February 2023 News & Kudos

Alumni finding jobs in science

• Taylor Mundel (’22) got a position as equipment engineer at Microchip Technology.
• Malek Chriaki (’22) got a position as Project Technician at Jubilant HollisterStier Contract Manufacturing and Services.

Congratulations!

People in the CHBP department

Ashley Lamm laboratory: Plastics and polymers are incredibly useful and ubiquitous in our daily lives but they are incredibly persistent in the environment, killing more than 1.1 million seabirds and animals each year and the global production of plastic has doubled since 1950. Recycling plastic seems to be the answer to reuse and reduce plastic waste but only a dismal 8.7% of plastic is recycled per year with the rest ending up in landfills and the environment. An alternative to help eliminate this problem is to create polymers that biodegrade or breakdown over time or in certain conditions. Ashley’s lab works to synthesize polymers that degrade when exposed to high or basic pH. They work with small molecules as a proof-of-principle to determine the reaction conditions, and characteristics for the polymers. There are currently six students working on projects: Andrew Flaig, Mohammad Kaddoura, Micah Lamb, Sydney Mueller, Liz Parsley, Cole Streeter.

ISC TV screen

• Check out the TV screens at ISC for more CHBP information.

Coming outreach

• Suds & Science: On February 4th, at 7 PM at the Golden Handle Brewery (154 S. Madison, Spokane), René Buell, Jason Stoke, and Andrés Aragoneses will be talking about the science in the movie The Martian.