Drexel Materials Celebrates Commencement

Graduating students in caps and gowns

The department bid farewell to its graduating students at our annual commencement dinner at the University Club on Wednesday, June 13, 2018.  Faculty, staff, and students receiving 2017-2018 departmental awards were also honored.

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Awards

Outstanding Research Award

Mitra Taheri

Outstanding Teaching Award

Andrew Magenau

Outstanding Service Award

Antonios Zavaliangos

Outstanding Faculty Innovation Award

Wei-Heng Shih

Outstanding Staff Award

Danielle Kopicko

Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Bryan Byles

Outstanding Graduate Innovation Award

Mohamed Alhabeb

Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award

Evan Quain
Karen Wells

Outstanding Undergraduate Innovation Award

Thomas Heng
Devon Spinelli

This year, a number of Drexel Materials graduates were recognized at the College of Engineering commencement, including PhD graduate Gabriel Burks, who gave the graduate student class remarks, graduating senior Karen Wells, whose research was mentioned in Interim Dean Giuseppe Palmese’s remarks, and graduating senior Gabe Plummer, who achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Additionally, at the University-wide commencement ceremony, graduating senior Amanda Bellafato’s high school teacher, Mr. Justin Kast, received a Harold W. Pote “Behind Every Graduate” Award for Excellence in Secondary School Teaching.

Degree Recipients

Doctor of Philosophy in Materials Science and Engineering

Muhammad Boota
“Redox-active Hybrid Materials for Pseudocapacitive Energy Storage”
Supervising Professor: Yury Gogotsi

Gabriel Burks
“Poly (Vinylidene Fluoride): Crystalline Structure, Morphology, and Conversion to Exotic Carbon”
Supervising Professor: Christopher Li

Bryan Byles
“Tunnel Manganese Oxides for Energy and Water Treatment Applications”
Supervising Professor: Ekaterina Pomerantseva

Nenian Charles
“Towards Rational Design of Functional Fluoride and Oxyfluoride Materials from First Principles”
Supervising Professors: James Rondinelli and Steven May

Daniel Foley
“Damage Tolerance and Mechanics of Interfaces in Nanostructure Metals”
Supervising Professor: Garritt Tucker

Michael Ghidiu
“Ions in MXene: Characterization and Control of Interlayer Cations and their Effects on Structure and Properties of 2D Transitional Metal Carbides”
Supervising Professor: Michel Barsoum

Amanda Pentecost
“Nanodiamond-based Drug Delivery System for the Modulation of Macrophage Behavior”
Supervising Professors: Yury Gogotsi and Kara Spiller

Hao Qi
“Directed Polymer Crystallization at Liquid Interfaces”
Supervising Professor: Christopher Li

Chang Ren
“Interaction of Ions with Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Carbide (MXene) Films”
Supervising Professor: Yury Gogotsi

Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering

Adam Blickley
Jing Chen
Zizhao Chen
Huai-Yu Cheng
Gabriel     Gorelick
Brendan Hayes-Oberst
Yuchen Hou
Sam Kulesa
Richard Lu
Teresa Moore
Gabriel Plummer
Qian Qian
Evan Quain
Timothy Reppert
Cooper Voigt
Patrick West
Olivia Wilson
Yizhou Yang

Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering

Amanda Jane Bellafatto
Nicole C Benack
Adam P Blickley (Cum Laude)
Jing Chen
Xingqi Chen (Cum Laude)
Huai-Yu Peter Cheng
Seung Ri Cho
Katherine Chu
Dylan N Eckels
James B Fitzpatrick
Mohammad M Hassan
Thomas Heng
Hao Jing
Sam Z Kulesa (Cum Laude)
Hsin Lu
Teresa C Moore (Cum Laude)
Betsy Hannah Morgan (Cum Laude)
Michael P Pantano (Cum Laude)
Gabriel W Plummer (Summa Cum Laude)
Yepeng Qin (Magna Cum Laude)
Evan D Quain (Magna Cum Laude)
Richard G Reynolds
Olalekan J Solomon
Devon J Spinelli
Robert L Theisen (Cum Laude)
Cooper Augustus Voigt (Cum Laude)
Tony Wang
YiFei Wang
Karen V Wells
Patrick J West (Cum Laude)
Geoffrey Xiao (Summa Cum Laude)


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