraded to produce energy, fuels, soil additives and other specialty chemicals. While analogous techniques have been applied for thousands of years to similar ends, modern processing equipment offer the potential for new renewable products that can compete in current markets. I will analyze the opportunities in New Hampshire and the Northeast for advanced biomass pyrolysis, refining and upgrading. The ultimate goal of this fellowship is to identify schemes that are reasonably profitable, ecologically sustainable, socially desirable and potentially carbon-negative."

The Sonnerup Fellowship is made possible through the generosity of anonymous donors with the goal of encouraging the development of applied research that addresses the challenges, broadly defined, of global climate change.

The Mazilu Engineering Research Fellowship

Albert Kim '14

Albert Kim '14 was awarded The Mazilu Engineering Research Fellowship for 2014–2015. Says Kim, “The fellowship seeks to improve hyperthermia cancer treatment though the development of nanoparticle embedded scaffolds created though the freeze casting process.”

"Albert joined my lab to pursue his honors thesis research in Spring 2014," says Professor Ulrike Wegst. "I am delighted to be able to continue working with him on a project that fascinates both of us considerably and am very grateful to the Mazilu family for the fellowship, which makes this research possible. Albert will first explore fundamental structure-property-processing correlations in directionally solidified—'freeze-cast'—materials and then apply his findings to the development of novel tissue scaffolds and multifunctional hybrid materials for biomedical applications. He is a truly exceptional student with an unusually keen interest in his research topic and the context into which it fits. He challenges issues from new perspectives and does not hesitate to take on new and difficult topics, which he then quickly masters with creativity, excellent progress and results."

The Mazilu Fellowship was created by Jaime Mazilu '05 Th'06 via Saguaro Technology, Inc., a company founded and run by her mother, Doina Mazilu. The goal of the fellowship is to encourage students to pursue graduate studies and academic engineering careers in the United States.