Graduate students recognized for excellence in polymer colloid research

	Oznur Saygý-Arslan with Neal J. Earhart '89

Oznur Saygý-Arslan, a graduate student in chemical engineering, received the Kenneth A. Earhart Award for 2009 from Lehigh’s Emulsion Polymers Institute (EPI) in recognition of her research. The award was given March 18 at EPI’s annual review meeting dinner and student poster presentation.
Saygý-Arslan’s presentation was titled “Aspects of Droplet and Particle Size Control in Miniemulsions.” She is advised by Andrew Klein, professor of chemical engineering, and Mohamed El-Aasser, university provost and professor of chemical engineering.
The Earhart award is made possible by Neal J. Earhart ’89 Ph.D. in memory of his father, Kenneth A. Earhart ’30, who worked for EPI from 1975 to 1987 following his retirement from the chemical industry.
Three other graduate students won poster-presentation awards at the EPI review meeting. The posters were evaluated by EPI’s industrial partners.
Andrés F. Vargas, a visiting Ph.D. candidate in chemistry from the University of Antioquia in Colombia, took first prize for a poster titled “Synthesis of Nanocomposites (Hybrid Latexes) by Emulsion Polymerization.” His advisers are Betty Lucy Lopez (’77 M.S.), a professor at the University of Antioquia; Klein; and Eric Daniels, principal research scientist with the EPI.
Megan B. Casey, a graduate student in chemical engineering, took second prize for a poster titled “Study of Monomer Droplets in Miniemulsions.” She is advised by El-Aasser and E. David Sudol, principal research scientist with the EPI.
Su Jeong Han, a graduate student in chemical engineering, won third prize for her poster, “Preparation and Investigation of Ion Exchange Latex Particles.” Her advisers are Klein, Daniels, Sudol and Victoria L. Dimonie, principal research scientist emeritus with the EPI.
Lehigh’s EPI, founded in 1975, carries out interdisciplinary research involving the preparation, characterization, properties and applications of latex polymers. The EPI is world-renowned for its industrial liaison program and for its annual one-week short course, “Emulsion Polymerization and Latex Technology,” which is held in June at Lehigh and in August in Davos, Switzerland.
The students’ awards included cash prizes to help recipients present their research findings at a national or international conference.
-Kurt Pfitzer