Senior chemical engineering student Andrew Weidner was the recipient of a prestigious Astronaut Scholarship Foundation Award. The scholarship, which includes a $10,000 check, was won by only two CU students this year. Former astronaut Gary Payton, who flew a Discovery mission in 1985, presented the awards on October 2.
According to its website, “The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was created to ensure that the United States would maintain its leadership in science and technology by supporting some of the very best science and engineering college students.” Scholarship recipients must have substantial research experience as well as top grade point averages.
A researcher in the lab of Professor Andrew Goodwin, Weidner has been determining the feasibility of mechanically-induced Claisen rearrangements in PEG polymer gels. He has also worked at NIST optimizing a room temperature borohydride reduction synthesis for fuel cell applications; this work was published in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research.